Marine biomedicine researchers decode structure of promising se...(ers (16 to 33 feet) depth from Hoia Bay....)

Date:8/28/2009

ers (16 to 33 feet) depth from Hoia Bay. Extractions of this sample were shown to have intriguing neurochemical properties in assays run at Creighton University's School of Medicine. Gerwick and Murray's laboratories then collaborated to isolate the neuroactive substance and characterize its extraordinarily complex chemical structure.

"Classically, what we know about the workings of the human nervous system has come largely from studies of different toxins on the function of model systems, such as in this case, the action of hoiamide A on nerve cells in petri dish cultures," said Gerwick. "The toxins serve as 'molecular tools' for manipulating cells at an extremely microscopic scale. Ultimately, by understanding how neurons work at this detailed level, and having a set of tools such as hoiamide A, we can envision the development of new, more effective treatments for such diverse conditions as epilepsy, pain control and memory and cognition enhancement. The natural world still has many valuable molecules left for us to discover and hopefully develop into new classes of medicines."

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Contact: Mario Aguilera or Annie Reisewitz scrippsnews@ucsd.edu 858-534-3624 University of California - San Diego Source:Eurekalert

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