Rusty Worms in the Brain

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/26737/home/press/200808press.html

Nanomineralization of iron: Does the iron transporter transferrin play
a role in neurodegenerative diseases?
Contact: Peter J. Sadler, University of Warwick, Coventry (UK)
Periodic Iron Nanomineralization in Human Serum Transferrin Fibrils
Iron is vital to human life; for example, it is a component of
hemoglobin, the substance that makes our blood red and supplies our
cells with oxygen. However, iron can also cause heavy damage; it is
thought that iron deposits in the brain contribute to certain forms of
neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons's, Huntington' s, and
Alzheimer's. A malfunction of the blood transporter transferrin may be
to blame. A team led by Peter J. Sadler at the University of Warwick
(Coventry, UK) and Sandeep Verma of the Indian Institute of Technology
(Kanpur, India) has now been able to show that transferrin can clump
together to form wormlike fibrils. As reported in the journal
Angewandte Chemie, this process releases rustlike iron particles.

(c) Wiley-VCH
Within the body, iron is present in the form of iron ions with a
threefold positive charge (Fe3+) and must always be well "wrapped" to
prevent it from reacting with proteins and causing damage. In blood
plasma, iron is carried in the "pockets" of the iron transport protein
transferrin. It only gets unwrapped once it is inside special cellular
organelles.

But things can go wrong in this system, as Sadler and his colleagues
have now proven. The researchers deposited iron-loaded human
transferrin onto various surfaces under conditions that emulate those
in living organisms. By using microscopy and electron microscopy, the
researchers showed that the proteins aggregate into long wormlike
fibrils. These "worms" have a regular striped pattern; the narrow dark
stripes contain something similar to rust. "Within the fibrils, the
iron ions are no longer properly enclosed;" explains Sadler, "instead,
they aggregate into periodically arranged nanocrystals whose structure
seems to be very similar to the iron oxide mineral lepidocrocite".

The researchers suspect that in certain forms of neurodegenerative
disease, iron deposits may form in a similar fashion in the brain.
Such iron crystals are highly reactive and could lead to the formation
of toxic free radicals, which attack and destroy nerve cells. If this
assumption can be verified in vivo, agents that hinder the aggregation
of transferrin may be the foundation for a new family of drugs.

_________________________________________________________________

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com

Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3

DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk