Magnesium Portal
Welcome to IPRS's Health Care Initiative, the Magnesium Portal.
Who is IPRS and what is the Objective?
Innovative Products Research & Services, Inc. (IPRS) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) research and education foundation that has the experience and program in place to exploit the current unique intersection of disciplines of biology, chemistry, medicine, mathematics and computer technologies. The IPRS team has experience in dealing with technology development and commercialization. Dr. Job, our Chief Scientist, has experience in biological research and using computer technologies to further develop our understanding of disease processes and treatments. He has developed a network of collaborators to assist in developing models for biological systems to cut short the pathway of new drug discovery. We have identified a significant opportunity in furthering our understanding of the role of cations in metabolism and homeostasis. Homeostasis is that collection of interdependent reactions and systems that make the difference between being healthy, pain free and feeling good or being run-down, ailing or suffering from acute illnesses, pain and vulnerable to infections. The level of magnesium ions is critical to dozens of enzymatic reactions in the body and is known to be involved in many diseases, yet its regulation and regulating entities are not well known.
What is a portal?
A portal is the term for a web site that serves as a place through which one can reach many web-sites dealing with a given topic. It often is more than just a means of gathering static information, but rather also offers dynamic exchange of information and dynamic updating of knowledge in a particular domain. We expect to expand the information sharing capability and collaborative research features in the near future.
Why Magnesium?
Magnesium in its ionic form is one of the essential electrolytes in all life forms. It plays a key role in membrane integrity, in cross-membrane transport systems and in stability of numerous enzymes and biochemical compounds. To date we know that there are hormones or other regulatory chemicals responsible for influencing the update, discharge and activity of the other primary cationic electrolytes in the body, sodium, potassium and calcium. However, there has been relatively little effort to identify an equivalent hormone playing such a role in magnesium utilization. We have coined the term Magnetonin for this missing hormone.
What is the Potential Implication?
Muscle and nerve membranes, so-called excitable tissues are the most likely to be impacted by inadequate regulation of magnesium. There are many nerve and muscle diseases that could be treated by the yet to be discovered Magnetonin. Diseases such as muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers, Parkinson's, et al. are all based on nerve or muscle function. The regulation of cell division may also be susceptible to magnesium metabolism deficiencies thus opening up the possibility of an underlying link with cancer. Many publications will be added to our database along with references to other publications dealing with the importance of magnesium in transport of materials across membranes, transport of materials within cells, the integrity of proteins and enzymes and even the facilitation of RNA transcription.
In addition to developing a better understanding of magnesium regulation and the role of ionic magnesium in normal cell functions in general, we expect to develop analytical and collaborative tools that will accelerate the discovery and commercialization of new treatments in other areas of research as well.
How Can I Get Involved?
Sharing of information is a vital part of our program. However, beyond that, we need to develop models and means to test hypotheses in the laboratory and in large populations. We need to develop better tools to measure ionic magnesium levels in tissues in real time. We need software tools to analyze large amounts of data collected in many different forms and formats. We need scientists in academic, government and commercial laboratories to isolate and identify new molecules and we need pharmaceutical firms to provide scale up of production of new compounds and to sponsor clinical studies to achieve regulatory approvals for distribution. As part of this effort we will also need clinicians to participate in studies and report findings.
The general public can become involved by participating in studies and sharing medical records and other profile information that will allow us to find novel patterns of correlating abnormalities in magnesium regulation (such as under or over-production of magnetonin or its antagonists and agonists) to the occurrence of various diseases.
We also need financial support to maintain the growing databases and to support investigators who will mine these databases for new insights and discovery of regulatory pathways for magnesium.
Become a part of our support base to receive advance notices of breakthroughs and other developments.
Contact the Program Director for further details.
© 2002 - 2024 IPRS Inc.
Revised:
February 17, 2024