Signaling intent...

Human cells communicate with one another. They send and receive biochemical messages. They tell one another when things are not right. In the world of biomedicine they are called disease-signalling molecules. Having the human genome at hand has allowed the science community to look and find those molecules that signal disease.

The leukotrienes for example are molecules that give out signals about chronic and degenerative diseases. A study completed in 2004 identified leukotrienes as lipid molecules signalling chronic inflammatory disorders affecting the joints and respiratory systems that are serious health problems with major socio-economic consequences.

The study wanted to describe the biochemical nature of the underlying disease so that earlier diagnosis was possible and new drugs be developed. ‘Our project will be conducted’ they wrote ‘in alliance with industry and has the potential for future extension into medical practise’.

Then there is the Eicosanex Project housed at Sweden’s Karolinski Institute. Here they are looking for the signalling molecules central to cardiovascular disorders, atherosclerosis, dementia and cancer. 14 European and Canadian research groups collaborate with two biotechnology companies to find new drugs.

The research teams are well organised and geared. ‘Each team is specialised in one of the three enzyme systems and their products: COX, LOX and NOS’ they write: ‘The partners will aim to identify new genes involved in the regulation of these three enzymes that can be used to develop new drugs.’.

University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) scientists pinpointed in 2003 small phosphate molecules that bind proteins in cells, allowing them, the authors argues, ‘to send signals and giving organisms a way to adapt to rapidly changing conditions.’ (Bio-Medicine 20 August 2003).

Things go wrong when these molecules do not do their job properly and diabetes, hypertension and many cancers may arise: ‘Mapping their location on proteins should allow researchers to block aberrant binding and treat disease’ Professor Kevan Shokat of the UCFS and the University of California at Berkeley said.

Phosphates in fact are the biochemical language - in a manner of speaking - that allows for cellular communication. On third of all human cells carry phosphates and some proteins have as many as 50 of what is known as phosphate add-ons or phosphorylation. The signals they send are vital to survival for they prompt cellular adaptation.

The human smell apparatus is capable of smelling some diseases, not that we are able to always tell so out of touch are we with our bodies. Usually, we detect some diseases when it is far too late. With their monumentally keen nose, dogs likely detect some human diseases.

In South Africa the field of disease-signalling molecules has a champion in a Professor Tebello Nyokong. She holds a Department of Science & Technology National Research Foundation Professorial Chair in Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

Those in the know can easily see the connection. Some chemicals have medicinal applications and nanotechnology is the art of machines that can work amongst other things on particles invisible to the human eye. Nyokong was awarded the 2009 L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award for Physical Science.

The Award was in recognition of Nyokong’s research on cancer therapies. Janine Jellars of Fair Lady (January 2009 p.23) wrote: ‘Nyokong is also researching photodynamic therapy as a way to fight cancer. Cancer patients are injected with special dyes, which settle on the cancerous tissue. A laser is directed at the tissue and zooms in on the dye.

The dye then generates reactive oxygen, which kills the cancer cells. Unlike traditional therapies such as chemo- and radiotherapy, cancer patients won’t have to deal with hair loss and nausea, but they will have to stay out of the light for several days until the dye has been flushed from their systems.’

Nyokong is working on a new project, which may result in a technology to detect molecules, that signal disease in food, water and bodily fluids. She is especially interested in cancer-signalling agents. What she must get right is a machine that can smell the disease signalling molecules emitted by an ill organism.

If it succeeds it will revolutionise diagnosis in the post-genomics age of molecular medicine. At the cutting edge of modern biology and its medical applications, Nyokong is a worthy appointee to the DST/NRF special chairs created to attract talented scientists working on innovative ideas and projects.