SAB, a Candidate for Human Degenerative Disease and Therapeutic Sensitivity in Cancer – IP 1315

FIU inventors have discovered a method for detectingdegenerative diseases in humans without a focus on blood factors and, instead,using protein SAB (or SH3BP5). SAB is a scaffold protein that coordinatessignaling components on the outer mitochondrial membrane, which can driveprocesses such as mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death. Using SAB as abiomarker to organize signaling components and destabilize the integrity of themitochondrial membrane potential reduces metabolic efficiency and recruitsdeath inducing proteins to the mitochondrial surface. Current clinical screensfor degenerative diseases exist at the genetic level. However, using a proteinmarker in the blood or tissue for the same purpose would be faster, lessexpensive, and in the case of cancer susceptibility to treatment, using SAB could be an earlier biomarker than those previously used. Anne Laure Schmitt Olivier aschmitt@fiu.edu 305-348-5948