{"id":64,"date":"2015-10-07T20:28:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T20:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/?p=64"},"modified":"2015-11-18T14:55:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T14:55:12","slug":"seeking-a-cure-tracking-molecular-clues-to-als","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/seeking-a-cure-tracking-molecular-clues-to-als\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking a Cure: Tracking Molecular Clues to ALS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oleh<\/a>
Oleh Khalimonchuk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oleh Khalimonchuk took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. But the UNL biochemist is doing much more to fight the devastating neuromuscular disease than taking a freezing shower for charity.<\/p>\n

He and his team are investigating a promising lead on one of the causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and other degenerative diseases, with a nearly $1.4 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. Their research may lead to effective therapies to fight these currently incurable, age-related diseases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find a cure,\u201d said Khalimonchuk, a member of UNL\u2019s Redox Biology Center<\/a>. \u201cALS is a devastating neurological disorder, so this is of really high significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers now believe ALS develops in the mitochondria, a cell\u2019s power supply center. In generating energy, mitochondria create toxic free radical molecules that are mostly neutralized. Some of these molecules slip through, however, and cause damage that accumulates over time.<\/p>\n

Eventually, free radicals can disrupt mitochondrial function, leading to degenerative muscular and brain diseases, such as ALS, Parkinson\u2019s and Alzheimer\u2019s. To prevent that from happening, mitochondria have a quality control system that\u2019s not well understood, but seems to malfunction in some people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is whole new territory,\u201d Khalimonchuk said. \u201cThere\u2019s more and more appreciation toward the mitochondria being the culprit in lots of these aging-related degenerative diseases. We\u2019re trying to understand how mitochondrial welfare is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

His team was one of the first to link a mutation in the protein Oma1 to ALS. Now they\u2019re exploring the protein\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve learned, for example, that Oma1, which is dormant under normal conditions, activates during toxic stress and promotes a series of survival responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making good progress,\u201d Khalimonchuk said. \u201cUnderstanding this at the molecular level will help us to develop efficient treatment strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funded by NIH\u2019s Institute for General Medicine, this research has implications for understanding and funding therapies for other diseases, such as certain cancers, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNL biochemists are investigating a promising lead on one of the causes of ALS, a devastating neuromuscular disorder, and other degenerative diseases. This research may lead to effective therapies to fight these currently incurable, age-related diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[95,97,94,69,96,146],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ored-home","category-stories","tag-amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis","tag-biochemistry","tag-national-institute-for-general-medicine","tag-national-institutes-of-health","tag-oleh-khalimonchuk","tag-redox-biology-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}