La Trobe University researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind method to investigate "disordered" proteins living within a cell. The findings of the research could lead to a completely new understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease.
The work, published in Nature Methods, uses a chemical tag called TME to bind to and illuminate proteins, enabling the capture and analysis of disordered proteins for the first time. The research also demonstrated that by combining TME with existing methods, protein behavior could be observed in living blood cells shedding new light into the causes of Parkinson's disease.
"In nearly 85% of cases of Parkinson's disease, the causes are unknown, but we do know that abnormal clumps or 'aggregates' of these proteins are a marker of the disease in its advanced stages," said Associate Professor Yuning Hong.
"Not much is known about these proteins as previously they couldn't be identified in live cells using traditional methods. With our TME chemical tag, researchers can now analyze the proteins' behavior directly in living cells—critical information for Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases."
Associate Professor Hong hopes to develop similar methods to investigate other diseases. "More than 50 human diseases have been linked to abnormal protein behavior and disordered proteins, including Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers," Hong added.
"It was clear that there was a need in disease research for the kind of test we have developed and we hope in the future it can help scientists uncover more about the role of disordered proteins in a wide range of diseases."