“While prion’s transmission method is quite unusual, the process of protein clumping is quite common in a number of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,”
“the team found that prion-related protein chains reconfigure slowly at neutral pH, thus avoiding the sticky middle speeds.
“If rearrangement is fast, when two chains come into contact, they can rearrange rapidly enough to avoid making interactions that lead to clumping,” Lapidus said. “When moving slow, neither chains will have sticky patches exposed. But when the rearrangements are happening at the same speed as the random collisions between two proteins, then clumping can occur more quickly.”
Lapidus proved that astemizole is effective in speeding up protein self-interactions even further and preventing prion clumping.
Astemizole was once used to treat allergies, but it was pulled from the market due to rare but sometimes fatal side effects. The antihistamine, however, also has shown promise in some Alzheimer’s research.”
Altering pH bumps proteins from clumping
“While prion’s transmission method is quite unusual, the process of protein clumping is quite common in a number of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,”
“the team found that prion-related protein chains reconfigure slowly at neutral pH, thus avoiding the sticky middle speeds.
“If rearrangement is fast, when two chains come into contact, they can rearrange rapidly enough to avoid making interactions that lead to clumping,” Lapidus said. “When moving slow, neither chains will have sticky patches exposed. But when the rearrangements are happening at the same speed as the random collisions between two proteins, then clumping can occur more quickly.”
Lapidus proved that astemizole is effective in speeding up protein self-interactions even further and preventing prion clumping.
Astemizole was once used to treat allergies, but it was pulled from the market due to rare but sometimes fatal side effects. The antihistamine, however, also has shown promise in some Alzheimer’s research.”
http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/altering-ph-bumps-prions-out-of-danger-zone/