http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.24078/abstract
UCSF’s Gladstone Institute researchers have created a molecular sensor that can detect MS at its earliest stages — before the onset of physical signs. Professor Katerina Akassoglou’s study revealed in animal models that the heightened activity of a protein called thrombin in the brain could serve as an early indicator of MS. By developing a fluorescently labeled probe specifically designed to track thrombin, the team found that active thrombin could be detected at the earliest phases of MS, and that this active thrombin correlates with disease severity.
In laboratory experiments on mice modified to mimic the signs of MS, the team employed an Activatable Cell-Penetrating Peptide, a molecular probe that delivers fluorescent agents to a region of interest. For this study, they developed a thrombin-specific probe that could track thrombin activity in mice as the disease progressed. They then analyzed where, and at what stage of disease, thrombin activity was found.
“We detected heightened thrombin activity at specific disease ‘hot-spots,’ regions where neuronal damage developed over time,” said Gladstone scientist Dimitrios Davalos, “And when we compared these results to those of a separate, healthy control group of mice, we saw that thrombin activity in the control group was wholly absent.”
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