SCI Rep: to clarify the key role of special protein - polycystin-2 in cell survival

February 13, 2020 / biogenic Valley bio on / -- a special protein named polycystin-2 exists in every cell of the body, but up to now, researchers don't know what the significance of its existence is Recently, an international journal published in scientific reports In the previous research report, scientists from Yale University and other institutions revealed the molecular mechanism of the protection of polycystin-2 against cell death through research, which may make the protein become a special target to help develop new therapies for a variety of human diseases, including liver and kidney diseases, cerebral aneurysm, heart disease and cancer Source: Yale University There are more than 6 million proteins in the human body Scientists have been studying the key role of these proteins Taking polycystic protein-2 as an example, the researchers focused on analyzing the key role of the protein in the pathogenesis of polycystic kidney disease When the protein mutates, it will induce disease, and the main feature of polycystic kidney disease is that the kidney appears larger Fluid filled cysts, which can lead to renal failure, and patients need a kidney transplant; researcher Barbara Ehrlich said that at present, no one knows any function of polycystin-2, unless it mutates, the researchers found that in many types of tissues (including kidney, liver and other organs), the increase of the level of polycystin-2 will respond to the disease driven cell pressure, when the polycystin-2 is removed from the tissues, the cells will become sensitive to the pressure and prone to occur Cell death, in short, polycystin-2 plays a very important role in cell survival Many diseases involve abnormal cell responses to stress and increased cell death In this study, the researchers studied the levels of polycystin-2 in cells of the body in a variety of situations, including the human kidney after acute renal injury, the liver of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver, the human heart after heart attack, and the human brain after epilepsy In all cases, the rise of the level of polycystin-2 will respond to the disease-related Cell pressure The results of this study are very important, which is expected to help researchers understand the key role of the protein and how to target the protein to treat a variety of human diseases According to researcher Ehrlich, we want to reveal the changes of cells when the level of polycystin-2 increases One component of the pathway related to the protein may be the ideal target for designing new drugs In some cases, these diseases sometimes have no potential treatment options For example, the current treatment of polycystic kidney disease will bring serious problems to patients Diuretic side effects, and patients need to eat more than two gallons of water per day As the level of PCP2 increases in all tissues, further research is needed to clarify its key role Original source: Brill, A.L., Fischer, T.T., Walters, J.M et al Polycystin 2 is increased in release to protect against stress induced cell death SCI rep 10, 386 (2020) Doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-57286-x