Researchers discover aptamer that could mean a breakthrough for Parkinson’s

By Gillian Slade on August 31, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

A new aptamer that seems to be related to the development of Parkinson’s disease has been discovered at Carleton University with the potential for a medical breakthrough.

The exact cause of Parkinson’s is unknown but in almost every case, there are protein alpha-synuclein present, says Carlton neuroscience department Prof. Matthew Holahan. Researchers believe this protein kills neurons and leads to decreases in dopamine and other neurodegenerative outcomes.

The new aptamer, A-syn-1, appears to reduce this protein’s aggregation.

“Proteins bind together and form these stringy, fibrils. That is not good,” says Holahan. “That means they are starting to clump together. And somewhere along the line they start to spread.

“Little chunks break off and invade other neurons, which is how a lot of neurodegenerative diseases spread throughout the brain — kind of like how a virus would infect a person or population.

“That’s the problem we want to stop.”

The research is focusing on interfering with the aptamer before it gets to the point where cells are dying off, cutting off the degenerative stage earlier, said Holahan. It is a protein in everyone’s brain but in those with Parkinson’s it seems to clump together and interfere with brain function.

“The idea here is in the future to give someone a pill that they can swallow that would contain this A-syn-1 aptamer and stop the aggregation,” said Holahan.

The results of this work are a “few years away.” It is now being used in a pre-clinical model with animals that have the propensity to develop alpha-synuclein aggregates, said Holahan.

“We’ve seen some promising results in our animal model so now we have to provide some replication of that,” said Holahan.

The next stage would be injecting the aptamer into mice, look at toxicology associated with this, and then human trials. Realistically it could be another five to 10 years, he said.

There is the potential for this to affect not only those diagnosed with Parkinson’s but also those with Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s, said Holahan.

The Carleton University chemistry lab under Prof. Maria DeRosa creates the microscopic strands of DNA called aptamers, which have a long list of environmental, agricultural and health applications. She is working in partnership with Holahan. They received a grant of US$80,000 from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for the initial stage of the research and are seeking additional funding as the project continues.

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