The Identification of Disease switches
Above 3500 molecular switches have been recognised in the human body by a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute and the University of Copenhagen.
These so-called ‘switches’, which act as protein regulators, may soon become key indicators of the aging of humans and the treatment of common diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. The team recently featured details on their discoveries in the July 09 series of the scientific journal, Science.
The group, which was led by Professor Mann of Novo Nordisk center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry based in Germany, has detected over three and a half thousand acetylation switches in over one thousand seven hundred different 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.
Professor Mann says that medicinal products used to mend defective protein regulation are already proving to be effective in the treatment of cancer and adds, “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,”
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 ecg core lab), always ensure that the clinical 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***
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