{"id":133900,"date":"2022-01-11T11:22:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T19:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/scientists-uncover-new-information-about-cellular-death-process-previously-thought-to-be-irreversible"},"modified":"2022-01-11T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T19:22:17","slug":"scientists-uncover-new-information-about-cellular-death-process-previously-thought-to-be-irreversible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/scientists-uncover-new-information-about-cellular-death-process-previously-thought-to-be-irreversible","title":{"rendered":"Scientists uncover new information about cellular death process, previously thought to be irreversible"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A study published by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago describes a new method for analyzing pyroptosis\u2013the process of cell death that is usually caused by infections and results in excess inflammation in the body\u2013and shows that process, long thought to be irreversible once initiated, can in fact be halted and controlled.<\/p>\n

The discovery, which is reported in Nature Communications, means that scientists have a new way to study diseases that are related to malfunctioning cell death processes, like some cancers, and infections that can be complicated by out-of-control inflammation caused by the process. These infections include sepsis, for example, and acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is among the major complications of COVID-19 illness.<\/p>\n

Pyroptosis is a series of biochemical reactions that uses gasdermin, a protein, to open large pores in the cell membrane and destabilize the cell. To understand more about this process, the UIC researchers designed an \u201coptogenetic\u201d gasdermin by genetically engineering the protein to respond to light.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cell death process plays an important role in the body, in both healthy states and unhealthy ones, but studying pyroptosis\u2013which is a major type of cell death\u2013has been challenging,\u201d said Gary Mo, UIC assistant professor in the department of pharmacology and regenerative medicine and the department of biomedical engineering at the College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

Mo said that methods to examine the pyroptosis mechanisms at play in live cells are difficult to control because they are initiated by unpredictable pathogens, which in turn have disparate effects in different cells and people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur optogenetic gasdermin allowed us to skip over the unpredictable pathogen behavior and the variable cellular response because it mimics at the molecular level what happens in the cell once pyroptosis is initiated,\u201d Mo said.<\/p>\n

The researchers applied this tool and used florescent imaging technology to precisely activate gasdermin in cell experiments and observe the pores under various circumstances. They discovered that certain conditions, like specific concentrations of calcium ions, for example, triggered the pores to close within only tens of seconds.<\/p>\n

Continue reading \u201cScientists uncover new information about cellular death process, previously thought to be irreversible\u201d | ><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study published by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago describes a new method for analyzing pyroptosis\u2013the process of cell death that is usually caused by infections and results in excess inflammation in the body\u2013and shows that process, long thought to be irreversible once initiated, can in fact be halted and controlled. The discovery, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,38,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-engineering","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}