A “miracle protein” has been discovered. It can prolong life and help fight cancer

 

"American scientists have found that the OTUD6 protein [1] can change the production of proteins in cells, which affects life expectancy, but also the development of cancer cells. Now they are investigating how this discovery can be used for therapeutic purposes.

 

Thanks to research on fruit flies, scientists from UC Merced have discovered a cellular process common to many organisms. This discovery can significantly expand knowledge about the development of cancer and aging.

 

Will the OTUD6 protein help extend life

 

A scientist from California has discovered a mechanism that cells use to fine-tune the amount of proteins they produce in the process of translating RNA into protein. “This mechanism may be responsible for changes in protein translation in stress, cancer and aging,” says Professor Fred Wolf from the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the California university.

 

Scientists decided to use research on fruit flies to understand the function of the OTUD6 protein. They admit that at first they had no idea what they were looking for. When they first created the OTUD6 mutant flies, they expected to see something obvious, such as a different shape or number of wings, or reproductive abnormalities. Instead, the flies looked normal.

 

The researchers unexpectedly discovered that the OTUD6 mutant flies were resistant to stress.

 

They looked for all the proteins that interact with the OTUD6 protein to discover its exact purpose, and found that the mutation allowed cells to produce less protein.

 

“The amount of protein produced in cells is known to affect the lifespan of animals, with lower amounts of protein produced correlated with longer lifespan.

 

Our OTUD6 mutants lived twice as long. We think this is because they produce less protein,” Professor Wolf said.

 

How cancer can be treated

 

The amount of protein produced can also have a huge impact on some types of cancer. Some types of OTUD6 in humans are found at increased levels in many types of cancer, and many cancers have increased production of the protein. The researchers stressed that they had no direct evidence of a link, but increased OTUD6 may contribute to cancer cell growth and proliferation.

 

The researchers stressed that cells can change the amount of OTUD6 to change how much of the protein they make. “We’ve known for years that cells have two other ways of actively tuning how much of the protein they make, and we think we’ve discovered a third way,” Professor Wolf said.

 

The team wants to investigate how cells change the amount of OTUD6 present in cells to understand how this new pathway is initiated, which could lead to new ways of manipulating protein production to affect lifespan and even cancer treatment outcomes.”

 

1. "OTUD6B is a functional deubiquitinating enzyme, a class of protease that specifically cleaves ubiquitin linkages, negating the action of ubiquitin ligases."

Quite often, ubiquitin ligases mark a protein for degradation. If what is described here is confirmed that also exists the promotion of protein synthesis by OTUD6B, it would appear that OTUD6B can increase protein levels in cells by two ways.