St. Jude, VA track diseases

Researchers find evidence of ALS, MS origins

In separate studies, researchers at two Memphis hospitals say they’re finding tantalizing clues into the origins of degenerative diseases and the mechanisms they use to wreak havoc on the central nervous system.

One study, led by scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has identified the mutations triggering buildups of proteins that cause nerve cells to die in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The findings, which suggest there may be common origins between ALS and some cancers, were published Sunday in an advanced online edition of the scientific journal Nature.

A researcher at the Memphis Veterans Medical Center and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, meanwhile, has received a $650,000 grant to study the means by which antibodies attack nerve cells in people suffering from multiple sclerosis, or MS, which like ALS, is presently incurable.

The work at St. Jude discovered mutations that occur within regions, or domains, of certain proteins that can change their shape as needed to perform different functions.

The main job of these domains is to bind to RNA, the molecules that direct the assembly of proteins, and build structures known as granules, Dr. J. Paul Taylor, associate member of the St. Jude department of developmental neurobiology and senior author of the study, said in an interview last week.

But the mutations in ALS affect that domain, Taylor said, inducing the proteins to assemble “improperly” and causing the normally shortlived granules to accumulate within the cytoplasm of cells instead of being disassembled and recycled. This process impairs the regulation of RNA and leads to the death of cells.

The study, Taylor said, offers hope for eventual effective treatment of ALS, a usually fatal disease diagnosed in some 5,600 Americans annually. Researchers might find existing drugs that “restore the balance of assembly and disassembly,” he said.

At the VA, Dr. Michael Levin, also a professor at UTHSC, was awarded a grant by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Research and Development to study how MS causes a patient’s own antibodies to attack nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Research he has led showed that antibodies from MS patients stick to a certain protein after entering nerve cells and proceed to cause neuronal injury and degeneration.

Previously, researchers thought the immune response from MS patients destroyed only the protective coating of nerve cells, known as myelin.

In awarding the grant, the VA Office of Research and Development called Levin a “pioneer and expert” in the study of MS and other neurodegenerative diseases.