New study shows specific enzymes can remove lactic acid marks from proteins

Washington, January 22 ANI A new study by the University of Copenhagen shows that specific enzymes can remove lactic acid marks from proteins and this will increase our understanding of the effect of cancer medicine.

The ultimate goal is to develop drugs with as few side effects as possible, said professor Christian Adam Olsen, who is responsible for the new study.

He said that the more knowledge we have about the enzymes that are able to remove lactic acid marks, the easier it will be to design new drug candidates that can target these specific enzymes. The discovery could lead to the development of new cancer medicine using these enzymes as the target. The process that leads to lactic acid helps the body in connection with e.g. Physical exercise correlates with cancer. It is interesting to know how lactic acid affects human cells.

As part of the study, Christian Adam Olsen and the rest of the research team - which included a team at the University of Chicago, headed by Professor Yingming Zhao - have grown healthy human cells as well as cancer cells in the laboratory.

Several of their experiments involved breaking the cells in order to study the different parts in more detail using specific antibodies. They also studied living cells directly using reagents able to make selected cell components fluorescent.

According to the first author of the study, Postdoc at the University of Copenhagen, Carlos Moreno-Yruela, this shows that these specific enzymes actually remove lactic acid marks.

When we removed these enzymes, the level of lactic acid increased significantly. Carlos Moreno-Yruela said that the enzymes were inhibited using existing cancer medicine.

The lactic acid in our cells may end up being epigenetic marks that affect the way genes are read. Our epigenetics can change throughout life, unlike genetics that we inherit from our parents.

According to previous research, diet, sleep, and physical exercise are some of the factors that can affect our epigenetics.

We don't know whether lactic acid marks are inherited. If they are, it might be interesting to study the possible effects of e.g. The epigenetic marks of the next generation are the epigenetic marks of diet, sleep and physical exercise. Christian Adam Olsen concluded that mice or other animal models were the subject of a discussion.