Re: new approach

[Nic Marais <marais.nic@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wow!! "STARWARS" in the brain??

Nic 57/15

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 8:26 PM, mschild <mmoo@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Monday, 01 June 2009
>
> development of a new drug to treat
> Parkinson's disease.
>
> New nuclear-based research from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
> Organisation (ANSTO) has focussed on a protein called Alpha-Synuclein,
> which
> plays a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease when it behaves
> abnormally. This behaviour can be stopped or even reversed using a man-made
> polymer called a dendrimer, also known as a ‘dense star’ polymer.
> This fundamental research adds another piece in the puzzle to develop
> better
> treatments for Parkinson’s disease, which affects around one in 250
> Australians.
> ANSTO Researcher, Dr Agata Rekas, said that past research had shown the
> dendrimer – called a PAMAM dendrimer and made by Dendirtech® Inc - had
> positively affected a peptide involved in Alzheimer’s disease (ABeta) and a
> prion peptide. So Dr Rekas and Dr Seok Il Yun, an ANSTO Post Doctoral
> fellow,
> decided to see if it had a similar effect on the Parkinson’s disease.
> “As all these diseases affect the brain and neuronal pathways in the body
> we
> anticipated the dendrimer’s effect would be similar, and we were right,”
> she
> said.
> “The Alpha-Synuclein protein is a natural protein in the body but when it
> aggregates into fibrils, long insoluble strings of protein molecules stuck
> together, it affects transmissions to the brain, resulting in Parkinson’s
> disease,” Dr Rekas explained. “No one is sure of the protein’s normal role
> but
> we believe it assists cognitive function.
> “It is thought that the aggregation is triggered by a dopamine deficiency
> and
> causes deposits in the brain to occur, however this could be just a factor,
> not the complete cause, of the disease,” she said. “There is still much to
> find out, but it’s all part of the puzzle. The exciting part of our results
> is
> that it most definitely provides further information as to how this
> dendrimer
> can contribute to developing better therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease,”
> she
> said.
> Dr Rekas explained that a dendrimer is spherical in shape and contains
> chemical groups similar to those of proteins, which start branching out in
> the
> middle so the dendrimer increased in size as each layer was added, similar
> to
> the branch-like structures seen in snow flakes.
> “The more layers in the dendrimer the more effective it was due to the
> larger
> surface area. In the experiments we put certain amounts of these dendrimers
> and a control, with no dendrimers, into a protein solution for over 120
> hours
> and stimulated aggregation with heat and shaking,” she explained. “The
> control
> measured a lot of fibrils and different dendrimers reduced this fibrillar
> growth to various extents.
> “We used an electron microscope to look at what was physically happening
> and
> verified the results using small angle neutron scattering, where a neutron
> beam passes through the sample onto a detector giving information as to
> what’s
> occurring at the molecular level, “she said. “The neutron experiments were
> conducted by Dr Yun.
> “The results clearly showed that the larger dendrimer inhibited the
> abnormal
> activity of the protein best. This information can now be used by drug
> companies focussed on treating Parkinson’s so the next stage would be for
> such
> companies to develop this research further,” she concluded.
>
>
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