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New Possible Lead In Kennedy's Research
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Location: San Francisco, California
Registered: 09-30-2005
Posts: 29
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Just noticed that the MDA website recently posted a new process to boost the defense mechanism to reduce cell death in SBMA.

The link is at:

http://www.mda.org/research/090105ResearchersExplore.html

I had not heard of this research in any of the recent Saturday chats but since I couldn't attend the yearly conference last November, I'm not sure this was discussed there under a different name/process.
Picture of Bruce
Registered: 09-28-2005
Posts: 654
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Yes, the summary was just published on the MDA web site. The actual transcript can be downloaded from Neuronal Autophagy. On the top right you can click on "Full Text" to download if in a PDF format. Since I am not scientifically/medically educated, I need someone to translate what all this means for us with KD.
Location: San Francisco, California
Registered: 09-30-2005
Posts: 29
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Bruce:
I had the same "over my head" feeling when I first read the article. You've got more guts than me to just come out and say it...
The article mentions "Autophagy"; it sounds like something from my auto shop class in high school. I guess I was absent the day they covered this subject (LOL)!!!
Location: Michigan
Registered: 08-29-2008
Posts: 58
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It's funny you should mention the over your head feeling...I was just telling my husband about the new research info and told him he would have to read it for himself because there was no way I would be able to explain it...heck, I can hardly pronounce it! It would be great if someone could explain it so that we could understand it.
Picture of Bruce
Registered: 09-28-2005
Posts: 654
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An Explanation

I asked Ed Meyertholen to explain what the research paper is all about. Below is his synopsis:

quote:

One needs to remember that the most popular mechanism causing cell death in KD is due to the accumulation fragments of the mutated androgen receptor (AR) protein. The cells apparently cannot adequately remove "used" up AR and fragments accumulate - and it is thought that these fragments cause the neuronal cell death. Normal AR is removed using the proteasome (think of the shredder analogy from my talks). Another pathway for removing used up proteins is a process call autophagy. Normally, AR does not go through this process as the proteasome seems more than capable of removing the AR. The mutant AR does not get degraded adequately by the proteasome and it has been demonstrated (for example, by Paul Taylor) that if one can activate the process of autophagy, one can remove the AR fragments and prevent cell death. The LaSpada paper essentially confirms this result, but using a cell culture not fruit flies. They found that by omitting certain chemicals from the media in which the cells grow, one can increase autophagy and apparently, the chemical whose omission activated autophagy was the hormone, insulin. When one omitted insulin from the media of cultured KD cells, the cells lived longer. I think that the main value of this work at this time is that it confirms the concept that the activation of autophagy prolongs the life of cells with the mutant AR.
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