The research interest of Professor Ann Kato and her team at the Université de Genève in Switzerland is principally focused on ALS, in which there is a progressive paralysis caused by the destruction of motor neurons that exist in both the brain and spinal cord.

These cells are responsible for the movements of the upper and lower limbs; their elimination causes muscular atrophy and finally death.

During the last 3 years, Professor Kato's experiments aim at trying to understand why these neurons die and studying the intracellular and molecular pathways which might prevent their degeneration.

It was during the course of their experiments to attempt to prolong the survival of the cells that the group found that a newly-discovered family of proteins called Inhibitors of Apoptosis Proteins (IAP's) were capable of preventing the death of motor neurons.

The results of these experiments show that if these particular proteins can be increased inside motor neurons, it is possible to prevent their degeneration.

This discovery opens the way for promising new therapeutic perspectives in both gene therapy for diseases of neuronal degeneration and also in the pharmacology, where a search for new small molecular weight substances might increase the production of IAP family members, or unearth substances which can play the same role as the IAP's in the brain and spinal cord.

The discovery will not only encourage but also accelerate clinical and genetic research in this disease, but also in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

(Reference: Nature Cell Biology, February 2002, vol. 4, pp. 175-179.)

[Contact: Ann C. Kato Ph. D. ]

28-Jan-2002