A protein helps to understand the mechanism of early cell death

Xinhua news agency, London, November 17 (reporter Liu Shilei) researchers from many countries announced that a protein plays a key role in the premature death of healthy cells, while a small molecule inhibitor can prevent the abnormal apoptosis of such cells This result is helpful for the development of new drugs for the treatment of kidney disease, liver disease and other diseases Apoptosis is a natural and active process, but in some cases, such as cancerous tissues, cells will die prematurely through a non apoptotic mechanism, which is called "iron death" in the scientific community Researchers from Cardiff University in the UK, together with their counterparts in Sweden and the United States, published a new study in the British journal Nature Cell Biology They found that healthy cells will also be affected by a similar "iron death" mechanism, and the key to this process is a protein called GPx4 The main function of this protein is to regulate the process of apoptosis If it is removed, cells will die prematurely Based on the findings, the researchers further explored ways to prevent the mechanism from working Using lipomics and large-scale molecular screening, they found that liproxstein-1, a small molecular inhibitor, could prevent the early death of this cell, thus avoiding the tissue damage For example, the researchers found that this kind of ischemic tissue damage often occurs in renal failure, liver disease and cardiovascular disease They found that the inhibitor had obvious effect on mice through animal experiments If we can further verify its effect in human patients, we hope to develop a new drug with this as the treatment target.