Health
Protein levels play role in targeting new drugs for epilepsy, Alzheimer's
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 15, 2004
Using new technology to measure protein levels in human tissue, scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., are attempting to identify new targets for drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy. They reported their findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego Oct. 26.
"Proteins are the real 'functional players' of genes," said Qiang Gu, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest.
Dr. Gu and colleagues are using antibody microarrays to measure levels of more than 500 different proteins in tissue samples. Elevated protein levels could indicate new targets for medications, they predict.
So far, among people with epilepsy, the researchers have found increased levels of proteins involved in signal transduction.
Among patients with Alzheimer's disease, they found a significantly higher level of a protein that could play a role in the disease.
Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Wisconsin are presenting a study at the neuroscience meeting identifying a protein in the brain that might halt the progression of Alzheimer's.
The protein, which is known as transthyretin, protects brain cells from gradual deterioration by blocking another toxic protein that contributes to the disease process.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/11/15/hlbf1115.htm.
