The immune system uses its mitochondria to self-stimulate innate and adaptive responses against infection. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), immunogenic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and even whole mitochondria are mobilized locally in a delicate balance, generating hotspots of inflammatory action. When the normally limiting feedback of these processes is disrupted, detrimental autoimmune responses often arise. A common sign of an abnormal immune system is the presence of antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) in…
New Method to Predict Protein-Environment Interactions
It is well-known that proteins are the cornerstone of life and play a key role in all biological processes. Therefore, understanding how they interact with the environment is critical to developing effective treatments and designing the basis for artificial cells. Recently, the Protein Design and Immune Engineering Laboratory (LPDI) of the Institute of Bioengineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), in collaboration with the Institute of Computational Science…
New Study Reveals Mechanism by Which Lactose Promotes Graft-versus-host Disease
Gut microorganisms play an important role in intestinal nutrition absorption, body metabolism, immune development, and resistance to pathogens. Imbalance of intestinal microecology can not only cause gastrointestinal related diseases such as indigestion, diarrhea, necrotic colitis (NE), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); metabolic diseases (obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and cirrhosis, etc.); clostridium difficile infections; acute pancreatitis; allergic asthma; cardiovascular diseases (such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and heart…
Key Proteins to Fight Aging Found
In the face of current demographic changes, aging is a serious public health problem: by 2050, the proportion of the global population aged 60 years and over will almost double. Recently, researchers in the Department of Development and Stem Cell Biology of the Pasteur Institute have identified key proteins related to aging and clarified the mechanism of aging, which may help to delay the aging process in humans. Currently,…
Mechanism of Human Immune Dysregulation Induced by Roquin-1 Protein Mutation Unveiled
Recently, researchers from Ghent University Hospital in Belgium published an article entitled “A human immune dysfunction syndrome characterized by severe hyperinflammation with a homozygous nonsense roquin-1 mutation” in Nature Communications. By studying a case of the hyperinflammatory syndrome with a homozygous nonsense mutation in Roquin-1, they discovered the mechanism of human immune dysregulation triggered by mutations in Roquin-1 protein, which may provide a new approach for the diagnosis and treatment…
Protein Scaffolds Found to Play a Key Role in Repairing DNA Breaks
Recently, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have discovered how certain types of proteins keep damaged DNA stable, thereby preserving its function and integrity. The new findings also explain why people with congenital or acquired defects in certain proteins cannot keep their DNA stable and develop diseases such as cancer. The results were recently published in Nature under the title “Stabilization of Chromatin Topology safeguards genome integrity”. …
Key Protective Proteins Affect the Prognosis of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Isolated Recently
Recently, scientists at Trinity College Dublin have identified for the first time a family of proteins that may be directly linked to lower blood sugar levels in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. The results of this study show that patients with type 2 diabetes who have higher levels of IL-36 cytokines tend to have lower blood glucose levels, suggesting that these proteins (IL-36) may better control blood glucose levels…
RGS4 Found to Maintain Chronic Pain Symptoms in Rodent Models
In a recent study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, scientists from Mount Sinai Hospital have discovered that a specific protein called RGS4 (Regulator of G protein signaling 4) may play an important role in maintaining the body’s long-term chronic pain state, which may serve as a novel potential target to help develop new therapies for human chronic pain and other diseases. The study findings or can help clinicians…
E-cadherin Found to Be an Essential Protein for Metastasis of Various Breast Cancers
Metastasis is a major cause of death in cancer patients. According to the inverse relationship between migration and E-cadherin levels in vitro, it has been proposed that invasion and metastasis of the surrounding tissues begin after the loss of the intercellular adhesion protein E-cadherin. However, this hypothesis is inconsistent with the observation that the majority of breast cancers are invasive ductal carcinomas and express E-cadherin in the primary tumor and…
TDP-43 and Paraspeckle: Key Factor to Determine Stem Cells Differentiated or Remain Pluripotent
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) can be transformed into any cells in the body or maintain their original form. In a new study, researchers from research institutions such as the Helmholtz Center in Germany described how cells decide which of these two directions to choose. In their research, they identified a protein and a ribonucleic acid (RNA) that played a very important role in this process. Their findings also…