Professor Jeffery W. Kelly, Ph.D., and his colleagues in the Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have demonstrated a new approach for treating "amyloid" diseases--particularly transthyretin amyloid diseases, which are similar to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

These amyloid diseases are caused by proteins misfolding into a structure that leads them to cluster together, forming microscopic fibril plaques made up of hundreds of these misfolded proteins. The plaques deposit in internal organs and interfere with normal function, sometimes lethally. In the current issue of the journal Science, Kelly and his TSRI colleagues demonstrate the efficacy of using small molecules to stabilize the normal "fold" of transthyretin, preventing this protein from misfolding. Using this method, researchers were able to inhibit the formation of fibrils by a mechanism that is known to ameliorate disease.

"I'm very excited about pursuing these potential therapeutic opportunities," says Kelly, the report's lead author. Kelly is the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry in The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and vice president of academic affairs at TSRI.

Misfolding Causes Disease

Familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) is a collection of over 80 rare amyloid diseases caused by the misfolding of the protein transthyretin (TTR), which the liver secretes into the bloodstream to carry thyroid hormone and vitamin A. Normally, TTR circulates in the blood as an active "tetramer" made up of four separate copies, or protein subunits, that bind to each other.

These tetramers, normally composed of identical protein subunits, come from two different genes. When one of the genes has a heritable defect, hybrid tetramers form that are composed of mutant and normal subunits. The inclusion of mutated subunits makes the tetramer less stable and causes the four subunits to more e
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Contact: Jason Bardi
jasonb@scripps.edu
858-784-9254
Scripps Research Institute
30-Jan-2003

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