FSU researcher's discovery leads to $1.5 million grant, potential new treatment of live...(e normal wound healing resulting from th...)
e normal wound healing resulting from the body's efforts to repair injured tissue.
"We had evidence of its existence, but we didn't have the protein," Stefanovic said. "We had been looking for this particular protein for several years until we used some very sophisticated methods of cloning. When I saw the results of the binding of the protein to our target I knew immediately we had found the right one.''
Stefanovic said he doesn't believe there will ever be a cure for liver fibrosis but that research and development will one day lead physicians to be able to slow down the progress of the disease.
"At least if we slow down the chronic process, instead of dying in five years the patient will live 15 years or more,'' he said.
"The goal is to suppress excessive collagen synthesis. In order to do that we have to know the molecular mechanisms that regulate manufacture of the protein and then see what has gone wrong when the liver is creating excess collagen.
"Then we will be able to find specific points in this process where we can intervene, by designing either a drug of some kind or a therapeutic agent that will allow us to block these key points and slow down the scarring. Cloning of this protein is a major step toward this goal."
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| Contact: Doug Carlson doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu 850-645-1255 Florida State University Source:Eurekalert |
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