June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- AxCell Biosciences Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cytogen Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTO - news), today announced that it had completed the first stage of its proteomics automation. Over the next month, AxCell plans to measure 135,000 protein interactions, with the expectation that the rate would increase to 200,000 per month by mid-summer. The Company also noted that it plans to complete the analysis of two to three protein domain families by the end of the year. The announcements were made this morning at the BioSpan Europe 2000 conference at the SWX Swiss Exchange here.
An important function of proteins is to facilitate cellular communication. Within the cytoplasm of the cell, proteins interact with one another in complex pathways that signal cells to secrete hormones, fire nerve signals, multiply, die, or destroy invading pathogens. Aberrations in the intracellular interactions of proteins with one other are at the heart of the molecular basis for many diseases, such as forms of cancer and diabetes.
``Pathways of protein-protein interactions control cellular function, and defects in these pathways can lead to disease,'' John D. Rodwell, Ph.D., AxCell's acting President and Chief Technical Officer, explained to the gathering of European biotechnology investors. ``Proteins interact by 'physically mating' with each other -- and thereby passing signals on to the next protein in the pathway. Of the approximately one million different proteins in humans, about 300,000 are believed to be involved in intracellular signaling pathways. Examining how all 300,000 signaling proteins might interact with one another would involve measuring some 90 billion interactions -- a Herculean labor. AxCell has found a way to simplify this task.''
``The structures by which proteins 'mate' or interact are called domains and ligands,'' Dr. Rodwell continued. ``Domains are portions of proteins that can accept the smaller ligand within their structure and bind to it. Once you know which domains will interact with which ligands, you can develop rules of interaction for any proteins containing those interactive parts. Domains having similar structures have been classified into families, and given surnames such as WW, PDZ and SH3. We believe that elucidating how these domain families interact with sets of ligands is the shortcut to understanding how proteins interact within cells. Once you have identified protein signaling pathways involved in normal or diseased processes, it is possible to select novel targets for drug intervention within those pathways.''
``There are approximately 140 domain families in the human proteome, and we estimate 30 to 60 families are involved in signaling pathways,'' Dr. Rodwell stated. ``Despite their importance in understanding cellular function, no domain family has ever been fully characterized. So far, we have seen that the number of domain family members can vary from less than 100 to greater than 200. AxCell's high throughput technology is beginning to prove itself, and we believe that we can completely chart human protein signaling interactions in two to four years. By completing the measurement of the first one million interactions -- including charting two to three domain families -- this year, we believe that our database will have reached a sufficient critical mass for marketing in early 2001. We believe that the WW domain will be the first family that we will fully characterize.'' |
