(Press-News.org) DALLAS – Feb. 14, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have helped develop a novel technology to diagnose Alzheimer's disease from blood samples long before symptoms appear.
This preliminary technology, which uses synthetic molecules to seek out and identify disease-specific antibodies, also could be used eventually in the development of specific biomarkers for a range of other hard-to-diagnose diseases and conditions, including Parkinson's disease and immune system-related diseases like multiple sclerosis and lupus, the researchers predict.
"One of the great challenges in treating patients with Alzheimer's disease is that once symptoms appear, it's too late. You can't un-ring the bell," said Dr. Dwight German, professor of psychiatry and an author of the paper published in the Jan. 7 edition of Cell. "If we can find a way to detect the disease in its earliest stages – before cognitive impairment begins – we might be able to stop it in its tracks by developing new treatment strategies."
Because patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) exhibit immune system activation and neurodegeneration in several brain regions, researchers in the study hypothesized that there may be numerous antibodies in the serum of affected patients that are specific to the disease and can serve as a biomarker.
Antigens – substances such as protein from a virus or bacteria that triggers an immune response – traditionally have been necessary for the discovery of antibody biomarkers. It has been impossible previously to identify an antibody (a type of targeted immune molecule) without first knowing the antigen that triggers its production.
The new study, however, challenges conventional wisdom and uses synthetic molecules (peptoids) rather than antigens to successfully detect signs of disease in patients' blood samples. These peptoids have many advantages; they can be modified easily and can be produced quickly in relatively large amounts at lower cost.
The adaptive immune system is thought to be a rich source of protein biomarkers, but diagnostically useful antibodies remain undiscovered for a large number of diseases, Dr. German said. This is, in part, because the antigens that trigger an immune response in many diseases are unknown. The technology behind this discovery is essentially an immune-system reader, which is designed to pick out antibodies without knowing in advance which ones to look for.
The researchers used a combination library of several thousand peptoids to screen serum samples from mice with multiple sclerosis-like symptoms as well as from healthy control mice. The particular peptoids that retained more antibodies from the blood samples of the diseased animals were identified as potential agents for capturing diagnostically useful molecules.
The investigators then examined serum samples from six AD patients, six healthy patients and six patients with Parkinson's. Three peptoids were identified that captured six times the IgG antibody levels in all of the Alzheimer's patients when compared to the control group or to the Parkinson's patients. Two of the peptoids were found to bind the same IgG antibody, while the third was shown to bind to different antibodies – meaning there are at least two candidate biomarkers for AD. Using an additional set of 16 normal control subjects and 10 subjects at the very early state of AD, the three candidate biomarkers identified AD with 90 percent accuracy.
"The results of this study, though preliminary, show great potential for becoming a landmark," said Dr. German.
###
Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Dr. Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, professor of neurology and neurotherapeutics; Steven Connell, research technician; and Dr. Linda Hynan, professor of clinical sciences. Others include senior author and former UT Southwestern faculty member Dr. Thomas Kodadek, now at Scripps Florida Research Institute; Dr. Anne Gocke, former postdoctoral fellow in translational medicine; and researchers with Opko Health Laboratories.
Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health.
Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/neurosciences to learn more about UT Southwestern's clinical services in neurosciences, including psychiatry.
This news release is available on our World Wide Web home page at
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via e-mail,
subscribe at www.utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews
END
JUPITER, FL, February 11, 2011 – Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have produced the first known compound to show significant effectiveness in protecting brain cells directly affected by Parkinson's disease, a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder.
Although the findings were in animal models of the disease, the effectiveness of the compound, combined with its potential to be taken orally, offers the tantalizing possibility of a potentially useful future therapy for Parkinson's disease patients.
The results were published ...
Tiny gold particles can help doctors detect tumor cells circulating in the blood of patients with head and neck cancer, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have found.
The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is an emerging technique that can allow oncologists to monitor patients with cancer for metastasis or to evaluate the progress of their treatment. The gold particles, which are embedded with dyes allowing their detection by laser spectroscopy, could enhance this technique's specificity by reducing the number of false positives.
The results are published ...
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – Home-based physical therapy to improve the strength and balance of stroke survivors works about as well to get them walking again as treadmill training done in a physical therapy lab, according to the results of a study presented today by a Duke researcher at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference.
"We have been working for years in rehabilitation to develop the most effective interventions for walking recovery," said Pamela Woods Duncan, Ph.D., PT, professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Division at Duke University ...
Frozen credit markets are adversely impacting the multi-billion dollar franchising industry. The lack of bank loans for franchised businesses is the major factor preventing the sale of new franchises. Further, this national credit crunch is stopping the re-sale of existing franchises, from franchisee to franchisee.
"Transfers (re-sales) are a healthy part of every franchise system. But the nation's lack of bank lending to buyers of existing franchises threatens the ability of franchise systems to rejuvenate their networks through new franchisees. This reduction in transfers ...
A unique new probe based on luciferase, the enzyme that gives fireflies their glow, enables researchers to monitor hydrogen peroxide levels in mice and thereby track the progression of infectious diseases or cancerous tumors without harming the animals or even having to shave their fur. Developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, this new bioluminescent probe has already provided the first direct experimental evidence that hydrogen peroxide is continuously made even in a healthy ...
Konnessi LLC, a Rhode Island web design and marketing strategies company, has relocated its Providence offices into the Churchill and Banks building at 10 Greene Street. The move, which took effect on January 1, 2011, marks not only a major upgrade in office facilities and capabilities for the company, but also a migration deeper into the downtown Providence district.
Founded recently in 2010, the RI web design firm Konnessi (which in Maltese means, "connected") has seen exponential growth both in employees and in clientele, all in just under a year of existence. With ...
Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are two to three times more likely than children without the disorder to develop serious substance abuse problems in adolescence and adulthood, according to a study by UCLA psychologists and colleagues at the University of South Carolina.
"This greater risk for children with ADHD applies to boys and girls, it applies across race and ethnicity — the findings were very consistent," said Steve S. Lee, a UCLA assistant professor of psychology and lead author of the study. "The greater risk for developing significant ...
Has Valentine's Day become post-racial? Not yet, it seems.
New research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that when it comes to dating, cyberspace is as segregated as the real world. Data gathered from more than 1 million profiles of singles looking for love online show that whites overwhelmingly prefer to date members of their own race, while blacks, especially men, are far more likely to cross the race barrier in hopes of being struck by Cupid's arrow.
UC Berkeley researchers analyzed the racial preferences and online activity of people from the ...
Sitrof Technologies is pleased announced the end customer, Copernicus Group IRB (CGIRB) was named a finalist for the 2011 AIIM Best Practices Award. The Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Award was established to recognize excellence in information management.
Sitrof Technologies implementation of Xerox Corporation's (NYSE:XRX) DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) was recognized as a finalist in the Small Company category for their work in transforming Copernicus Group IRB into a paperless company. CGIRB is now 96% paperless after the 2 year implementation. The paperless ...
Troy, N.Y. – Peter Fox and James Hendler of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are calling for scientists to take a few tips from the users of the World Wide Web when presenting their data to the public and other scientists in the Feb. 11 issue of Science magazine. Fox and Hendler, both professors within the Tetherless World Research Constellation at Rensselaer, outline a new vision for the visualization of scientific data in a perspective piece titled "Changing the Equation on Scientific Data Visualization."
As the researchers explain, visualizations provide a means to ...
