AMPK, controller of brain development

2009/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biokimika

A protein, the AMPK protein, with effects on cancer, diabetes, heart, and hypertension, plays an important role in the development of the nervous system. Scientists at the University of Washington realize this in an experiment in the mouse: By inhibiting the synthesis of the AMPK protein, mice only develop the brain at medium size.

The reason lies in the role of the protein. It affects so many serious diseases because it participates in the energy management of the AMPK cell. It is activated when the cell suffers a lack of energy, interrupting processes of great consumption (such as the synthesis of lipids and proteins and the reproductive process) and setting in motion other energy generation (such as the creation of mitochondria). In general, the AMPK protein modifies the basic processes, causing serious diseases when it works poorly, one disease or another, depending on the cell with malfunction of the AMPK.

Scientists have found that the stem cell of the nervous system is heavily influenced by the inhibition of retinoblastoma protein, another protein that controls reproduction. And if we inhibit the proliferation process of stem cells, the brain cannot develop properly.