68 molecules key to understanding critical disease

Why is the origin of many serious diseases still a mystery? To answer that question, a University of California scientist, San Diego School of Medicine, came up with a unified view of an indivisible, cell living unit, to come up with a specific answer.

Referring to findings from various fields, Jamey Marth, a doctoral professor in cell and molecular medicine at UC San Diego, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher, has found that Only 68 molecular structures are used to build 4 basic cellular components: nucleic acid (AND and RNA), protein, polysaccharide and lipid. His research, which illustrates the original composition of all cells, was published in the September issue of Nature Cell Biology.

Like the periodic table of chemical elements, first published in 1869 by Russian chemist Dmitri Men, Marth's image comparison provides a new basis for biologists.

The new illustration defines the basic molecular structures of life: currently consists of 32 polysaccharides (the sugar found in cells) and 8 types of lipids (forming cell membranes) along with 20 amino acid types used to make proteins with 8 nucleosides that form nucleic acids, DNA and RNA.

Illustration of 'molecular building block'.(Photo: University of California - San Diego).

Marth said: '68 this molecular structure provides the basis for molecular placement to form the entire life of a cell. Two of the four cellular components are made up of those structures from the process that genes cannot encode. The two cell components - polysaccharides and lipids - may hold the key to discovering the origins of many dangerous diseases yet to be understood. '

Currently, most medical research focuses on the genome or protein system to find the answer, but those answers are not convincing, perhaps, for certain reasons.

Marth said: 'We have found cases in which pathogenesis of chronic and common diseases is attributed to the change in glycome (collection of polysaccharides), while there are no changes in the genome. or protein system ' . He also acknowledges that, as biomedical researchers ' we need to start cultivating the general knowledge of many disciplines in a formal and serious way so that we can comprehend and make effective most biological mechanisms of health and disease '.

'It is important that no one has ever proposed and done this explicitly,' said Ajit Varki, a professor of molecular and cellular medicine, founder and director of the Center for Research and Leadership. create Glycobiology (polymeric biology) at San Diego medical school, and at the same time editor of the main textbook in this field, The Essentials of Glycobiology. 'Glycobiology is a new piece of research that scientists at UC San Diego have a high level of expertise. Dr. Marth's study illustrated the importance of polysaccharide molecules'.

Marth believes that biology should be more consistent in both pedagogical and research environments. 'I am among those who believe that we do not need to sacrifice so much knowledge to gain depth in understanding'.