Scientists at duke university medical research center have identified a potential new target for regulating inflammation, which is linked to a range of diseases, including diabetes, cancer and alzheimer's. The potential target is an immune protein called SARM, which is very conserved throughout evolution and therefore very similar in humans and other mammals.
The innate immune system is activated as a protective mechanism, responding to the presence of pathogens or tissue damage. This innate immune activation leads to inflammation. However, excessive or inappropriate inflammation is associated with a range of debilitating diseases, so controlling inflammation is a major problem that scientists are trying to solve.
In general, inflammasomes are tiny molecular machines that assemble in immune cells after sensing infection or injury and activate the inflammatory response. When inflammatory corpuscles gather, they trigger the release of inflammatory cytokines, triggering inflammatory cell death.
But exactly what controls il-1 production and the extent to which apoptosis occurs during inflammation remains unclear. Experimental results show that SARM is a key regulatory factor of inflammatory body.
Scientists have shown that the more SARM cells contain, the less il-1 they produce, because SARM interferes with the assembly of inflammatory corpuscles. On the contrary, too much SARM can also cause cell death, because SARM causes damage to mitochondria.
Dr Johnstone, the researcher, said: "we've been trying to unravel the mystery of this immune protein - what exactly does it do at some point？"It may be a key regulator of inflammatory corpuscles, suggesting that SARM plays a role in inflammatory disease."
Scientists already know that SARM causes brain cell death, so it's being studied as a target for neurodegeneration and related diseases, and it's also being found to be a key regulator. The findings offer new hope that research into SARM, if pursued, may be able to control inflammation, which could open up new options for treating a wide range of diseases.