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Natural protein may help to prevent blindness

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Researchers have found that a naturally occurring protein helps to protect the retina against glaucoma.


Scientists may be on the brink of a new strategy to prevent blindness, after discovering a naturally occurring protein that protects the eye from one of the leading causes: glaucoma.
Glaucoma is an umbrella term for a number of diseases that damage the optic nerve, which is the cluster of nerve fibers that links the retina – the light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eye – to the brain.

Optic nerve damage disrupts the transmission of visual signals to the brain, which can result in vision loss and blindness.

Glaucoma is most commonly caused by a buildup of eye pressure, which can damage the optic nerve. However, the precise mechanisms by which optic nerve damage occurs have been unclear, but researchers from Macquarie University in Australia may have shed some light.

The team found that a protein called neuroserpin plays a key role in retinal health, but that this protein is inactivated in glaucoma. They suggest that their findings may lead to much-needed strategies to prevent and treat the disease.

Lead study author Dr. Vivek Gupta, of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University, and colleagues recently published their results in the journal Scientific Reports.

Neuroserpin and glaucoma

Neuroserpin is already established as a protein that blocks the activity of an enzyme called plasmin, protecting neurons, or nerve cells, against plasmin-induced damage.

For their study, Dr. Gupta and colleagues set out to determine how neuroserpin and plasmin are affected by glaucoma.

The researchers came to their findings by analyzing retinal cells derived from humans with and without glaucoma, as well as retinas from rat models of the disease.

The analysis revealed that neuroserpin is deactivated in response to oxidative stress, which can be triggered by environmental factors such as air pollution.

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) – which are molecules that can damage cell structures – and the body’s ability to offset their harmful effects.

Interestingly, the researchers found that neuroserpin was inactive in retinal cells from glaucoma patients and in the retinas of glaucoma rat models, which prevented the protein from inhibiting plasmin activity.

“Over a long period of time,” explains Dr. Gupta, “increased enzyme activity gradually digests the eye tissue and promotes cell death causing the adverse effects associated with glaucoma.”

‘Breakthrough findings’

It is estimated that glaucoma affects around 2.2 million adults aged 40 and older in the United States, and it is one of the country’s leading causes of vision loss and blindness.

There is currently no cure for glaucoma, but there are treatments that can help to slow progression of the disease if it is detected early enough.

Dr. Gupta and team hope that their findings will open the door to new strategies that could help to prevent or treat glaucoma.

“Ophthalmologists and vision scientists have always wondered what damages the optic nerve in the back of the eyes, which is widely observed in glaucoma,” notes study co-author Dr. Mehdi Mirzaei, of the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences at Macquarie University.

“The breakthrough findings of this study,” he adds, “help us understand the disease mechanism and answer a key question that has eluded scientists for several years.”

“This long-term collaborative study has opened up a completely new line of investigation in glaucoma research that will lead to new treatment avenues for the disease.”
Dr. Vivek Gupta
In future studies, the team plans to investigate whether or not antioxidants – which are molecules that help to prevent cell damage caused by ROS – could be an effective treatment for glaucoma.

Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319588.php

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Necessity of Protein, Carbs and Fat in body

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Protein
Proteins in food are broken down into pieces (called amino acids) that are then used to build new proteins with specific functions, such as catalyzing chemical reactions, facilitating communication between different cells, or transporting biological molecules from here to there. When there is a shortage of fats or carbohydrates, proteins can also yield energy.

Fat
Fats typically provide more than half of the body’s energy needs. Fat from food is broken down into fatty acids, which can travel in the blood and be captured by hungry cells. Fatty acids that aren’t needed right away are packaged in bundles called triglycerides and stored in fat cells, which have unlimited capacity. “We are really good at storing fat,” says Judith Wylie-Rosett, EdD, RD, a professor of behavioral and nutritional research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Carbohydrate
Carbohydrates, on the other hand, can only be stored in limited quantities, so the body is eager to use them for energy. “We think of carbs as the [nutrient] that’s used first,” says Eric Westman, MD, MHS, director of the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic at Duke University Medical Center. “We can only store a day or two of carbs.” The carbohydrates in food are digested into small pieces—either glucose or a sugar that is easily converted to glucose—that can be absorbed through the small intestine’s walls. After a quick stop in the liver, glucose enters the circulatory system, causing blood glucose levels to rise. The body’s cells gobble up this mealtime bounty of glucose more readily than fat, says Wylie-Rosett.

Once the cells have had their fill of glucose, the liver stores some of the excess for distribution between meals should blood glucose levels fall below a certain threshold. If there is leftover glucose beyond what the liver can hold, it can be turned into fat for long-term storage so none is wasted. When carbohydrates are scarce, the body runs mainly on fats. If energy needs exceed those provided by fats in the diet, the body must liquidate some of its fat tissue for energy.

While these fats are a welcome source of energy for most of the body, a few types of cells, such as brain cells, have special needs. These cells could easily run on glucose from the diet, but they can’t run on fatty acids directly. So under low-carbohydrate conditions, these finicky cells need the body to make fat-like molecules called ketone bodies. This is why a very-low-carbohydrate diet is sometimes called “ketogenic.” (Ketone bodies are also related to a dangerous diabetic complication called ketoacidosis, which can occur if insulin levels are far too low.) Ketone bodies could alone provide enough energy for the parts of the body that can’t metabolize fatty acids, but some tissues still require at least some glucose, which isn’t normally made from fat. Instead, glucose can be made in the liver and kidneys using protein from elsewhere in the body. But take care: If not enough protein is provided by the diet, the body starts chewing on muscle cells.

(Image: Representation only)

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