Denmark: acetylation switches offer wealth of potential drug targets

Research lead

A team of researchers led by Matthias Mann of Novo Nordisk Center for Protein Research at Copenhagen University and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, have detected 3,600 acetylation switches in 1,750 different proteins.

These switches, which regulate protein function, may be involved in ageing and the onset and diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

“This is more than just a technological achievement, it has also expanded the number of known acetylation switches by a factor of six, and it gives us for the first time a comprehensive insight into this type of protein modification,” Mann said.

Acetylation switches regulate the activity of proteins and are essential for a cell’s ability to function normally. Defective protein regulation plays a role in ageing and the development of disease.

“With the new mapping, we can now begin to study and describe how acetylation switches respond to medications that could repair the defects on them. It could have a major impact on medical care,” said Mann. Therapies that aim to correct damaged protein regulation are already showing promise in the treatment of cancer.