Decoding mitochondrial health, DNA variants of ubiquitin E3 ligases, and AI-predicted protein structures to determine predisposition to neurodegenerative disease and guide targeted therapies.
At Myto Health, we are particularly focused on your mitochondrial health. Mitochondria are organelles found in most cells within the body; however, they are most abundant in muscle cells and neurons.
Therefore, healthy mitochondria are essential for optimal functioning cells, muscle movement, and brain function. In many diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, the mitochondria are damaged. In these cases, key proteins responsible for maintaining mitochondrial health (such as ubiquitin E3 ligases) may have mutations that make the enzyme non-functional.
Mitochondria are responsible for producing more than 90% of your body’s energy. Any structural defect in mitochondrial quality control compromises cellular survival.
Genetic testing will allow us to determine if you have any DNA mutations/variants that can potentially put your mitochondrial health at risk. If so, you may be predisposed to Parkinson’s disease or other neurodegenerative disorders. Myto Health will establish a data bank to store confidential DNA sequencing data of E3 ligases.
Variants of E3 ligases will be used to express and purify mutated ligases or variants for biochemical characterization.
Biochemical activity of the mutated ligase will be correlated directly with structural models of the proteins.
Knowledge about the structure and function will not only help design better PD drugs but act as a repository for AI interrogation models.
In biology, there is a core concept that “structure determines function.” All proteins in the body have a particular structure, and those specific structures allow the molecules to perform a particular function.
Mitochondrial health is regulated by ubiquitin ligases and its quality control mechanism for initiating the degradation of damaged mitochondria. If you have mutations or uncommon variants of ubiquitin ligase, the efficacy/function of degrading damaged mitochondria may be decreased due to structural changes.
This decrease in activity has been associated with diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and many more. This process is tightly controlled by E3 ligases and deubiquitinases of the ubiquitin proteasome system. Compounds that induce mitophagy can improve mitochondrial health and promote healthy aging.
Myto Health has developed an AI-assisted algorithm to predict the structure and subsequent function of your proteins responsible for mitochondrial health.
Our AI has been trained and refined by learning from thousands of genetic variants found in the human population. By simply sequencing your DNA, we will be able to predict whether your mutations and variants of these key proteins put your health at risk.
Thus, genetic screening gives a personalized insight into your health, allowing you to make better medical decisions and act more effectively while helping clinicians select a patient population that responds to UPS mitochondrial targeting therapies.
Explore partnership opportunities around E3 ligase variant modeling and personalized patient selection.
