Technion researchers have developed an artificial molecule that could inhibit degenerative processes related to Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
Copper ions are a key component of the structure and function of various cells in the body. But their accumulation can lead to cell toxicity, causing dangerous conditions such as oxidative stress, cardiovascular disorders, and degenerative diseases of the brain, including Alzheimer’s.
One of the mechanisms involved in the development of Alzheimer’s is the formation of free radicals that damage the brain cells. These are oxidizing agents formed, among other things, by Cu–Aβ, a complex of copper and amyloid beta.
Aware that the breakdown of this complex, and the removal of copper from the amyloid, prevents cell death, inhibiting disease, the Technion team began to seek a more effective way to extract the copper by chelation. Chelation uses molecules that bind the copper ions and extract them from the amyloid. The team developed a new artificial chelator called P3. This is a peptide-like water-soluble synthetic molecule that performs its task selectively; it strongly binds copper and forms the complex CuP3, extracting the copper from the amyloid. By doing so, it inhibits and even suppresses the formation of harmful oxidizing agents, without creating new oxidation processes. Although it binds zinc ions and even extracts them from the amyloid faster than it extracts the copper ions, the binding to zinc is weaker, making the zinc-amyloid complex unstable, so in practice P3 mostly binds copper ions.
TECHNION RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED AN ARTIFICIAL MOLECULE THAT COULD INHIBIT DEGENERATIVE PROCESSES RELATED TO ALZHEIMER’S AND OTHER DISEASES.
The study was led by Assoc. Prof. Galia Maayan and PhD student Anastasia Behar from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, in collaboration with Prof. Christelle Hureau from the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination du CNRS, Toulouse, France.