Learn about diabetes at the molecular level

US and Japanese researchers have identified a protein called Akt that plays an important role in metabolic processes involving diabetes and cancer. Research on the role of complex protein TORC 2 in activating another protein called Akt has been published online in the journal Current Biology, published on October 28, 2010.

Illustration. (Internet source)

The complex protein TORC 2 activated another protein called Akt . Akt protein plays an important role in how cells react to insulin, according to Kazuo Shiozaki, a professor of microbiology at the University of Natural Sciences at UC Davis, USA and the lead author of the paper.

Normally, insulin activates fat and muscle cells to get sugar from the blood. The body of people with type II diabetes still produces large amounts of insulin in the blood, but their cells do not respond to insulin properly. Akt protein plays a role in a series of contact steps between insulin and sugar absorption, moreover, Akt protein acts as the determinant of how proteins absorb blood sugar to move to the surface. cell. The experiment showed that mice lacking Akt genes had symptoms of developing diabetes.

" We know that Akt protein is an important agent in the treatment of diabetes, so we are focusing on studying it ," Shiozaki said.

Akt protein also controls cell growth in the early stages and can promote cancer cell growth, Shiozaki added.

' Since TORC 2 protein was first identified in 2005 as a regulator of Akt protein, researchers have been trying to determine how it is activated , ' Shiozaki said.

Shiozaki and colleagues Hisashi Tatebe, Susumu Morigasaki, Shinichi Murayama and Cui Tracy Zeng studied TORC 2 protein in yeast. They found that a protein called Ryh1 , when bound to another molecule called guanosine triphosphate , is needed to activate TORC protein. 2. The Ryh1 protein is more sensitive to temperature or other stressful conditions.

Ryh1 protein is very similar to a human Rab6 protein. The researchers found that Rab6 protein to some extent replaced yeast Ryh1 as a regulator of the TORC 2 protein in the faulty yeast strain. Rab6 protein may play a dual role in insulin signaling, according to Shiozaki.

" We found that the first and last steps in the insulin reaction chain are closely related ," according to Shiozaki.