Girolline, a compound extracted from the sea sponge Pseudaxinyssa cantharella, has been investigated for possible antitumor effects and also found to have anti-malarial effects. Now, researchers have a better idea of how it works.
, has been investigated for possible antitumor effects and also found to have anti-malarial effects. Now, thanks to work by scientists from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, researchers have a better idea of how it works. In addition to its possible medicinal properties, the current findings suggest that the compound could also be useful as a chemical probe for research in areas such as aging and mitochondrial health..
According to Tilman Schneider-Poetsch of the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, the corresponding author of the paper,"Through our work, we were able to discover that girolline acts by a new mechanism of action. It is the first small molecule that has been found to directly modulate the function of an important protein synthesis factor. And it works selectively on certain amino acid sequences, rather than as a general inhibitor of translation from RNA to proteins.
The sequences that cause stalling include those coding the amino acids proline and lysine, especially when lysine is encoded by the RNA sequence AAA ., the parasite that causes malaria, tend to have stretches with many adenine bases, making them sensitive to the effects of girolline. According to Schneider-Poetsch."Girolline, because of its selectivity, is a new tool that we will be able to use to investigate the role of eIF5A, an important protein involved in aging, neurodegeneration and cancer. We are currently carrying out follow-up projects to investigate this."Tilman Schneider-Poetsch, Yongjun Dang, Wakana Iwasaki, Mayumi Arata, Yuichi Shichino, Ali Al Mourabit, Celine Moriou, Daniel Romo, Jun O. Liu, Takuhiro Ito, Shintaro Iwasaki, Minoru Yoshida.
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