Identification of disease switches in the body
by diywealth on Nov.30, 2009, under diy
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute in Germany have recently discovered roughly three thousand six hundred molecular switches that exist within the human body.By regulating protein functions, these switches may become critical factors to the human aging process and the early stages and treatment of various diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. These findings were recently published in the July edition of the journal Science.
Led by Prof Matthias Mann of Novo Nordisk Center for Protein Research at the MP Institute for Biochemistry and the University of Copenhagen in Germany, the team of scientists has discovered approximately 3600 acetylation switches in 1,750 separate proteins.
Prof Mann says, “This is more than just a technological achievement, it has also expanded the number of known acetylation switches by a factor of six, and it gives us for the first time a comprehensive insight into this type of protein modification.”
Small molecules, or switches, are added to proteins which regulate how these proteins behave, in turn coordinating the numerous day-to-day functions they are able to perform. Acetylation is crucial for the normal functioning of a cell. The ageing process and development of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cancer can be directly influenced by defective protein regulation.
“With the new mapping, we can now begin to study and describe how acetylation switches respond to medications that could repair the defects on them. It can have a major impact on medical care,” Prof Mann says, and adds that medication for the restoration of faulty protein regulation is already displaying positive results in cancer treatment.
Cooperating proteins
The group has also learnt that the modification of acetylation occurs mainly on proteins that work in harmony, and that the consequences that these switches have for the organism’s function are much more important than previously assumed. For example, the addition of an acetylation switch to Cdc28 (an important growth protein in yeast) can disrupt the organism’s functionality and in turn it’s ability to stay alive.
17 July 2009 edition of Science contains the results of the team’s research
Source: University of Copenhagen
Note from Author: If you are interested in clinical trials and the data attained through the process which helps biotech companies to develop new chemical entities into new medicine, (often through TQT studies ), always ensure that the clinical research trials provider follows ethical procedures from the necessary ethics comittee or health authority… and always make sure that you consult a pharmacology professional body.
*** Always consult a doctor before taking medical advice of any kind***
