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
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