Iron ions can help create drugs, scientists have found

NOVOSIBIRSK, June 6Scientists from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have found that iron ions can help create drugs for severe hereditary mental illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease.
The scientific institute explained that a number of hereditary forms of mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, both well-known (Parkinson's disease, some forms of schizophrenia) and more rare ones, have common features with different symptoms. First of all, these are dysfunctions of proteins involved in communication between neurons that arise for various reasons. Most of these mutations are associated with a violation of the three-dimensional structure of the protein.

“It was possible to establish that iron ions can perform the function of pharmacological chaperones — low-molecular compounds that are involved in correcting potential harm arising from disturbances in proteins due to various mutations,” says the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS.

Chief researcher at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS Alexander Kulikov explained that a normal protein, an enzyme, is constantly exposed to thermal shock from water molecules, which leads to its gradual destruction. This is a normal life cycle, but due to structural disturbances, the resistance of proteins to such influences decreases and they are destroyed much faster. As a result, their content in the body decreases, and they can no longer perform their function in full.
< br />It has already been established that some low-molecular compounds are able to integrate and stabilize the structure of such proteins. This has sparked great interest in such compounds as potential drug candidates, but it is still unclear exactly how they work. Some time ago, employees of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS established that iron ions have similar properties.
«They cannot act as a candidate for the role of a medicine by themselves, since they are very toxic to brain cells. But, due to the fact that iron creates complex compounds with the protein structure, its ions are a convenient model for studying how the chaperone works,» Kulikov noted.
Now, with funds from a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, scientists intend to find out the effect of the stabilizing effects of iron ions and, possibly, other metals or compounds on two enzymes that participate in the metabolism of key brain mediators — serotonin and dopamine. Using their example, we will describe what molecular effects allow us to stabilize the protein structure.