According to the researchers, the large amounts of synthetic protein they were able to produce could be used later for further research and possible medical and economic applications
Scientists from Illinois and Pennsylvania report the development of a method that could produce the antifreeze protein that allows billions of Canadian snow fleas to survive in such low winter temperatures. The proteins of this type, produced for the first time in the laboratory, will be able to help extend the storage period of organs and tissues donated for human transplants, claims the new study.
In the new study, researcher Stephen Kent and his colleagues point out that scientists have been trying for many years to decipher the molecular structure and produce in the laboratory the protein known as "snow flea antifreeze protein, sfAFP". These first steps are essential in order to obtain large amounts of the protein, which is naturally present in only small amounts in the snow flea. The large amounts of synthetic protein can be used later for further research and possible medical and economic applications, they claim.
The researchers were able to produce this synthetic protein and show that it has the same biological activity as the natural protein. They also produced different versions of this protein, including a form in which the chemical structure is completely reversed or a "mirror image" (enantiomers, in scientific language) of the natural protein and different from any other natural protein on earth.
It seems less likely that this "reversed" protein will trigger harmful antibodies, but it should be more resistant to the destruction of natural degradation enzymes, two characteristics that make it more effective than the natural protein for use in the preservation of organs and tissues, the researchers note.
"Our most significant advance was the use of both mirror forms of the protein to determine the unknown crystal structure of this unique protein," says the lead researcher. "Such use to determine the crystal structure of proteins was made for the first time in scientific history in this study."
to the researchers' article
11 תגובות
Go to the article of the fuel cell
Matan, good question.
Every day you have to tune in to the highest, best will, like you brush your teeth.
That's how it works.
You weren't born in weeks by any chance?
In the XNUMXst it was giving an answer, for your sake.
And even though I'm not a religious creature by the looks of it, it seems to me that after everything that happens here, you will meet me, without a choice, with Capote and Streimel, feathers of an Indian, and without teeth like a monkey... and 1001 other formations.
Ah... what was the topic? The cockroach, who entered this nation, to all the spirits, and ruined our form.
And to the best of my knowledge, everything is under final inspection now.
I wouldn't trust the matter so quickly
After such a transplant, one would not be surprised if one day the eighth passenger suddenly emerges from the transplanted person's chest in the form of a giant flea with fangs.
Or alternatively, the person wakes up in the morning and he is a flea
To Hogin and Monin.. of Odin.. The question is whether there is such a thing as a wrong desire
For moderation, it turns out that there is nothing that stands in the way of desire - if it is true.
It is difficult to understand exactly how the protein does not freeze, but it seems that this will lead to a revolution in all areas, starting with food that is not accidentally damaged, airplanes safer from freezing, streets without snow, freezing and thawing of living things, liquid transport in cold conditions.
Know that such a discovery in the combination of existing science is like a big meteor in the middle of life since its consequences are many.
I hope we don't get a chimera from the matter and the protein will then develop something problematic or a problematic feeding audience.
Moti
right,
My mistake.
But this makes it effective when dealing with extreme situations, for example climbers stuck in a storm, as part of a first aid kit. Like iodine pills to deal with radiation. Protein pills to deal with cold…
I wish you a fruitful imagination.
Moshe.
To Moses,
No..
It says that the protein is anti-freezing, and not what you said: protects organs/cells during freezing.
And I doubt if this protein works even at a temperature of minus 44 degrees Celsius
Is there a way to incorporate this protein into a living person, and freeze it?
And thus actually preserve a person. See the entry Odyssey in space, etc...
Wow, the dig you emit is something amazing, how do you do it
I am as the proverb says
"want to can't"
Here I would give space to the followers of Adrian Dvir, to say their thing.. and the one who understands will understand, and if not, he will ask.
As the winning proverb says: not the shy learns...
In my understanding, the shah-tsen also... teaches.