{"id":96682,"date":"2016-10-12T11:38:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T15:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=96682"},"modified":"2016-10-12T06:39:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T10:39:44","slug":"autophagy-how-self-cleaning-cells-are-key-to-curing-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2016\/10\/autophagy-how-self-cleaning-cells-are-key-to-curing-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Autophagy: How \u201cSelf-Cleaning\u201d Cells Are Key to Curing Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"
October 12, 2016<\/div>
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By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> \"Autophagy:<\/p>\n

Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi just won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine \u201cfor his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy.\u201d Autophagy, derived from the Greek, literally means \u201cself-eating.\u201d<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

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The cell is the basic building block of all living organisms.<\/p>\n

Understanding how cells work is critical for treating and solving diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Parkinson\u2019s, Alzheimer\u2019s, and others that result from the process of aging.<\/p>\n

Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead discovered in 1961 \u201cthat human cells derived from embryonic tissues could only divide a finite number of times\u201d in culture, according to Jo\u00e3o Pedro de Magalh\u00e3es at Senescense.info..<\/p>\n

This is the \u201cHayflick limit,\u201d also known as cellular or replicative senescence. It\u2019s \u201cthe key dynamic in the process of aging,\u201d as we discussed in the September 6 Wall Street Daily <\/em>issue<\/strong><\/a>, but we\u2019re only scratching the surface of its implications.<\/p>

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Understanding how cells work is critical for treating and solving diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Parkinson\u2019s, Alzheimer\u2019s, and others that result from the process of aging.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We can fix deficiencies \u2014 we can, theoretically, cure death \u2014 by learning to regenerate, repair, and\/or replace them.<\/p>\n

For example, researchers at the University of Melbourne recently grew new corneal cells in a lab culture and then implanted them back into an animal\u2019s eyes \u2014 restoring its sight.<\/p>\n

But fundamental questions such as how a cell \u201cknows\u201d when it\u2019s reached the end of its ability to divide remain open.<\/p>\n

The good news is guys like Professor Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology continue to pursue laboratory work that will help us gain the knowledge we need to overcome disease and death.<\/p>\n

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Ohsumi \u201cfor his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like senescence, autophagy is a natural stress response necessary for the maintenance of cellular stability.<\/p>\n

Autophagy \u2014 derived from the Greek word for \u201cself-eating\u201d \u2014 is the process by which biological cells clean themselves.<\/p>\n

Scientific American\u2019s<\/em> Christine Gorman describes it this way: \u201cAutophagy is the straightforward mechanism by which a cell digests certain large internal structures and semi-permanent proteins in a continual cleanup process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autophagy \u2014 derived from the Greek word for \u201cself-eating\u201d \u2014 is the process by which biological cells clean themselves.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What was probably an evolutionary response to starvation may now hold the key to human health.<\/p>\n

As the Nobel Assembly explained:<\/p>\n

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Thanks to Ohsumi and others following in his footsteps, we now know that autophagy controls important physiological functions where cellular components need to be degraded and recycled. Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components, and is therefore essential for the cellular response to starvation and other types of stress. After infection, autophagy can eliminate invading intracellular bacteria and viruses. Autophagy contributes to embryo development and cell differentiation. Cells also use autophagy to eliminate damaged proteins and organelles, a quality-control mechanism that is critical for counteracting the negative consequences of aging.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ohsumi expanded on work begun by Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve in the early 1960s, who \u201cfirst observed that the cell could destroy its own contents by enclosing it in membranes, forming sack-like vesicles that were transported to a recycling compartment, called the lysosome,<\/em> for degradation.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Duve, who coined the term \u201cautophagy,\u201d won the 1974 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the lysosome.<\/p>\n

More than 30 years later, Ohsumi, using baker\u2019s yeast, isolated the genes essential to autophagy, explaining the process in the yeast context. He later demonstrated how \u201csimilar sophisticated machinery\u201d operates in human cells too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis discoveries,\u201d notes the Nobel Assembly, \u201copened the path to understanding the fundamental importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as in the adaptation to starvation or response to infection. Mutations in autophagy genes can cause disease, and the autophagic process is involved in several conditions including cancer and neurological disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a cell\u2019s self-cleaning mechanism malfunctions, we see the development of diseases such as Parkinson\u2019s and Type 2 diabetes and others related to aging. Mutated autophagy genes are linked to genetic diseases and cancer.<\/p>\n

Researching and creating drugs and therapies based on our emerging understanding of autophagy is one of the hottest areas of biotechnology, though none have yet been developed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tricky balance, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cActivating autophagy is a double-edged sword,\u201d notes Charbel Moussa, assistant professor of neurology at Georgetown University. \u201cOne the one hand, the process clears toxic or infectious materials from cells. On the other hand, if the autophagy process goes beyond \u2018recycling\u2019 and clearing out proteins, it can start to destroy the cell, leading to cell death. \u201cThis means that autophagy must be carefully manipulated to avoid the death of nonrenewable and irreplaceable neurons.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a cell\u2019s self-cleaning mechanism malfunctions, we see the development of diseases such as Parkinson\u2019s and Type 2 diabetes and others related to aging. Mutated autophagy genes are linked to genetic diseases and cancer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moussa writes in the context of developing a treatment for Parkinson\u2019s, a neurological disorder. But autophagy\u2019s duality \u2014 the ability to destroy cellular waste and to create potentially harmful defects \u2014 cuts across a host of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, metabolism disorders, and immune-system disorders, as well.<\/p>\n

Ohsumi is, by his own reckoning, a pretty modest scientist, focused entirely on the work and not the accolade.<\/p>\n

As he told The<\/em> Journal of Cell Biology<\/em> in an interview published April 16, 2012:<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, these days, at least in Japan, young scientists want to get a stable job, so they\u2019re afraid to take risks. Most people decide to work on the most popular field because they think that is the easiest way to get a paper published. But I am just the opposite of that. I am not very competitive, so I always look for a new subject to study, even if it is not so popular. If you start from some sort of basic, new observation, you will have plenty to work on.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That his research could be the foundation upon which cures for cancer or solutions to aging are based is plenty ironic.<\/p>\n

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NBNBC<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s a breaking contrarian play. Illumina Inc.<\/strong> (ILMN) is a $20 billion genetic analysis company, with operations including genetic testing, genetic sequencing, gene editing, and synthetic biology.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also developing a simple blood test to identify cancer in people showing no symptoms.<\/p>\n

Management recently announced that third-quarter revenue was $607 million against prior guidance of $625 million to $630 million and a consensus forecast of $628.2 million.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Illumina management explained: \u201cThe shortfall in quarterly revenue was driven by a larger-than-anticipated year-over-year decline in high-throughput sequencing instruments.\u201d<\/p>\n

So a 3% miss against Wall Street expectations had the stock down 25% at the open yesterday.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty good illustration of the mercurial nature of Mr. Market that one day the stock of a solid company with strong prospects in a rapidly emerging field can be worth $185 and the next day, it\u2019s worth $139.<\/p>\n

Smart Investing,<\/p>\n

David Dittman
\nEditorial Director, Wall Street Daily<\/i><\/p>\n

The post Autophagy: How \u201cSelf-Cleaning\u201d Cells Are Key to Curing Disease<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi just won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine \u201cfor his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy.\u201d Autophagy, derived from the Greek, literally means \u201cself-eating.\u201d The cell is the basic building block of all living organisms. Understanding how cells work is critical for treating and solving diseases such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96701,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96682\/revisions\/96701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}