Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Korean research team develops inhibitor to block Alzheimer’s toxins
Korea University professor Hugh I. Kim / Courtesy of National Research Foundation of Korea
By Nam Hyun-woo
A research team led by Korea University professor Hugh I. Kim, also known as Kim Joon-gon in Korean, has succeeded in developing an inhibitor that blocks Alzheimer’s-causing toxins in collaboration with a California Institute of Technology team.
According to the National Research Foundation of Korea on Monday, the joint research team successfully designed a peptide-based aggregation inhibitor that can prevent the misfolding and self-aggregation of amyloid beta proteins.
Amyloid beta is a protein found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. When these proteins fold incorrectly, they can form long, sticky fibers called fibrils that assemble in the brain. These harmful clumps are believed to damage nerve cells and lead to symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Recently, there has been growing research into treatments that aim to fundamentally address Alzheimer’s disease by targeting its root causes, and successful cases have been reported. This highlights that the key target in the long-stalled development of Alzheimer’s treatments is the aggregates of amyloid beta.
The joint research team analyzed the structural properties of amyloid beta proteins and designed a peptide inhibitor that prevents misfolding and self-assembly.
In order to prevent misfolding, the inhibitor has to have enough binding force with the protein, and the team designed an “antiparallel beta-sheet” structure that reduced the formation of aggregates of amyloid beta more effectively than existing inhibitors, and also significantly alleviated cellular toxicity.
“Inhibiting the formation of aggregates is an essential step in the development of treatments for Alzheimer’s disease,” Kim said.
“The inhibitor developed in this study binds strongly to amyloid beta proteins and shows significantly improved aggregation inhibition compared to existing peptide-based inhibitors. … If put into practical use with early diagnostic technologies, the inhibitor could be used in to help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, serving as an important foundation for preventing the disease.”
The study was conducted with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea. The findings were published on May 22 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a Germany-based journal in the field of chemistry.