Innovative new technology has been used to
identify and profile a novel combination of proteins that may improve treatment
for prostate disorders.
Innovative
new technology has been used to identify and profile a novel combination of
proteins that may improve treatment for prostate disorders.
Researchers
from the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) and The
University of Western Australia (UWA), in collaboration with the Monash
Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Melbourne, have found novel ways to
identify G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) heteromers on the surface of cells.
The
study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, is based
on the work by senior author Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger and colleagues.
Pfleger
co-invented the technology to identify and study GPCRs, a family of receptors
present on the outside of all cell membranes that enable cells to respond to
hormones and neurotransmitters.
This
GPCR family of receptors are extremely important in treating disease and are
the target of up to 50 percent of all therapeutic drugs.
“Scientists
now realize that these receptors do not work in isolation, but in particular
combinations, which they call ‘heteromers’,” said Pfleger.
“It is
suggested that a number of side effects from drugs may result from not fully
understanding which combinations form and what happens when they do.”
Pfleger,
who won the 2011 Australian Museum 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in
Science, said prostate disorders such as benign prostatic hyperplasia affected
nearly every man at some point in his life.
Better
drugs with fewer side effects were needed to reduce or eliminate the need for
surgical intervention in more serious cases, he said.
“We
hope that the identification of this novel combination of receptors, and the
novel functioning that results from their interaction, will provide
opportunities to develop better treatments for debilitating prostate disorders
that affect so many aging men,” Pfleger said.
The
technology described here has been assigned to the UWA spin-out company Dimerix
Bioscience for commercial development.
The
article can be found at: Mustafa S et al. (2012) Identification and
Profiling of Novel α1A-Adrenoceptor-CXC Chemokine Receptor 2 Heteromer.
AsianScientist
Source: UWA.
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