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University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, September 20, 1989
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New test may advance emphysema treatment
By Travis Butler
Kansan staff writer
A new test being developed by researchers at the Higuchi Bioscience Center on West Campus could help doctors treat emphysema.
Emphysema is a lung disease caused by the breakdown of a particular protein in lung tissue, called elastin, said Susan Lunte, a researcher at the Center for Biosciences at Cedars-Saw Creek. Elastin gives lung tissue its elasticity, which allows the lung to expand and contract.
When elastin is broken down by the disease, it releases an amino acid called desmosem, she said. The test she is working on will detect the presence of desmosome in urine samples.
By measuring the amount of desmosin in a series of urine samples, a doctor can determine the progress of the disease. Lunte said. If the amount increases, the degradation of lung tissue is increasing. If the amount decreases when a new drug is introduced, the drug is working.
Conventional tests for desmose have required an actual tissue sample from the lungs, she said. This is because those tests could detect only a relatively large concentration of desmose. Desmosse is only present in very small amounts in urine samples.
"We want to measure the degree of lung degradation without having to take the lung out." Lunte said.
Osborne Wore, a group leader for Oread Laboratories, said that this
was the kind of work that the Center was created to perform.
"The Center's mission is to develop analytical methods to solve difficult analytical problems," he said.
Oread Labs is a private company started by the Kansas University Endowment Association to bring products developed by University of Oklahoma marketed by Wong has been working with Lunte in developing the new testing method.
Lunte said that desmosine is very difficult to detect by itself, especially when mixed with the similar substances found in some other methods. Lunte and Jong are working on will use a chemical "tag" to make desmosine easier to find.
"The idea is to change the molecule so it can be detected by convention."
Desmosine molecules have four molecule sub-groups, called amine groups, attached to them, Lunte said. The new method adds a regent that forms a bond with these amine groups. The combined substance is easier to detect. The regent was developed by researchers at the University and is being marketed by Oread Labs.
Lunte said that at this time, she had tested the process on tissue samples to get a preliminary test of the process with a simple situation.
She said that she hoped to have something ready to use by the end of next year, but that progress would be in part, so much money the project could get.
Wong said that he had hopes for its potential.
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