The p53 protein protects our cells from cancer and is an interesting target for treatments. The problem is, however, that it decomposes rapidly in the cell. But the spider web could come to the rescue, Noi.md reports descopera.ro.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now found an unusual way to stabilize the protein and make it stronger. Adding to p53 a protein found in spider webthey show that it is possible to create a protein that is more stable and able to kill cancer cells.
The study is published in magazine Structure.
P53 plays a key role in defending the body against cancer, part of which is due to the discovery and prevention of genetic mutations that can lead to cancer. If a cell lacks functional p53, it quickly becomes a cancer cell that begins to divide uncontrollably. Therefore, researchers around the world are trying to develop treatments for cancer that target the p53 protein in one way or another.
“The problem is that cells produce only small amounts of p53 and then break it down quickly, because it’s a very large and disordered protein,” says researcher Michael Landreh.
“We were inspired by how nature creates stable proteins, and we used spider web protein to stabilize p53. The canvas is made of long, very stable protein chains and is one of nature’s most powerful polymers, ”continued Landreh.
In a collaborative project with Jan Johansson and Anna Rising, among others, the researchers attached a small section of a synthetic spider web protein to human p53 protein. When they then introduced it into the cells, they discovered that the cells began to produce it in large quantities.
The new protein has also been shown to be more stable than regular p53 and able to kill cancer cells. Using electron microscopy, computer simulations, and mass spectrometry, they were able to show that the probable reason was how the spider’s web part managed to give the structure of the disordered sections of p53.
New studies follow to complete this finding
Researchers now plan to study the structure of the protein in detail and how its various parts interact to prevent cancer. They also hope to find out how the cells of the powerful new p53 protein are affected and how well it tolerates its spider web component, he writes. Science Daily.
“Creating a more stable variant of p53 in cells is a promising approach to cancer therapy, and now we have a tool for it that is worth exploring,” says Professor Sir David Lane.
“We hope to eventually develop a vaccine against mRNA cancer, but before we do that we need to know how the protein is handled in the cells and whether large amounts of it can be toxic,” he said.
Sir David Lane was one of the discoverers of the p53 protein in the late 1970s. P53 was named the guardian of the genome because it can stop the transformation of cells with damaged DNA into cancer cells. Mutations in the p53 gene are found in about half of all cancerous tumors, making it the most common genetic modification in cancer.
–
