VIB researchers connected to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven have discovered an important new mechanism with which cells can detect nutrients. This happens in the same way - and with the same effects - as when cells receive a message from a hormone. This finding can teach us more about how food affects our body; and, furthermore, it can form the basis for new candidate targets for medicines.
Receptors
Every living thing is composed of cells - and, via receptor proteins on their outer surface, cells communicate with each other and with the outside world. Receptors are found on skin cells (pain and pressure receptors, for example) as well as on the cells of other tissues and organs. By binding with certain substances, such as hormones, the receptors pick up signals from outside the cell. They transmit the signal to the interior of the cell, where it can induce all kinds of reactions. Receptors can be stimulated or blocked to evoke or prevent a certain effect. Foreign substances, such as medicines, can also bind to a receptor and cause a particular effect. For some time now, scientists have suspected that cells can also detect the presence of food via one or another receptor - but no one has known how that happens.
Sensing and transporting
In addition to receptors, cells also have transport proteins that can carry nutrients through the cell membrane to the inside of the cell, where they can be put to use. Furthermore so-called 'transceptors' have been discovered that sense and transport food simultaneously.
Now, VIB researcher Griet Van Zeebroeck and her colleagues in Johan Thevelein's group have shown for the first time how one of these transceptors (called Gap1) works. Gap1 transports amino acids (a protein's building blocks) to the inside of a cell. At the same time, via the same mechanisms that cells use to transmit signals from hormones, Gap1 sends the cell a signal that food is present. The transceptor apparently uses the same binding site to recognize the food as it uses to grasp the food for transport.
Yeast vs. humans
This research has been conducted on yeast cells, as yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a micro-organism that is used as a model organism. Yeast cells are surprisingly similar to human cells, but they are easier to cultivate and manipulate. Very often, proteins that are found in yeast - transport proteins and receptors, for example - have similar variants in human cells.
Importance of this research
This research can have important implications for the development of medicines. About half of all medicines are transmitted to cells via receptors, because receptors are located on the cells' exterior surface and are therefore the best targets for medicines. If these newly discovered transceptors are also found in humans, then an unexpected new group of candidate targets for medicines becomes available - offering promising possibilities for the treatment of metabolic diseases.
Relevant scientific publication
This research appears in the authoritative journal Nature chemical biology (Van Zeebroeck et al., Transport and signaling via the amino acid binding site of the yeast Gap1 amino acid transceptor).
Funding
This research has been funded by: VIB, K.U.Leuven and Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid.
This research has been conducted by Griet Van Zeebroeck and colleagues in Johan Thevelein's 'Nutrient Sensing and Signaling in Yeast' research group in VIB's Department of Molecular Microbiology, under the direction of Johan Thevelein.
(For more information, click here)
VIB
VIB is a non-profit research institute in the life sciences. Some 1100 scientists and technicians conduct strategic basic research on the molecular mechanisms that control the functioning of the human body, plants, and micro-organisms. Through a close partnership with four Flemish universities - Ghent University, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the University of Antwerp, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel - and a solid investment program, VIB unites the forces of 65 research groups in a single institute. Their research aims at fundamentally extending the frontiers of our knowledge. Through its technology transfer activities, VIB strives to convert the research results into products for the benefit of consumers and patients. VIB also develops and distributes a broad range of scientifically substantiated information about all aspects of biotechnology. More info at: vib.be.
K.U.Leuven
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, founded in 1425, is one of Europe's oldest universities - offering a wide range of Dutch-language and English-language programs of study. In addition, the K.U.Leuven is an international management research centre with a good balance between fundamental and applied research in a variety of disciplines. The university has over 33,000 students, 10% of whom come from abroad. The university employs more than 17,000 people, about half of whom work in UZ Leuven, the university hospitals. kuleuven.be/english
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