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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 11 2020, @01:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the turning-back-the-hands-of-time dept.

Molecular 'switch' reverses chronic inflammation and aging:

Chronic inflammation, which results when old age, stress or environmental toxins keep the body's immune system in overdrive, can contribute to a variety of devastating diseases, from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to diabetes and cancer.

Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a molecular "switch" that controls the immune machinery responsible for chronic inflammation in the body. The finding, which appears online Feb. 6 in the journal Cell Metabolism, could lead to new ways to halt or even reverse many of these age-related conditions.

[...] In the study, Chen and her team show that a bulky collection of immune proteins called the NLRP3 inflammasome -- responsible for sensing potential threats to the body and launching an inflammation response -- can be essentially switched off by removing a small bit of molecular matter in a process called deacetylation.

Overactivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome has been linked to a variety of chronic conditions, including multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes and dementia. Chen's results suggest that drugs targeted toward deacetylating, or switching off, this NLRP3 inflammasome might help prevent or treat these conditions and possibly age-related degeneration in general.

"This acetylation can serve as a switch," Chen said. "So, when it is acetylated, this inflammasome is on. When it is deacetylated, the inflammasome is off."

[...] "I think this finding has very important implications in treating major human chronic diseases," Chen said. "It's also a timely question to ask, because in the past year, many promising Alzheimer's disease trials ended in failure. One possible explanation is that treatment starts too late, and it has gone to the point of no return. So, I think it's more urgent than ever to understand the reversibility of aging-related conditions and use that knowledge to aid a drug development for aging-related diseases."

Journal Reference:
Ming He, Hou-Hsien Chiang, Hanzhi Luo, Zhifang Zheng, Qi Qiao, Li Wang, Mingdian Tan, Rika Ohkubo, Wei-Chieh Mu, Shimin Zhao, Hao Wu, Danica Chen. An Acetylation Switch of the NLRP3 Inflammasome Regulates Aging-Associated Chronic Inflammation and Insulin Resistance. Cell Metabolism, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.01.009


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:33PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:33PM (#956865)

    Wtf is wrong with you? Did you even read any of the responses to your BS?

    Just stay the fuck away from me.

  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:32PM (4 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:32PM (#956884) Journal

    No, I didn't read "your" responses. I have no fucking idea who you are other than someone who promotes BS that just got a child killed.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:20PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:20PM (#956917)

      Seriously go away, keep your unscientific rage away from us.

      • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:55PM (2 children)

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:55PM (#956928) Journal

        I mean, you can call me angry if you want. After all, I very often am when it comes to ideologies that kill people pointlessly. But believing exactly as you believe very provably led a dumb woman to kill her child. Quite recently.

        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @07:36PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @07:36PM (#956940)

          You posted an anecdote from Facebook about one child dying after unknown dose wand treatment. Only a complete moron would draw the conclusions you do. Stay away from me.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 12 2020, @12:42AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 12 2020, @12:42AM (#957028)

            "Stay away from me."

            Somehow I doubt you have such problems.