This is some interesting and surprising work. We are figuring out so much about ourselves so fast it really makes me wonder what the future holds for us.

For 50 years, thousands of labs around the world have studied cells’ critical internal communications, and scientists had assumed the speakers were known. But now, in the Dec. 17 issue of Science, Johns Hopkins researchers report finding not just a new participant, but a brand new conversation that has implications for treating disease and understanding biology.

Much of cells’ internal communication revolves around two very important words — “stop” and “go” — elicited when a small bit, called phosphate, is added onto proteins. This addition turns protein activities up or down and fine tunes cells’ responses to what’s happening outside their borders. This communication can go awry in diseases, including cancer, and be corrected by various drugs.

The source of these phosphate bits has been known — a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. But in their new report, the Johns Hopkins scientists describe a brand new source of phosphate that seems to work with as many proteins as targeted by ATP, but in a completely different way.

Unlike ATP, the new phosphate source, known as inositol pyrophosphate (IP7), modifies proteins without any help, just binding directly to the protein and leaving behind one of its phosphates, the researchers report. Their early evidence also suggests IP7 might be most important in regulating the release of chemicals in the brain and in controlling the cellular machinery that builds proteins.

via Crumb Trail
via John Hopkins Medicine
via Science (subscription required)