Carnegie Mellon uses AFM to discover effects of experimental drugs on Alzheimer...( PITTSBURGH - Scientists at Carnegie Mel...),Health

PITTSBURGH - Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to shed light on molecular scale processes underlying the formation of insoluble plaques associated with Alzheimer's Disease. Results of this work suggest that AFM could lead to a better understanding of the disease process and help guide the search for new diagnostic and treatment approaches. The report will be published in the Jan. 23 issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology and appears online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/web-editions/journal/00222836.

Supported by the National Institutes of Health, the research was done in collaboration with scientists at Eli Lilly and Company and the Washington University School of Medicine. "Because AFM provides three-dimensional topographical information at the nanoscale, it could prove important in assessing the potential usefulness of molecules like antibodies to effectively inhibit protein aggregation associated with Alzheimer's Disease," said Tomasz Kowalewski, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon and senior author on the paper.

Alzheimer's Disease belongs to a class of disorders called conformational diseases, which are caused by changes in a protein's physical state. Another widely known example is prion-based 'Mad Cow' disease. Tools used to understand these disorders are targeted primarily to biochemical processes, noted Kowalewski, who works at the Mellon College of Science. "Because AFM probes the physical state of proteins, it could really assist in understanding conformational diseases, which traditionally have been difficult to fight," said Kowalewski.

A hallmark of Alzheimer's Disease is the presence of insoluble plaques in the brains of disease victims. These plaques are made of beta amyloid (A), a peptide derived from a precursor protein found in cell membranes. Once cleaved from its parent protein
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Contact: Lauren Ward
wardle@andrew.cmu.edu
412-268-7761
Carnegie Mellon University
20-Jan-2004

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