Looking For Answers Amidst The Microscopic World Of Proteins

The worldwide hunt is on in the race to find improved treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease, earlier detection methods, and just maybe, by 2020, a cure.

One of the trending hot areas of medical science centers upon research involving the thousands of proteins that make up our bodies.  Proteins are the building blocks of life. Specifically, they interact in a chemical process, microscopically small, that takes place within our cells. One of the interactions, according to scientists, is a process known as “protein folding”.

The  connection between diseases and protein folding did not come to light until the 1990’s.

Just what is protein folding and why should anyone other than medical researchers be interested in it?

Because when protein folding doesn’t work in a very precise, orderly way, or, is disrupted during one of the procedural steps that make up the event; bad things will eventually happen.

Alzheimer’s Disease, lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, and Mad Cow Disease can all result out of either mis-folding proteins or the disruption of the process. That is a lot of heartache and a big reason why scientists are focusing on what it is that proteins do and what it is that causes them to  stop doing their work correctly.

Think of each microscopic cell within our bodies as being the equivalent of a small factory. Extraordinarily small yes, but still a small factory. Next, think of the protein folding activity as comparable to a chemical assembly line process going on within the confines of each cell. Proteins are sorted,  folded, matched and configured by other proteins.  At the same time they are  also being assisted by other chemical helpers called enzymes. The job of the enzymes is to clip, snip and trim protein subassemblies into shape or form before the next step along the assembly line.


The marching step is fold right, fold correctly, fold right, fold correctly.

According to the internet web site, wiseGEEK.com, there are approximately 50,000 proteins within the human body. Beyond that, our bodies have the ability to generate up to 2 million different types of proteins: all coded from only 20 - 25,000 of our genes. An amazing number of proteins executing an astonishing amount of work within each of us, 24 hours a day.

A recent article, posted at the web site, www.eurekaalert.org by Georgia Health Sciences University entitled, Diametric shift in 2 protein levels spurs Alzheimer’s plaque accumulation, reports on two crucial proteins involved in the folding, moving and cutting of other proteins, that when altered, enables brain plaques, a hallmark of AD, to accumulate.

Those proteins are identified as VPS35 and BACE 1. With Alzheimer’s Disease, levels of protein VPS35 were found to be down or suppressed while levels of BACE 1 were elevated.

These two key proteins are now the subject of scrutiny for their role in the buildup of brain plaque which is a hallmark of AD.  Just 2 proteins out of the 50,000 that are part of all of us.

Further research into these proteins and the complete understanding of the protein folding process may well lead to the discovery of effective treatments and cures for AD, lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, etc.

We are long overdue for closing the gap on how to treat and eradicate these diseases.

The full web site address for the VPS35 and BACE 1 research article is :
www.eurekaalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/ghsu-dsi120111.php


Jeff Dodson
December  20th 2011

An Out Of Control Slide Show: Revisited

On June 15th 2010, I posted a blog article entitled, Scene of the Mind: An Out of Control Slideshow? The  article was the result of a discussion I had with one of our family members who had yet to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease but was displaying many of the symptoms.

Our family member was attempting to describe to me what they were visually experiencing when the AD symptoms seemed to  strike.

An out-of-control slide show was how this person described it. For example, on one occasion they might be looking at their pet cat. Then, without warning, the color of the cat’s fur might fade to shades of gray: right as they were watching. Or, instead of it’s fur color fading to gray, the shape of the cat changes or alters slightly as it is being looked at.

Another example provided was what happened to the appearance of someone while watching them.

While conversing, say with an old friend or neighbor, the facial features of the person being spoken to suddenly become those of someone else, someone unknown, or perhaps something that doesn’t resemble a person at all, in addition to fading to gray or becoming shadow-like.

How scary would this all be to any of us? How would anyone be able to make sense out of this shifting or changing of features of a person, an animal or place right in front of us? 

All fear and emotion put aside for a moment, this hallucinating, nightmare-like visual experience may represent one of the unspoken, unarticulated facets of how AD also disrupts the brains’ ability to correctly process and feedback visual imagery, as well as other tactile and sensory data.  

After all, AD does not offer immunity nor does it spare any particular set of brain circuitry pathways upon its’ fatal march. Therefore, what you see, what you hear, what you touch, what you taste, and, what you feel are all sensory experiences that are going to be degraded and altered by Alzheimer’s. 

Much has been written about the unpredictable and inappropriate behaviors that AD patients display.  On the other hand, I have not seen much of anything offered up that attempts to communicate in words what the frightening , morphing visual experience feels like to the AD sufferer.  

How is one’s sense of smell scrambled, confused or snuffed out? 

How does it affect your tactile skills such as touch, your sense of heat, your sense of cold? And how about your hearing? 

How would you react to a car driving by that now sounds like your hair dryer? 

What  would you make of the sound of your very own footsteps across the hardwood floor of your family room now sounding like water boiling in a pan on the stove?

When you take into consideration how all of our brains’ functions and operations are knocked askew by AD, is it any wonder that people  would be experiencing the kinds of things noted above?

How would you handle being stuck inside of an out-of-control slide show of dark shadows, changing faces, weird smells and bizarre sounds?  Not very well.

Living with AD is a lot more disturbing and frightful than what we have considered up to now.

Time to  become a little more compassionate, a little more understanding, a little more empathetic when we see the fearful looks, the puzzled expressions or even blank stares upon the faces of our AD patients and loved ones.  

They didn’t ask Santa for this gift nor was it delivered by any reindeer.

Jeff Dodson

December 13th 2011

   

The Ignorance Monster

The stigma of neurological diseases: of damage or disorder residing within us from the neck up.

It has been this way at least since the dawn of the Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC.

Things that effect the body are viewed one way. Things that effect and disturb the mind are viewed in quite another way. 

If you have survived a cancer tumor, a heart bypass operation or are successfully living with residual HIV, often as not, there are organizations and individuals that wish to decorate you with their version of a “Purple Heart”, various ribbons, bracelets, jewelry, “Boobies” wrist bands etc. You are then proclaimed a survivor, a fighter, a hero. Bodily ailments and life-threatening ones are looked upon with a compassionate eye. The same goes for those that affect our children.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of compassionate recognition. 

Not so, however, when it comes to diseases of the brain, your neurological system, your mind. Involve the brain and people have a different reaction altogether. It usually stirs up unease, apprehension, aversion. Family and friends tend to head for the life boats or quietly bail over the side of the ship. 

Why do folks react in this fashion and why do we continue to not question and challenge it?

It is my contention that as a society, we continue to grapple with perhaps a 5500 year old ignorant and prejudicial bias with neurological illnesses. 

This needs to categorically change.

Diseases that affect portions of or all parts of the brain,  or the mind can strike a person with the same randomness as a disease or medical condition that strikes any other part of the body.

Neurological diseases have nothing to do with character flaws or imperfections. They do not arrive at your doorstep because of the lack of strong moral fiber or the abundance of it.

Alzheimer’s Disease is one of the neurological diseases I am writing about here.

It is high time that we make the effort to slow down, pull to the curb and come to a stop. Next, devote the time to read up on what this disease really is, and just as important, what it is not.

Alzheimer’s is real.  It can now be imaged and seen by the way it physically shrinks the brain, the cellular damage and dead zones it leaves, and the beaver dam build up of toxic protein plaques and tangles that are left behind. A wasteland where once resided thriving memories, passionate emotions and treasured life experiences.

Our choices are clear.

Continue on our path of ignorance, prejudice and bias towards AD or change our view by educating  and empowering ourselves better. 

Less than 100 years ago, our game plan with respect to Leprosy was still one of ignorance, prejudice and bias. Courageous and compassionate doctors helped lead the way with research, medical improvements and factual ground truth.

30 odd years ago,  our game plan with respect to HIV was one of ignorance, prejudice and bias. Happily, we elected to change up on our game plan. We chose to educate ourselves and begin to eliminate the social divide or chasm of “us and them.”

It is now nearly 2012 and we face another chasm of “us and them” with respect to AD.

Time to light up a god-damned bonfire within the blackened cave of ignorance!

Jeff Dodson

December 4th 2011