first! Science reveals "third killer" Parkinson-related protein damage brain details

Release date: 2017-12-22

Previously, basic research on Parkinson's has found that α-synuclein (α-synuclein, αS) is a protein closely related to the occurrence of Parkinson's disease. When the protein is misfolded in the nerve cells, it will form a Lewy body, and excessive accumulation will easily damage the nerve cells.

This time, research teams from the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy found that when α-synuclein is dysfunctional, it forms an oligomer (Oligomer, the main component of the Lewy body) and damages brain cells.

1 toxic proteins disrupt cell membrane integrity

The team used solid-state NMR spectroscopy to analyze the structural characteristics of oligomers and explored the effects of these features on polymer-cell interactions.

Using materials derived from mouse brain and brain tumor patients, they developed a method that allows unstable polymers to maintain long-term homeostasis, allowing them to be studied at unprecedented levels of detail.

The results show that once formed, oligomers will rapidly enter the brain cells to degrade, otherwise long chain fibers will form. Moreover, oligomers contain two important structures: one responsible for adhesion to the surface of brain cells; the other responsible for penetrating cell membranes and disrupting cell function.

The author of the article, Dr. Alfonso De Simone of the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, likes the act of "oligomers rapidly passing through the cell membrane" as "a hot metal block quickly burns a hole in a plastic film."

They believe that the ability of oligomers to "break cell membrane integrity" is a critical step in killing brain cells!

2 Countermeasures

In a further study, the team developed a method to reduce the toxicity of oligomers—changing the protein sequence and impairing its ability to adhere to the cell membrane.

Researchers believe that the behavior of oligomers adhering to the cell surface is similar to how viruses enter the target cell. The difference is that the virus will invade the cell as a "homestead," while the oligomer directly destroys the cell.

Moreover, they found that this ability to adhere to a "natural accident" - oligomers are given the same function as normal membrane proteins (helping brain signaling).

At present, there are more than 5 million Parkinson patients in the world, and the number of patients in China is about 2.6 million, ranking first in the world. The research team hopes that this research will help find ways to stop toxic proteins from entering healthy brain cells.

References: 1) Parkinson's disease: How toxic proteins damage healthy brain cells

Source: Bio-Exploration

Lithium Hydroxide CAS No.1310-65-2

Lithium Hydroxide Basic Information
CAS: 1310-65-2
MF: LiOH
MW: 23.95
EINECS: 215-183-4
Mol File: 1310-65-2.mol

Lithium Hydroxide Structure

Stability: Stable. Incompatible with moisture. strong acids, carbon dioxide.

Uses of Lithium Hydroxide
Used in the production of lithium salts and lithium-based greases, electrolytes for alkaline batteries, lithium bromide refrigerator absorption fluids, etc.

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