Researchers at Brandeis determine structure of key protein associated with PD

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Researchers at Brandeis determine structure of key protein associated with

Parkinson's disease

Public release date: 23-Oct-2011

Contact: Chaityn Lebovits

lebovits@ brandeis.edu (no spaces)

Brandeis University

Future looks toward stabilizing protein, treatment

A team of researchers from the Petsko-Ringe and Pochapsky laboratories at

Brandeis have produced and determined the structure of alpha-synuclein, a key

protein associated with Parkinson's disease.

Their findings, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences (PNAS), provide information that may someday be used to produce a new

kind of treatment for the incurable degenerative brain disorder.

& #8232;While people with Parkinson's diseases exhibit many obvious symptoms such

as tremors and weakness of face and throat muscles, definitive diagnosis of

Parkinson's comes post mortem, when alpha-synuclein proteins become denatured

and form clumps called Lewy bodies in the brain.

" We don't really know whether this is a side effect or whether it's the cause of

Parkinson's disease, but we do know that the clumps of proteins are always

there, " says C. Pochapsky, professor of chemistry and one of the authors

of the paper. Pochapsky's lab was responsible for examining the protein using

nuclear magnetic resonance, a sort of MRI for molecules, housed at the Landsman

Research Facility.

Alpha-synuclein is found in large quantities in the brain. Its association with

Parkinson's disease has stirred curiosity since it was discovered in 1997.

& #8232;

" Nobody knows what it does, but there's a lot of it, " says Pochapsky. " The

question is whether the unfolded or coagulated Lewy body protein just represents

the pathological form of something that's normally doing something. "

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/bu-rab102311.php