Study: Some Diseases Molecularly Related

A U.S.-led international study suggests Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other degenerative diseases are more molecularly linked than has been thought.

Harmful rope-like structures known as amyloid fibrils, which are linked protein molecules that form in the brains of patients with such diseases, contain a stack of water-tight fibrils, or molecular zippers, the scientists report.

We have shown that the fibrils have a common atomic-level structure, said Professor David Eisenberg, director of UCLA’s Institute of Genomics and Proteomics and a member of the research team. All of these diseases are similar at the molecular level; all of them have a dry steric zipper. With each disease, a different protein transforms into amyloid fibrils, but the proteins are very similar at the atomic level.

The findings, while still preliminary, could help scientists develop tools for diagnosing and eventually treating diseases through structure-based drug design, said Eisenberg.

The research, which includes scientists with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, is reported in the online version of the journal Nature and will appear in the print edition at a later date.