Newly Synthesized Peptide Has Therapeutic Possibilities against Neurologic Diseases, Cancer, and Infectious Diseases

Scientists have engineered a peptide that has possibilities for drug development into agents for treating infections, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer by employing a capability to trigger a cell-recycling mechanism known as autophagy.

Autophagy is a basic recycling mechanism in which intracellular enzymes digest unwanted and degraded parts of the cell into their individual building blocks, which are then rebuilt into new parts. The role of autophagy is vital both in keeping cells healthy and in helping them to combat a variety of disorders. Physician scientists in University of Texas (UT) Southwestern’s Center for Autophagy Research (Dallas, TX, USA) are decoding how to modify the autophagy process in an effort to disrupt the progression of disease and enhance health.

In the study’s findings, which were reported online in the journal Nature, researchers were able to produce a peptide called Tat-beclin 1, which induces the autophagy process. Laboratory mice treated with Tat-beclin-1 were resistant to several infectious diseases, including West Nile virus and another mosquito-borne virus called Chikungunya virus that is typical to Asia, Africa, and India. In additional research, the investigators demonstrated that human cells treated with the peptide were resistant to HIV infection in a laboratory environment.

“Because autophagy plays such a crucial role in regulating disease, autophagy-inducing agents such as the Tat-beclin 1 peptide may have potential for pharmaceutical development and the subsequent prevention and treatment of a broad range of human diseases,” said Dr. Beth Levine, director of the Center for Autophagy Research and senior author of the study. Dr. Levine, a professor of internal medicine and microbiology.

Disruption of the autophagy process is implicated in a wide range of conditions including aging, and diseases, including cancers, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and infectious diseases such as those caused by HIV and West Nile viruses.

UT Southwestern has applied for a patent on Tat-beclin-1. Peptides are strings of amino acids found in proteins. The Tat-beclin 1 peptide was derived from sequences in beclin 1, one of the first known proteins in mammals found to be needed for autophagy, a discovery that was made by Dr. Levine’s laboratory. Her study has since revealed that defects in beclin 1 contribute to many types of disease. Contrariwise, beclin 1 activity and the autophagy pathway appear to be significant for protection against lung, breast, and ovarian cancers, as well as for fighting off viral and bacterial infections, and for protecting individuals from neurodegenerative diseases and aging.

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