CB3 peptide against "sugar inflammation" in the brain
How to breed diabetes and Alzheimer's disease
Kirill Stasevich, CompulentaRecent studies have shown that high blood sugar levels have a bad effect on the brain, weakening higher cognitive functions and threatening dementia.
We wrote about one of these studies explaining the link between abnormal glucose metabolism and Alzheimer's disease quite recently.
Usually, abnormal glucose metabolism means diabetes, and it is type II diabetes, when tissues stop responding to insulin and stop absorbing glucose from the blood. (However, different scientists may also have different opinions about the specific mechanism linking alzheimer's neuron death and diabetes.)
The research group of Daphne Atlas from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel) has discovered another molecular mechanism by which diabetes can provoke Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia. In the journal Redox Biology, the authors report that in rats with elevated glucose levels in cells, signaling pathways associated with MAPK kinases were activated (Cohen-Kutner et al., Thioredoxin-Mimetic peptide CB3 Lowers MAPKinsase activity in the Zucker Rat Brain). These signaling pathways control the darkness of biochemical reactions, and when they are triggered, inflammatory processes begin in neurons, which lead to cell death.
Diagram from an article in Redox Biology – VM
If rats with diabetes were injected with the drug rosiglitazone for a month, which reduces blood sugar levels, the activity of MAPK enzymes decreased in animals and at the same time the level of inflammation in the brain decreased. According to scientists, for the first time they were able to unambiguously show the connection between high blood sugar levels and inflammatory danger in nervous tissue.
However, the researchers did not stop there, trying to find a remedy that would suppress "sugar inflammation" in the brain without being an antidiabetic drug, because high blood sugar levels can occur not only because of diabetes.
Peptides imitating thioredoxin, a special small protein that monitors the redox balance in the cell and helps proteins maintain the correct spatial structure, turned out to be such a tool. Ms. Atlas's group has long been working on peptides that mimic this protein. In particular, they have been known to suppress the activity of signaling MAPK kinases.
Having tested thioredoxin-like peptides on diabetic rats, the scientists saw what they expected: the peptides easily passed through the blood-brain barrier and suppressed inflammatory processes in the brain, protecting neurons from death.
If animal and human trials are successful, doctors will have a tool in their hands that allows them to protect the brain from the effects of elevated blood sugar levels, regardless of the reason for this.
Prepared based on the materials of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem:
New molecule protects the brain from detrimental effects associated with diabetes and high blood sugar.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru30.01.2014