biotech
Jellyfish Protein May Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases
Filed in archive Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics , Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics by ruth on October 29, 2006
Jellyfish Protein May Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases
Scientists have isolated aequorin, a protein from jellyfish which have neuroprotective propoerties and may hold promise in treating neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Its putative mechanism of action is by controlling calcium levels in the neurons.

Diseases like Alzheimer's are associated with a loss of "calcium-binding" proteins that protect nerve cells, said Moyer. Calcium is necessary for communication between neurons in the brain, and learning and memory are not possible without it. But too much of it leads to neuron death, interfering with memory and contributing to neurodegenerative diseases.Calcium-binding proteins decline with age, however, limiting the brain's ability to control or handle the amount of calcium "allowed in."

Aequorin, the jellyfish protein, appears to be a viable substitute.

Preliminary laboratory test results have been presented by Quincy Bioscience during the 2006 Bio Conference in Chicago. To view a video presentation discussing aequorin and its potentials, go to mediasite.com, click BIO2006 on the left panel and type in "Quincy" in the Find Presentation box.

[Image: Ribbon diagram of the crystal structure of Aequorin from PDB entry 1EJ3 (Assumed biological molecule).]


Permalink: Jellyfish Protein May Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases
Tags: neuroscience  alzheimers+disease  jellyfish  alzheimer  biotech  neurodegenerative+diseases  jellyfish+pro 
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/40706
img Addthis img Ask img Blinklist img del.icio.us img Digg img Fark img Facebook img Google img Lycos img Ma.gnolia Add this page to Mister Wong Mr Wong img Netscape img Netvousz img Newsvine img Reddit img StumbleUpon img Slashdot img Tailrank img Technorati img Wink img Yahoo

Vote for Jellyfish Protein May Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases:

  • Currently 9.80/10
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
Rating: 9.80 out of 5 vote(s) cast.
Subscribe
Share It
RSSrss
See all blog subscribe options
Google google
What is RSS?
Yahoo! yahoo
Addthis Subscribe using any feed reader!
Bloglines Bloglines
Newsletter

TwitterFollow us on Twitter!