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22:12, April 22 Unhealthy amount of sugar found in baby food products of a well-known brand
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17:25, April 22 Scientists found baked goods and lack of sleep to be more dangerous than alcohol
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16:02, April 22 342 cases of measles recorded in Armenia so far in 2024
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The protein GRP78 can help treat multiple viral and bacterial infections, including Ebola
A protein called GRP78 could be a universal therapeutic target for treating human diseases like brain cancer, Ebola, Influenza, Hepatitis and superbug bacteria such as MRSE and MRSA, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University-led pre-clinical study published this month in the Journal of Cellular Physiology.
By using a drug combination of the clinically tested OSU-03012 (AR-12) and FDA approved Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors (Viagra, Cialis) to target GRP78 and related proteins, researchers prevented the replication of a variety of major viruses in infected cells, made antibiotic-resistant bacteria vulnerable to common antibiotics and found evidence that brain cancer stem cells were killed. Data were obtained in multiple brain cancer stem cell types, and using Influenza, Mumps, Measles, Rubella, RSV, CMV, Adenovirus, Coxsakie virus, Chikungunya, Ebola, Hepatitis, E. coli, MRSA, MRSE andN. gonorrhoeae, among others.
“Basically, we’ve got a concept that by attacking GRP78 and related proteins: (a) we hurt cancer cells; (b) we inhibit the ability of viruses to infect and to reproduce; and (c) we are able to kill superbug antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” said the study’s lead investigator, Paul Dent, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at VCU School of Medicine, and Universal Chair for Signal Transduction.
GRP78 is part of a family of proteins called chaperones. The job of a chaperone is to help shape chains of amino acids into proteins and then to keep those proteins active in the correct 3D shape. The OSU/Viagra drug combination attacks GRP78 and other chaperones, thereby killing cancer cells. After learning of the drug combination’s effect on GRP78 in cancer cells, Dent and his team began to target GRP78 for infectious diseases such as viruses and bacteria.
The chaperone proteins are very important in cancer cells or virus infected cells because these cells make extra protein compared to normal / uninfected cells.
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