Innovation Anthology #215:
Mad cow and chronic wasting disease share a common element, and that’s misfolded prion proteins.
What causes the prions to misfold is still a mystery, but scientists are making progress.
Dr. David Westaway is the director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta.
He says one clue lies with the action of molecules called “chaperones”. They help proteins find the right shape.
DR DAVID WESTAWAY: Because sometimes they start to fold up into the right shape, and they sort of get stuck half way and part of it goes into the wrong shape. And then the chaperone comes along and sort of unfolds it a bit more, smoothes it out and lets it gets into the right shape. And the term that protein chemists use to describe shape is confirmation. So chaperones are helper molecules that help important proteins hit the right conformation.
According to Dr. Westaway, cell biologists know a lot about chaperones working inside cells.
But in the case of prion misfolding, the crucial chaperone action may be taking place outside cells. And that opens a whole new frontier in prion research.
Thanks today to the Canadian Institutes for Health Research
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Program Date: 2009-04-09