Syngene’s Dymension, which is software for the analysis of 2D protein gels, is being used at the Open Mind Institute (OMI) in Slovenia, a new centre for studying the effects of medicinal plants, to determine the effects the anti-addictive alkaloid, ibogaine have on the brain.
Researchers in the OMI in collaboration with scientists at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia are using Dymension to accurately determine any post ibogaine treatment differences in silver stained rat brain proteins run on 2D gels.
The protein profiles are used to establish which proteins are up or down-regulated. This research could lead to a better understanding of the pharmacodynamics of anti-addiction therapies.
Dr Roman Paškulin, director of the OMI, said: ‘We are relatively new to proteomic analysis so we chose to install Dymension software, because we want to rapidly perform complicated analysis, and of the software packages we reviewed, this was visually easier to navigate and simpler for everyone to use.
‘Using Dymension to analyse our 2D gel images in association with MALDI-TOF on the resulting protein spots, we have seen increases in four metabolic enzymes after ibogaine treatment and are now looking at the significance of these findings.’
