Protein linked to three brain disorders

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have discovered three different degenerative brain disorders are linked by a toxic form of the same protein.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers say the protein, called Elk-1, was found in clumps of misshaped proteins that are the hallmarks of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Huntington's disease.

"These results suggest a molecular link between the presence of inclusions and neuronal loss that is shared across a spectrum of neurodegenerative disease," Professor James Eberwine, co-director of the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute, said. "Identifying these links within the diseased microenvironment will open up novel avenues for therapeutic intervention. For example it is reasonable to now ask, 'Is this molecule a possible new biomarker for these neurodegenerative diseases?' "

The research that included Assistant Professor Jai-Yoon Sul and graduate student Anup Sharma, both from Penn, and Linda Callahan from the University of Rochester Medical Center is reported in the online journal PLoS One.