DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[johnnyfiber]

We better get some answers....soon...

Nanogen, Inc. (NGEN) Awarded Patents for Biomarkers Associated with Diabetes, Alzheimers Disease
2/28/2007

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nanogen, Inc. (Nasdaq: NGEN), developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that it has been issued four patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for inventions related to diabetes and Alzheimers disease biomarkers. The current patents are the most recent in a series describing biomarkers associated with these diseases.


http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?NewsEntityId=47468

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Nanogen to Collaborate on Diabetes Biomarkers
Nanogen, a developer of advanced diagnostic products, is to collaborate with the Finnish genomics company Oy Jurilab to identify and validate new prognostic markers for type 2 diabetes.

"There are 20 million children and adults living with diabetes in the US, and many of them are undiagnosed until they develop complications," said Howard Birndorf, Nanogen chairman and CEO. "Combining genetic data about risk with early intervention strategies can have a significant impact on reducing disease incidence and severity, and we expect to see extensive demand for prognostic and diagnostic tests, as well as for new effective drugs."

Complications arising from diabetes include heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, and nervous system damage, and constitute a large economic burden on healthcare systems. Global incidence of diabetes has been on the rise, in both developed and developing countries, and is projected to reach 220 million by 2010.

Through the current agreement, Nanogen will gain access to markers identified by Jurilab in genome-wide screens. Certain markers seem to be associated with predisposition to diabetes; others appear to protect against developing the disease.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/506273/nanogen_to_collaborate_on_diabetes_biomarkers/index.html

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The group of researchers from Brown University Medical School analyzed, in the frontal part of the brain, one of the major area affected by Alzheimer's, insulin and insulin receptor function.

The team discovered that the levels of insulin receptors and the brain's ability to respond to insulin decreased as the severity of Alzheimer's increased.

According to the experts, insulin receptors were nearly 80 percent lower than in a normal brain in the most advanced stage of Alzheimer's.

Two abnormal situations related to insulin in Alzheimer's were also found by researchers. The first abnormal situation was that as the disease progressed, levels of insulin dropped. In relation to the second one, experts explained that insulin and its related protein, insulin-related growth factor-I, lose the ability to bind to cell receptors, which creates a resistance to the insulin growth factors, causing the cells to malfunction and die.

For the neuropathologist at Rhode Island Hospital and professor of pathology at Brown University Medical School, Suzanne M. de la Monte, this means that they are able to show that insulin impairment happens early in the disease, as well as they are able to show it is linked to major neurotransmitters responsible for cognition.

“We're able to show it's linked to poor energy metabolism, and it's linked to abnormalities that contribute to the tangles characteristic of advanced Alzheimer's disease. This work ties several concepts together and demonstrates that Alzheimer's disease is quite possibly a Type 3 diabetes”, explains de la Monte, the leader of the research.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Diabetes:-Alzheimers-and-Diabetes-Could-Be-Linked-Diseases;-Part-II&id...

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