Antioxidants in the (protein) fold

Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School have demonstrated that antioxidants could be used as adjuvants to treat hemophilia A as well as other diseases characterized by misfolded proteins. But the approach likely would not apply to standard hemophilia A treatment, and an antioxidant that is both potent and safe first must be identified.

A key step in protein synthesis is proper folding of the protein within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Previous studies have suggested connections between protein misfolding and oxidative stress on the ER.^1-3 Elucidating the exact relationship between those two events has been challenging because many factors that cause proteins to misfold-such as infection, drug treatments and metabolic disorders-also cause oxidative stress...