The Arizona Republic Friday, October 999A/
Researchers isolate
Alzheimer' s enzyme
Could lead to targeted treatment
By Paul Jacobs Los Angeles Times
Scientists at Amgen have isolated an elusive brain chemical believed to play a crucial role in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Reporting their findings in today's edition of Science, the researchers hope the. discovery will lead to targeted treatments that can halt the advance of this minddevouring disease that afflicts an estimated 4 million Americans..
The investigators found the chemical - an enzyme that occurs in normal and diseased brain cells by conducting a massive, automated search through tens of thousands of genes that occur in brain tissue.
Blocking the enzyme, scientists say, might prevent the progress of the disease in the same way that reducing cholesterol has been shown to blunt the ravages of heart disease.
But experts in the field caution that the leap from discovery to effective treatment could take years.
Still, the finding is a striking example of the power of the biotechnology industry to harness the genetic engineering revolution in the search for root causes of disease.
In the past, such basic research was largely the domain of university scientists, but increasingly biotech companies are weighing in and producing encouraging results.
in this case, the ingenuity and resources of the largest biotech company, armed with the, most advanced equipment available, proved critical in a race among a number of research teams to find the enzyme.
Researchers believe the enzyme
breaks down a large protein into smaller pieces, one of which, after further trimming, becomes arnyloid, the fragment that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and is .thought to destroy healthy brain tissue.
"We had to do a huge number of experiments 'and that was only doable with automation, " said Martin Citron, one of the co-authors of the Science piper, who moved to Amgen in 1997 from Harvard Medical School.
Of the 24 authors listed, all but one - David B. Teplow, a collaborator from Harvard is at Amgen.,
Citron and other scientists familiar with the work are careful to avoid claiming that they arc-close to a cure for-the disease, which leaves patients increasingly forgetful and helpless as it progresses.
"Obviously, this does not translate into a treatment tomorrow," Citron said. "But it is a good start."
The next step is to sift through large numbers of possible drugs to identify those that can block the enzyme and see whether any can alter the course of the disease..
But because any drug that blocks a naturally occurring compound might also have unexpected side effects, extensive testing will be required in animals before any are tried in patients.
The report was nevertheless hailed as a significant advance by experts in the field. An accompanying news article in the scientific journal notes that at least a dozen teams have been searching for the chemical isolated by the Amgen researchers.