Neurogenerative Diseases - 16

How Does Sonication Affect
Fibrillar Protein Preparations Used
in Neurodegeneration Studies?
New study measures the levels of fibrillar material in solution qualitatively using
sedimentation assays after introducing increasing levels of sonication.
Ariel Louwrier
Neurological diseases including Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's diseases have become increasingly
prevalent in society over the last few decades,
perpetuated to some degree by longer human life
spans. At this point in time there is no cure for these
diseases, although the recent announcement that
Biogen may be able to slow the effects of Alzheimer's
disease with their antibody therapeutic may lend
hope to these efforts.

Typically, most basic disease research requires
the use of models or systems that generate the
disease state or a valid proximity of it. This is true
for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases as well.
Transgenic animals can be used, but will typically
have long growth or maturity times before they
can be used-measured in many months or more.
Their early survival post birth is also not a given. One
solution to this problem has been the generation of
recombinant fibrillar protein constructs that, once
injected into a host, mimic what happens in these
disease states, generating a similar pathology to
what is associated with those diseases. Furthermore,
when these constructs are used, the pathology can
be fully generated within 30 days (in some cases),
providing a clear time advantage over, for instance,
transgenic animals that overexpress certain proteins
and may take 6-18 months to mature.

The awareness of this reality has become reflected
in NIH research funding this year-with an
earmarked increase of $400M for Alzheimer's and
related neurological diseases funding in 2019.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation also has provided
extraordinary levels of funding for a private nongovernmental organization, raising over $900M
since its inception in 20001 for Parkinson's disease
research. The challenges of research in this area are
significant, reflected by what tools, models and drug
candidates are available as well as the challenges
of surmounting the relative impenetrability of the
blood-brain barrier to create a path for potential
drugs to gain access to their targets.

Currently, only one research reagent company
worldwide is able to provide these novel fibrillar
protein constructs (which are generally referred to
as pre-formed fibrils or PFFs) to scientists. Based
on the west coast of Canada in Victoria, StressMarq

Neurogenerative Diseases

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