 |
 |
Nobel Winners Discover Process Of Protein Demise, Key To Cancer Drugs By Tamara Traubmann Fri., October 08, 2004 Tishrei 23, 5765 Israel Time: 02:32 (GMT+2) Scientists have devoted a great deal of attention to how proteins, which make up all living beings, are constructed. But almost nothing is known about the less glamorous question of how proteins die. How does the body know when it must destroy a protein that has malfunctioned or is no longer needed, but leave another, essential one untouched? Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover discovered a molecule, called ubiquitin, that attaches itself to proteins and signals to the cell that the protein's time has come to degrade and die. This process is so essential that without it life cannot exist. In recent years it has become clear that the malfunctioning of the ubiquitin process can give rise to various diseases. Biotechnology firms were quick to grasp the medical and economic potential of the discovery and are trying to develop new drugs based on the knowledge. One of the drugs, Velcade, manufactured by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, has already been approved for marketing in the U.S. and according to Ciechanover "many other medicines are on the way." Velcade is intended for treatment of cancer of the plasma cells and is administered by injection. Hershko and Ciechanover say neither they nor the Technion will enjoy future profits from the drug because they did not register a patent on the discovery. However Ciechanover is presently connected with a number of biotechnology firms that are trying to develop new drugs based on his findings. There is practically no process in the body that is not brokered by proteins. Virtually the entire body is made up of proteins, including the muscles and bones, and they regulate the timing of every physiological event and transmit messages among cells. Some proteins, the hormones, are responsible for a number of our emotional and physical responses while others, as noted, tell the body's cells when to be created and when to die. Proteins in the cell are created and degraded with dizzying speed. "Every day we see the same image in the mirror," Ciechanover explained, "but between 10-20 percent of the proteins change daily, and over about two weeks all the proteins in our body have been replaced and the person that looks back at us in the mirror is `not us.'" The lack of interest in the subject of proteins is demonstrated by the fact that until about two decades ago, only about 10 articles a year appeared in the professional literature. "It might have taken a little more courage to go for something that was not in fashion," Hershko said. At present, thousands of articles are being published on the subject, which biologists now agree is one of the basic processes of life. The two researchers discovered that after the cells have been marked for destruction, they are dispatched to the body's "waste disposal" units, called proteasomes, where they are chopped to pieces. Hershko, Ciechanover, and other scientists now working on the process discovered that a variety of diseases are caused when a defective protein is not destroyed, but remains in the body. In addition to cancer, the diseases drug companies are hoping to combat by using the new knowledge include asthma, high blood pressure, Parkinson's and Altzheimer's. SOURCE: Ha'aretz, Israel http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485991.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn