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Scientists announced a new imaging technique that allows the viewing of a wide range of protein motions on a real-time basis. This could lead to breakthroughs in the studies of biological functions and structures of proteins in the human body, which in turn, could open up new possibilities in drug development.

``The technique allows the viewing of protein motion in water, which is how more than 70 percent of proteins in the human body exist, and recording video-images of the changes also becomes possible,'' said Ihee Hyot-cherl, a researcher at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and one of the co-authors of the study.

``This could vastly improve the understanding of the way proteins work, which could contribute to improving drug-making processes. Aside from detecting proteins, the technique could also be used for researching nano-materials, making it useful in both biotechnology and nano-technology,'' he said.

The study, titled ``Tracking the Structural Dynamics of Proteins in Solution Using Time-Resolved Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering,'' will be published in the October edition of the peer journal, Nature Methods.

Proteins are basically considered the essence of life, participating in every cellular process in living organisms, including absorbing oxygen, digesting food and producing electrochemical signals that enable thinking.

Proteins carry out their biological functions by altering their structures, with motions ranging from subtle to substantial and slow to very fast. Thus, the study of protein structure, which is key to understanding the way they work, is one of the most important frontiers in modern science.

Various methods have been used for monitoring the changes in protein structures, with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography most conventionally used.

Although NMR and X-ray crystallography are effective for looking at the overall three-dimensional structures of proteins, both have limited ability in detecting very fast motions.

Other methods, such as optical spectroscopy, are very good at detecting fast changes, but do not yield much information about the three-dimensional protein structure.

The researchers led by Ihee and Marco Cammarata of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) focused on developing an alternative technology of time-resolved wide-angle X-ray scattering (TR-WAXS). This allowed them to monitor very fast, nanosecond-scale protein movements in the context of the three-dimensional structure, Ihee said.

The researchers successfully used TR-WAXS to track the rapid structural changes occurring in human hemoglobin, the well-known oxygen-transport protein, in nearly physiological conditions.

Advancement in the understanding of protein structures could eventually allow drug companies to develop drugs that specifically target certain proteins.

[Via www.koreatimes.co.kr]