Researchers Pinpoint Structure Within Proteoglycans Critical to Enhancement of Beta-Amyloid Protein Fibril Formation That Occurs in Alzheimer's Disease.

REDMOND, Wash.--(BW HealthWire)--April 16, 1999--

Researchers report in the April issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry that they have pinpointed a structure within proteoglycans that enhances the formation of beta-amyloid protein fibrils or brain plaque deposits observed in Alzheimer's disease.

An understanding of the mechanisms which enhance and accelerate beta-amyloid protein fibril formation could speed development of drugs that retard formation of the fibrils associated with Alzheimer's disease.

In the manuscript entitled "The sulfate moieties of glycosaminoglycans are critical for the enhancement of (beta)-protein fibril formation," Gerardo Castillo, Ph.D., Director of Biochemistry at ProteoTech, Inc., with researchers from the University of Washington, have pinpointed a structure on glycosaminoglycans (the carbohydrate portion of proteoglycans) deemed important for beta-amyloid protein fibril enhancement.

The researchers concluded that the sulfate portion of glycosaminoglycans is critical for beta-amyloid protein enhancement because its complete removal leads to a corresponding complete loss of beta-amyloid protein fibril formation enhancement.

"To the extent that researchers better understand the formation, deposition and persistence of beta-amyloid protein and amyloid fibrils, the better able we will be at identifying and engineering therapeutics to disrupt these deposits and address some of the pathology underlying Alzheimer's disease. New studies by our group reconfirm the importance of proteoglycans in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's and suggest new approaches for the ultimate treatment of this disease," said Alan Snow, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Washington and one of the co-founders of ProteoTech, Inc.

This month, Dr. Snow, the senior author on this paper, will review this and other new research findings pertaining to the roles of specific proteoglycans in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease:

-- 15th national meeting of the British Neuroscience Association in

Harrogate, UK, April 11-14, 1999 on "Perlecan and Other Heparan

Sulphate Proteoglycans in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's

Disease." -- Experimental Biology 99 Conference, Washington, DC, April 17 -

21, 1999 on "Neurosharp(tm), A New Dietary Supplement Containing

PTI-00703(tm) for the Prevention and Treatment of Brain

Amyloidosis Associated with Alzheimer's Disease and Aging"; and

"Further Efficacy of PTI-00703: A Dietary Supplement Which Causes

a Dose-Dependent Inhibition of Alzheimer's Disease Amyloid

Deposition in a Rodent Model." -- Wenner-Gren Foundations International Symposium on "Heparan

Sulfate Proteoglycans" in Stockholm, Sweden, April 22-24, 1999.

ProteoTech is a drug discovery company focused on therapeutics and diagnostics for human disease utilizing proteoglycan technologies." Proteoglycans are synthesized by virtually all cells of the body and play significant roles in the pathogenesis of a number of human diseases, including Alzheimer's, Down's syndrome, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, atherosclerosis, heart disease and AIDS. One of ProteoTech's human disease targets is Alzheimer's disease, a group of human diseases that are characterized by the deposition and persistence of an insoluble substance known as "amyloid." The "amyloid diseases" all involve the accumulation of specific proteoglycans believed to augment the amyloid process and inhibit the body's natural ability to remove unwanted "amyloid deposits. For more information, please check out the press kit at www.milestones.org/client_PressKitContent.htm.