Magnesium Project - Home Page

Welcome to IPRS's Health Care Initiative, the Magnesium Project

What is The Magnesium Project?

The Magnesium Project models itself after other major scientific endeavors such as The Human Genome Project, The Human Proteome Project and others.  Projects of such scale require the collaboration of many scientists and institutions throughout the world.  The spin-off knowledge, technology and products from such projects has and will continue to be substantial. We believe the Magnesium Project may not be on the same scale as the Human Genome Project for example but it will nonetheless have important spin-offs in the fields of science and medicine.  We believe that some of those spin-offs will come in the form of learning new ways of collaborating, of sharing information, of developing unifying models, and of facilitating technology transfer to commercially viable products and services.

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 (including ion channel proteins) 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 very 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.  Metabolic disorders and immune system malfunctions also have enzymes in their metabolic pathways that are Mg-dependent.  Thus, the implications can be very broad.  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 and integrity of proteins and enzymes.

To learn more about the the various diseases for which Magnesium regulation may play a role click on Diseases.

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 Is This Being Implemented?

Implementation is taking place with the use of dozens of volunteers from across the country.  We are developing multiple web sites to address specific areas and facilitate sharing of information.  A Magnesium Portal.  is one such site that is under development.  Another is a site dedicated to the discovery of and effects of a magnesium regulating hormone, Magnetonin. Gathering, sharing and analyzing large amounts of diverse information will provide the basis for launching new research projects to accelerate the discovery process.  A subscription-based newsletter is also being developed to provide alerts to late-breaking findings and dialogue.

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, develop computer models, conduct research and to support investigators who will mine these databases for new insights and discovery of regulatory pathways for magnesium. 

Contact the Program Director for further details.

Global Initiatives

Please check out our global initiatives also. We have pending proposals for solving a major problem among the health-care-challenged areas of the world; namely Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. These diseases which impact mothers and infants have been demonstrated to be treatable with Mg supplements.  The Mg helps to counter hypertension (high blood pressure) without using expensive calcium-blockers/smooth muscle relaxants.

A related concern is low Mg in the diet and water supplies of persons living in rural areas.  An inexpensive means of determining Mg in diet and drinking water as well as in body fluids is urgently needed to determine medical interventions to lower the incidence of disease related to hypomagnesemia.  IPRS is working on the forefront of solving these important problems.

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© 2002 - 2011 IPRS Inc.
Revised: March 06, 2011