‘Possible treatment’ for neuro-degenerative conditions discovered
Researchers have made a breakthrough that could lead to a treatment such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease.
Research from Imperial College London, the Charing Cross Hospital and University College London published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, have discovered a protein that could protect against neuro-degenerative conditions including motor neurone diseases and the damage caused by strokes.
The researchers found that the naturally occurring protein, 27-kDa heat shock protein (HSP27), was able to reduce cell death in the brains of mice.
The researchers used transgenic mice, which had high levels of the HSP27 protein throughout the brain, spinal cord and other tissues. They found that the mortality rate and neuronal cell death in the hippocampus, a part of the brain affected by neurological diseases, was reduced. Similar results were also obtained when the protein was injected directly into the brain.
Professor Jacqueline de Belleroche, senior author on the paper, from Imperial College London and the Charing Cross Hospital, commented, ‘At present, there is no cure for neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but the discovery of the beneficial effects of this protein in the brain may provide us with a way to at least slow down the disease process.’
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a group of proteins that are found in all cells in all forms of life. They are created when a cell undergoes environmental stresses such as heat, cold and oxygen deprivation.
They are also present in cells under normal conditions, and act like ‘chaperones’ to make sure the cell’s proteins are in the right place and shape at the right time, which ensures the proper working of the cell.
