Inhibitor Developed for Suspect Enzyme.

• Position: Alzheimer's disease research - Brief Article

Scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), Oklahoma City, have successfully designed a highly potent inhibitor for Memapsin 2, the enzyme believed to be directly responsible for Alzheimer's disease. Memapsin 2, also known as beta-secretase, is one of two protein-cutting enzymes, called proteases, whose overactivity is believed to lead to the disease. Memapsin 2 works with another enzyme, gamma-secretase, to cut a longer protein called amyloid precursor protein. The by-product from the cut--beta-amyloid, or A-beta--then accumulates in the brain and causes plaques and tangles which are evident in Alzheimer's patients.

The enzyme and inhibitor concept for Memapsin 2 is similar to the protease inhibitors created to fight HIV and AIDS. Research efforts by the OMRF's Jordan Tang, world-re-nowned for his work concerning this family of proteases, on the basic principles of this type of enzyme/inhibitor helped to contribute to the speedy design of the Memapsin 2 inhibitor.

Because Memapsin 2 only cuts the larger protein in a very specific place, Tang and his team were able to create a "decoy," whose...