Immune system uses chaos to prevent disease

Surjit kumar Dhal, Bhubaneswar, Jan 23: New research reveals a new mechanism that is at play in cellular function.

 Chaotic swings of protein concentrations help keep our immune system alert and functional, preventing chronic diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, Medical News Today reported on Wednesday.

Human cells need some proteins to be in a chaotic state to fight off disease.

Modern research has unearthed many of the faulty mechanisms that are at play in cancer, yet science has plenty left to discover.

On a cellular level, some of these mechanisms revolve around what medical experts call signaling pathways. Cell signaling pathways regulate the growth, survival, and proliferation of cells.

In cancer, some signaling proteins are hyperactive, leading to the growth and proliferation of tumor cells, while others — which would normally act as tumor suppressors — are not functioning correctly.

Understanding the dynamic that is at play within cells is, therefore, key to preventing and overcoming cancer and many other chronic diseases.

New research may have broken new ground in this respect, as three scientists have discovered a new mechanism of cell regulation: chaos.

Doctoral researcher Mathias Heltberg and professor Mogens Høgh Jensen — both from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, together with Sandeep Krishna from the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, set out to investigate how a particular protein stimulates gene activity.

The scientists found that chaotic dynamics is the answer. The protein they studied is Nuclear factor-κB (NF-kB).

NF-kB is key to keeping the body’s immune system alert and functional. So the findings may help stave off more than cancer: diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease could also be targets if researchers understand better how the body’s natural defenses work.