To fight CANCER and also other human diseases that are caused by low levels of oxygen within our body...
Bridge the gap with LIMD1
A new family of proteins which regulate the human body's "hypoxic response" to low levels of oxygen has been discovered. The discovery has been published in the international journal Nature Cell Biology.
Proteins are biochemical compounds which carry out specific duties within the living cell. Every cell in our body has the ability to recognise and respond to changes in the availability of oxygen. The cells recognise the decrease in oxygen via the bloodstream and are able to react, using the 'hypoxic response', to produce a protein. This protein in turn stimulates the body to produce more red blood cells to absorb as much of the reduced levels of oxygen as possible. This response is essential for a normal healthy physiology.
But when the hypoxic response in cells malfunctions, diseases like cancer can develop and spread. Cancer cells have a faulty hypoxic response which means that as the cells multiply they highjack the response to create their own rogue blood supply. In this way the cells can form large tumours. The new blood supply also helps the cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, called 'metastasis', which is how ultimately cancer kills patients.
The scientists have identified a new family of hypoxic regulator proteins called 'LIM domain containing proteins' which function as molecular scaffolds or 'adapters' bringing together or bridging two key enzymes (PHD2 and VHL) in the hypoxic response pathway. They say that both of these are involved in down-regulating the master regulator protein called hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF1) and the research has shown that loss of LIMD1 breaks down the bridge it creates between PHD2 and VHL and this then enables the master regulator to function out of control and thus contribute to cancer formation.
The article says that...these findings will help researchers develop better drugs to fight cancer and also other human diseases that are caused by low levels of oxygen within our body such as anemia, myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.
This study was conducted by scientists at Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary, University of London and The University of Nottingham.
Bridge the gap with LIMD1
A new family of proteins which regulate the human body's "hypoxic response" to low levels of oxygen has been discovered. The discovery has been published in the international journal Nature Cell Biology.
Proteins are biochemical compounds which carry out specific duties within the living cell. Every cell in our body has the ability to recognise and respond to changes in the availability of oxygen. The cells recognise the decrease in oxygen via the bloodstream and are able to react, using the 'hypoxic response', to produce a protein. This protein in turn stimulates the body to produce more red blood cells to absorb as much of the reduced levels of oxygen as possible. This response is essential for a normal healthy physiology.
But when the hypoxic response in cells malfunctions, diseases like cancer can develop and spread. Cancer cells have a faulty hypoxic response which means that as the cells multiply they highjack the response to create their own rogue blood supply. In this way the cells can form large tumours. The new blood supply also helps the cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, called 'metastasis', which is how ultimately cancer kills patients.
The scientists have identified a new family of hypoxic regulator proteins called 'LIM domain containing proteins' which function as molecular scaffolds or 'adapters' bringing together or bridging two key enzymes (PHD2 and VHL) in the hypoxic response pathway. They say that both of these are involved in down-regulating the master regulator protein called hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF1) and the research has shown that loss of LIMD1 breaks down the bridge it creates between PHD2 and VHL and this then enables the master regulator to function out of control and thus contribute to cancer formation.
The article says that...these findings will help researchers develop better drugs to fight cancer and also other human diseases that are caused by low levels of oxygen within our body such as anemia, myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.
This study was conducted by scientists at Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary, University of London and The University of Nottingham.
