Enzyme Discovery May Lead to Better Heart and Stroke Treatments

piggy submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.sciencedaily.com)

A Queen's University study sheds new light on the way one of our cell enzymes, implicated in causing tissue damage after heart attacks and strokes, is normally kept under control.

Led by Biochemistry professor Peter Davies, the research team's discovery will be useful in developing new drug treatments that can aid recovery in stroke and heart disease, as well as lessen the effects of Alzheimer's and other neurologically degenerative diseases

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Untangling tau hyperphosphorylation in drug design for neurodegenerative diseases

addict submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.nature.com)

Aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau is one of the characteristic neuropathological lesions of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Pharmacological modulation of tau hyperphosphorylation might represent a valid and feasible therapeutic strategy for such disorders. Here, we consider recent evidence supporting the validity of the three most relevant kinases affecting tau hyperphosphorylation — GSK3beta, CDK5 and ERK2 — as drug targets and describe progress in the design of inhibitors for these kinases.

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Insects' Nervous Systems May Provide Clues On Neurodegenerative Diseases

collapsar submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.sciencedaily.com)

By studying the addition of sugars to proteins — a process called glycosylation — in the nervous system of insects, Temple University researcher Karen Palter believes she may be able to better understand neurodegenerative diseases in humans. Currently, her lab is involved in two collaborative research projects exploring the glycosylation process that could eventually play important roles in producing therapeutic drugs more efficiently and understanding neurodegenerative diseases such as epilepsy and memory loss.

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