This is a stable alternative to human collagen that can one day be used to treat arthritis and other conditions that result from a lack of this protein
"This is the most stable collagen ever prepared," says scientist Ron Raines, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the university who led the research, the results of which were published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
collagen (The entry in Wikipedia) is the most common protein in the human body, and it is the one that forms strong sheet structures and cables inside the body, which support the shape of the skin, internal organs, cartilage and bones, as well as all the tissues that connect them. For decades, doctors have been using collagen derived from cows to treat severe burns and other wounds in humans, despite the risk of tissue rejection, which results from transplanting from one species to another.
In 2006, the aforementioned research team succeeded in synthesizing human collagen in the laboratory, while obtaining collagen fibers that were longer than any that exist in nature. Now, thanks to funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the scientists have taken another step forward in this research path and have created a particularly strong type of collagen that will be able to help millions of people in the future. The lead researcher says that this artificial collagen holds the promise of being used as a treatment for medical conditions such as arthritis, which is caused by the breakdown of natural collagen in the human body - a disease that affects close to fifty million Americans.
In order to prepare the new form of collagen, the research team converted about two-thirds of the normal amino acids of the protein into their less flexible alternatives which stiffened the overall structure of the protein and helped it retain its form. "The breakthrough of this approach was the use of rigid equivalents of the normal amino acids that had structures similar to the folded and active form of the protein," explains the lead researcher.
The artificial collagen is resistant to temperatures considerably higher than those at which the natural protein breaks down. And although it is mostly composed of amino acids that do not exist in nature, X-ray crystallography confirms that the three-dimensional structure of the artificial protein is indistinguishable from the structure of its natural counterpart.
"This highly stable collagen is an expression of the great power of advanced protein chemistry," the researcher notes.
3 תגובות
The future of arthritis treatment is actually stem cells and not collagen injections
On the contrary, collagen should be stable and therefore the fact that they are less flexible is an advantage and not a disadvantage
"In order to prepare the new form of collagen, the research team converted about two-thirds of the normal amino acids of the protein into their less flexible alternatives which hardened the general structure of the protein and helped it to preserve its form"
The fact that they are less flexible is not a disadvantage???