In this week’s issue of PNAS, Brandeis postdoc Jared Auclair and Chemistry grad student Kristin Boggio, together with Professors Greg Petsko, Dagmar Ringe, and Jeffrey Agar discuss Strategies for stabilizing superoxide dismutase (SOD1), the protein destabilized in the most common form of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Working from the hypothesis that the mechanism of the toxicity involves dimer destabilization and dissociation as an early step in SOD1 aggregation, they looked for mechanisms to stabilize SOD1 using chemical cross-linking. Cross-linking the dimer using 2 adjacent cysteine residues results in substantial stabilization of relevant SOD1 mutants.

A "Chemical rope" stabilizes SOD1 protein. Mutations that destabilize SOD1 in motor neurons are associated with familial ALS

Read more about Prof. Agar, this research, and its potential for this technique in the treatment of ALS at Brandeis NOW