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The Research of Dr. Ivana De Domenico

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Scientists Find Molecule That Delays Alzheimer’s

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Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most debilitating and painful diseases that man has ever had the unfortunate chance to encounter. While there might be no pain for the person afflicted with it, the pain their family goes through as they watch the person they knew and loved become a shell is indescribable. While there has been decades of research into finding a cure for this terrible disease, it seems as though progress has never been made until now.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have released a new study in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology that points to a victory in the long fight against alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have found that the onset of alzheimer’s can be delayed by a molecule that was found to occur naturally in the human brain. Studies in mice have already shown that this molecule puts a stop to many of the processes that lead to alzheimer’s and dementia. The molecule is called Brichos and while it won’t revert any damage that was already done, it will prevent any more damage from occurring.

One of the first signs of alzheimer’s is the formation of sticky clumps of proteins in the brain. Proteins, called amyloid betas, start folding in wrong shape and end up sticking together. These clumps continue to grow into fibers, called fibrils, and spread across the brain. Even though the brain has ways to deal with this sort of issue, it can quickly be overwhelmed and cause a chain reaction. The fibrils act like a catalyst for more clumps to form and the process is exponential as the disease progresses.

Brichos works by sticking to the amyloid fibrils, coating their exterior and preventing the formation of any more sticky clumps. Unfortunately, Brichos currently isn’t useful as a treatment source because it gets absorbed by the body too quickly to get an actual chance to work on the brain. However this discovery shows that the alzheimer’s process can be interrupted and that if we can find another molecule like Brichos then we have a real chance at stopping this tragic disease once and for all.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

Not “Just Kids”

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We, as a society, have a strange relationship with children that is intensely riddled with paradoxes, ironies, and contradictions. Thanks to the intense eye of media coverage, we feel our kids are in the most dangerous society history has ever seen– although social scientists have readily dismissed this absurd idea. Thinking of letting your young child play outside alone? Absolutely not! Some may interpret as abuse. And even if you are outside with your children supervising their exploration and interaction with the world around them, they better avoid climbing to the top of the slide, lest they fall to their untimely deaths– even if such an occurrence was simply an isolated incident. But scientific study seems to be making a case that more people are listening to, and parents are becoming more aware of the detrimental effects such overprotective behavior can have on their children.

But if we take special care to turn that coin over, and thoroughly examine the reverse, we hit a bit of a problem. While the research is encouraging parental and authority figures to take a step back from their childrens’ lives, it is certainly not telling them to treat young people as adults. But too many of us are doing it in a way we may not realize. And herein lies the great irony: the same parents who accompany their children everywhere and keep watch like an Orwellian Big Brother, in the name of “oh, but they’re just children!” could very well be harming them in another way, completely oblivious to the mental toll which it could potentially have, because “oh, but they’re just children!”

I’m talking about aggressive behavior between parents.

An article in Sciencedaily recently recapped the findings from a study done by New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The longitudinal study, first published in Pathology and Developmental Psychology, tracked the way that exposure to both physical and verbal aggression at home impacted the ability of a child to correctly identify and control his or her own emotions. Now, there have been similar studies conducted in the past, but those focused on immediate effects and the short term. This is the first such study that follows the subjects throughout childhood. In addition to these kinds of conflict, the study also demonstrated that any type of chaos or time in poverty could also have detrimental effects on a child’s developmental growth. It’s easy to see how fighting is stressful for both parental parties involved. However, when it is done in front of kids, we can only help but to wonder if the parents don’t worry about the effect their ill-communication is having on their children. Do the parents instead write it off simply by assuming the child knows better than to believe the arguments have anything to do with them? Evidently not, the study shows, as kids find these conflicts as emotionally taxing as the conflicting parties.

Now let’s take a closer look at the study itself. In general, the study sought to measure how exposure to a conflict heavy environment affected the ways in which children could identify and process negative emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness. The longitudinal range ran from ages of 2 years to 58 months. The researchers gathered sorta data by having parents complete questionnaires, disclosing such pertinent information as number of times the household moved, noise levels, cleanliness, the number of times the primary caregiver changed, and things of the like. This was calculated to determine the level of chaos present in a house, and plotted against the levels of stability. At the end of the study, when the children were at the ripe, wise age of 58 months, they were asked to do an exercise that involved identifying emotions. True to expectations, the children exposed to physical aggression between their parents did not perform well on the task. More unexpected though, was the finding that children whose parents engaged in more verbal conflicts, were much more attuned to their own emotions, and able to perform the task better.

More troubling though, was the discovery that the longer a child was exposed to these kinds of conflicts, the more likely they would be unable to adequately regulate their own negative emotions, such as sadness and fear. Unsurprisingly, this places them at higher risk for mental disorders such as depression and anxiety later on in life.

We should keep in mind that children’s minds are very plastic, very malleable. They’re always soaking in information that pertains to the world around them. To believe that they simply can’t process what’s going on, or will forget it in time, is not only dismissive of their human capacities in the moments, but also directly counter to the latest research in child development. Said research asserts that children are constantly learning, and that at birth our mind is far from a Rousseauian tabula rasa. In fact, children already have developed some expectations of the world around them in the womb. And if that can be discerned before birth, just imagine what the brain processes afterwards.

For more information on the NYU study Check out the ScienceDaily article here.

To learn more about psychological development in the womb, please watch Annie Murphy Paul’s Ted Talk, below.

UT Southwestern Announces New Regenerative Research Center

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        The UT Southwestern Medical Center is one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, notorious for pioneering biomedical research.  According to an article completed by News Wise, the medical center is continuing to hold true to this tradition, as it announces the creation of a separate center dedicated entirely to researching regenerative medicine.

UT Southwestern Medical Center is the topic of Ivana De Domenico's latest blog post
UT Southwestern Medical Center, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

        The new center is made possible due to a charitable contribution from the Hamon Charitable Foundation that totaled ten million dollars.  The goal of the newly formed Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine will be to understand the basic processes and contributors to the development of tissue and organs.  From there, the center hopes this information can be applied to creating new approaches towards healing and regeneration, specifically in terms of stem cell biology, tissue engineering and organ fabrication.  In essence, researchers hope to use the knowledge they gain to help regenerate, repair and replace damaged tissue brought on by age or accident.

        Leading the center will be the renowned Doctor Eric Olson, who is known for his contributions and insights into the degeneration, regeneration and development of the heart.  For his work, Olson has received numerous awards, titles and honors, including several elections to key scientific panels.  He has served on the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In the last two years, he has received three prestigious awards.

Olson has served as a member of the UT Southwestern team since 1995, when he was recruited as the founding chair of the Department of Molecular Biology.  With this experience, Olson will work to establish the center based on a combination of collaborations.  Existing faculty will be recruited to assist on upcoming projects, in addition to new junior and senior colleagues who will be brought in to specifically work for the Harmon Center.

Protease Breakthrough

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Science Daily has reported that two new methods of attacking troublesome protease “ClpP”, associated with the troublesome and resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, have been discovered. Some of us may already know about staph infections and tuberculosis, so let’s rewind for a second and talk about exactly what these “proteases” are.

For starters, proteases are a kind of protein. As with all other proteins, proteases are comprised of chains of amino acids, and integral to cellular process and function. As explained by Science Daily, proteases take it one step further, and act as “scissors”. The protease’s “scissors” cut other proteins, shortening or lengthening their amino acid chains. This cutting action allows the protein to execute a variety of functions. These functions run the cellular gamut from decomposition to proper positioning.

Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis are characterized by the special protease known as “ClpP”. Scientists can identify this protease, but they have had some difficulty disabling them. Convention dictates an attack on the “cutting edge” of the scissor-like proteins. But ClpP responds in a deceptive manner. At first, it looks like the antibiotic works. The “cutting edge” shuts down- but just for a few hours. Then, it activates again. Because Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis are unyielding to many antibiotics, the fact that there now exist two ways to attack these proteases is major breakthrough.

TEV protease
Depiction of Protease Structure.

Science Daily reports that the head chair of biochemistry at the Technical University at Munich, Michael Groll, discovered two new methods of attacking the troublesome protease. Groll is joined by two doctoral candidates, Malte Gersch and Roman Kolb, and the discovery seems promising. But what exactly are these new processes? The first is a way of scrambling the amino acids’ order. The ensuing disorder splits the protease into two separate parts. The second approach focuses on the active center, the cutting edge of the “scissors”. The attack on the center transforms the amino acid chain in charge of the cutting into something different. Without the cutting action, the proteins cannot be properly activated.

These two discoveries are important, but the team of scientists uncovered even more. They discovered inhibitors that reveal how these two new approaches are initialized. The scientists plan to take their discoveries and test them on live bacterial strains. They aim to allow the human immune system to fight only a few of the pathogens, with the new methods preventing newer resistances from being formed.