A penny for your prions: Researchers study link between copper, mad cow disease

http://www.physorg.com/news165161592.html

This article mentions than one copper-binding protein is a prion that the human brain normally uses to protect against Alzheimer's, and also that variations of this protein may be involved in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and many if not all of the prion diseases.

I'd therefore suggest giving copper a high priority for what types of metal ions you develop the ability to use in metal-binding proteins, since this suggests that at least some of the affects of Alzheimer's may be due to the failure of free copper ion regulation in the brain, instead of other metal ions binding to anything.


Study points to disruption of copper regulation as key to prion diseases

http://www.physorg.com/news159170135.html


Antibody key to treating variant CJD, scientists find

http://www.physorg.com/news159170135.html

Wikipedia articles - not the most reliable source of information, but looks like a good source of keywords to use in searching databases less open to the public.


Category:Copper proteins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Copper_proteins


Ceruloplasmin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceruloplasmin


Cytochrome c oxidase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytochrome_oxidase


Hemocyanin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemocyanin


Laccase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laccase


Methane monooxygenase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_monooxygenase


Plastocyanin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastocyanin


Superoxide dismutase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superoxide_dismutase

Some articles that appear to be based on research reports, but rewritten for the public:


Copper Circuits Help Brain Function; Could Tweaking the Circuits Make Us Smarter?

http://www.physorg.com/news78476785.html


Iron and copper relationship is studied

http://www.physorg.com/news104509113.html


Study: Amino acid helps in copper binding

http://www.physorg.com/news117718895.html


Study points to disruption of copper regulation as key to prion diseases

http://www.physorg.com/news159170135.html


Rice lab finds molecular clues to Wilson disease

http://www.physorg.com/news138373389.html


Scientists detect fatal copper disorder at birth

http://www.physorg.com/news121583904.html

Menkes disease


Scientists Find Key to Copper Absorption, Essential to Life

http://www.physorg.com/news76691960.html


Vitamin C and cancer revisited

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/32/11037.short?rss=1&ssource=mfc

An article that appears to list copper-binding proteins for university students:


Copper proteins

http://metallo.scripps.edu/PROMISE/CUMAIN.html

Looks like research reports:


Different signaling in pig anterior pituitary cells by GNRH and its complexes with copper and nickel

http://www.nel.edu/26-2005_4_pdf/NEL260405A15_Kochman.pdf


Immunocytochemical Detection of Metallothionein (MT1 and MT2) in Copper-enhanced Sheep Brains

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WHW-45GWGVR-3&_user=4420034&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000063005&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=4420034&md5=fa84c4104ddfb9cfda3bf5e2484dbc09


A4_EXTRA amyloid A4

http://smart.embl-heidelberg.de/smart/do_annotation.pl?BLAST=DUMMY&DOMAIN=SM00006

Has a relation to both amyloids and Alzheimer's.

Thanks, interesting stuff!

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Hi

It is very exciting to have infos about copper binding proteins, some of them are really important in oxido-reductase processes, especially the SOD. But are we crunching any of them? The PDB codes are not familiar to me.
By the way I am curius about what is Rosetta's plan about this: 1cc8 a mercury binding metallochaperone atx1?
Actualy similar structures (atx1) could be involved in copper transport also.

With regards

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When I searched the files of a Rosetta@home workunit, I found files related to metal-binding proteins for a few metals, NOT including copper.

See the link earlier in this thread to an article saying that the human brain uses a natural prion, which happens to be copper-binding, as its normal method of controlling the level of copper within the brain, and also for preventing Alzheimer's.

Apparantly, no other species does this, which prevents some types of relevant Alzheimer's research.

In other words, copper-binding proteins are relevant to Alzheimer's, so I'd like the Rosetta@home scientists to mention whether the lack of a file for copper was specific to that workunit, or whether it was because they've missed investigating something relevant to Alzheimer's.

When I searched the files of a Rosetta@home workunit, I found files related to metal-binding proteins for a few metals, NOT including copper.

See the link earlier in this thread to an article saying that the human brain uses a natural prion, which happens to be copper-binding, as its normal method of controlling the level of copper within the brain, and also for preventing Alzheimer's.

Apparantly, no other species does this, which prevents some types of relevant Alzheimer's research.

In other words, copper-binding proteins are relevant to Alzheimer's, so I'd like the Rosetta@home scientists to mention whether the lack of a file for copper was specific to that workunit, or whether it was because they've missed investigating something relevant to Alzheimer's.

we include metal ions in enzyme design calculations since they can play key roles in chemical reactions. for example we recently designed an enzyme that degrades a family of pesticides using a zinc ion. copper is not on the list because so far we haven't designed enzymes that use copper-as noted on this thread it has some toxic properties.

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