News October
Britain Developing New Treatments For Alzheimer's Disease
British scientists have created a new chemical compound that could
be developed into a drug treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
UK researchers at the University of Liverpool have used a family
of long chain sugars called Heparan Sulphates (HS), found on nearly
every cell of the body, to produce a new compound that can prevent
the formation of clumps of small proteins that form inthe brain,
the science website Alpha Galileo reported on Thursday.
The clumps disrupting the normal function of cells leading to
progressive memory loss which is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease,
are formed from a small protein fragment called Amyloid-beta (A-beta)
peptide released from its "parent" protein – amyloid
precursor protein (APP), and the process requires the action of
an enzyme called beta-secretase (BACE), critical in clipping up
the APP to form the smaller A-beta fragments.
The researchers have discovered that the HS sugars may play a
key role in limiting the development of Alzheimer's disease. The
sugars stick to the BACE enzyme and reduce its ability to "clip"
the A-beta peptide, thus controlling the amount of A-beta peptide
available to form damaging clumps in brain tissue.
"We have developed a new class of compounds called 'engineered
heparins' that could possibly be developed into drugs to stop A-beta
peptides in the brain from forming and for the first time treat
the underlying cause of Alzheimer's," leading researcher Professor
Jerry Turnbull was quoted as saying.
The compound, based on the blood thinning drug, heparin, has modified
chemical structures designed to optimize their desired activities
and reduce potential side effects, and the compounds work by blocking
the beta-secretase enzyme, responsible for snipping proteins into
smaller fragments, he said, adding that despite its central importance
to the disease, there are currently no drug treatments which target
this enzyme because it has proved difficult to find inhibitors using
traditional drug discovery approaches.
The new compounds, based on the body's natural substances, may
provide a novel route to effective treatments for this debilitating
disease -- Alzheimer's, the researchers said.
A spin-out company, IntelliHep Ltd, has been founded to explorethe
commercial opportunities of developing engineering heparans asnew
drugs against Alzheimer's and other important medical conditions,
according to the report.
Source http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/
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