Nice.
I am not surprised and am certain once Atryn becomes "available" many other uses will be found.
AT3 is a serine protease inhibitor (what????). Serine proteases are a class of enzymes (enzymes are proteins which act as fascilitators of biological processes). Serine proteases' principle action is to cleave the peptide chain and break up the amino acid sequence of the targeted protein. There are many types of serine proteases all specific to the function of the body they effect. The most famous SPs are found in the GI tract where there job is to break apart the protiens we eat into digestible form. But SPs function in many many other areas such as in the coagulation cascade, the compliment portion of the immune system, the endrocrine system, and as important signal molecules cytochines, and many new areas that continue to come to light.
AT3 inhibits SPs It is one of the best studied SP inhibitors. The action of AT3 is to bind the serine amino acid of the SP's active site thereby inactivating it. Since this action is targeted to the SPs active site there is an excellent chance AT3 will be effective against a wide variety of SPs.
One area which I think is particularly interesting is "programmed cell death". PCD which has been called "cellular suicide" or more correctly apotosis is seen in fetal development and some clinical states. A great example is apoptosis after stroke or heart attack. In both these conditions the extent of cell death is usually much greater than the amount that can be explained by loss of blood supply. Cells in the involved areas actually secrete cytochines, chemical signals to surrounding cells which trigger a suicidal reaction. The work by Liu, Wang and Aston-Rickardt, FEBS Letters,2004 showed the SP inhibitor 2A inhibited capase independent cell death in PCD indicating SPs play a role in the signaling.
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