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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
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:57PM (1 child)
ikanreed is conflating two things that are dissimilar, this article does not recommend anyone treat the flu aggressively with vitamin C.
Linux Pauling one of the most famous biochemists ever had noticed a correlation, like what you describe here.
I am not sure what you mean by 'electron and ion levels', does that mean energy states? Numerical count?
I do not think it is a coincidence that the one thing you needed on long boat voyages was....small daily doeses of vitamin C. OR EVERYONE WENT NUTS
note: this does not mean you can cure everything with vitamin C, just that it is a core component of health, which this research supports
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @07:40PM
The most important things in a cell are redox potential of various redox pairs (eg glutathione, NADH, NADPH), pH, and various ionic concentrations like Na+, Ca2+, etc.
Morons like Ikanread know nothing about that so can't understand basic phyiology, cell bio, or biochem. All they do is memorize meaningless genetic correlations.