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Home Journal Highlights New Antibiofilm Patent Targets Amyloids
New Antibiofilm Patent Targets Amyloids Print E-mail

 

Amyloids are the characteristic proteins in Alzheimer's disease plaques. Peter Lipke of the City University of New York (CUNY) et al. used bioinformatics and in vitro and in vivo studies to show that almost all yeast cell adhesion proteins involved in adherence between yeast cells, to mammalian hosts, and to other surfaces contain amyloid-forming sequences. "These amyloid sequences are important enough that they were selectively preserved, even as other sequences in the proteins evolved around them," says Lipke. The amyloid-driven adherence between yeasts in beer enables easy removal from the brew. But in C. albicans during infection, amyloids constitute part of the structure of antibiotic-resistant colonies and biofilms. Inhibiting amyloid formation might improve anti-fungal therapy, and better control of this might advance brewing and other fermentation reactions. CUNY's Technology Commercialization Office has filed a patent application proposing using anti-amyloid treatments against pathogenic biofilms and biofilms that interfere with industrial processes.

(C. Ramsook, C. Tan, M. C. Garcia, R. Fung, G. Soybelman, R. Henry, A. Litewka, S. O'Meally, H. N. Otoo, R. A. Khalaf, A. M. Dranginis, N. K. Gaur, S. A. Klotz, J. M. Rauceo, C. K. Jue, and P. N. Lipke. 2010. Yeast cell adhesion molecules have functional amyloid-forming sequences. Eukaryot. Cell 9:393-404.)