Set of Proteins Accounts for Over 130 Brain Diseases

[TECH NEWS]

In research published Dec. 19, scientists have studied human brain samples to isolate a set of proteins that accounts for over 130 brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsies and forms of autism and learning disability. The brain is the most complex organ in the body with millions of nerve cells connected by billions of synapses. Within each synapse is a set of proteins, which, like the components of an engine, bind together to build a molecular machine called the postsynaptic density or PSD. Although studies of animal synapses have indicated that the PSD could be important in human diseases and behavior, surprisingly little was known about it in humans. A team of scientists, led by Professor Seth Grant at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Edinburgh University, have extracted the PSDs from synapses of patients undergoing brain surgery and discovered their molecular components using a method known as proteomics. This revealed that 1461 proteins, each one encoded by a different gene, are found in human synapses. This has made it possible, for the first time, to systematically identify the diseases that affect human synapses and provides a new way to study the evolution of the brain and behavior.

12/19/10, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute