Sanders-Brown Faculty

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Rodney Patrick Guttmann, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Departmental Affiliation(s):

Department of Physiology, Graduate Center for Gerontology

Research Focus:

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that strikes millions of people worldwide. In addition to the presence of plaques and tangles, affected regions of Alzheimer's disease are highly oxidized compared to age-matched controls. Thiol-proteases such as the calpains, caspases and cathepsins are part of a family of oxidant-sensitive enzymes that contribute to the regulation of AD relevant proteins such APP and tau. Recently, we showed that thiol-protease activity in AD brain is oxidatively inhibited but recoverable by addition of thiol reducing agents such as dithiothreitol. Future work is aimed at identifying the responsible oxidants and identifying the range of thiol-proteases that are oxidized. We hypothesize that redox-mediated inhibition of specific thiol-proteases contributes to dysregulation of protein substrates such as tau and APP which may play a role in the formation of AD pathological hallmarks. In addition to our work on AD, we are developing and testing novel peptides as inhibitors of calpain activity in the treatment of a variety of disease states including stroke and heart attack.

IN THE LAB

Qinghua Chen (Ph.D. Senior Research Associate)

Susan Wang (B.S. Research Technician)

Niki Munk (B.S. Graduate Research Assistant)

LAB MISSION

Our mission is to determine the role of thiol-proteases in pathological states and develop potent pharmaceuticals to modulate proteolytic activities to improve survival and functioning of affected cells.

Recent Publications:

For a complete list of Dr. Guttmann's publications, please click the following link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=guttmann%20rp