Wednesday, June 26, 2024, 00:34
It is an ugly, tender word. It sounds like flooding. And part of it. “It literally means eating itself,” explains Aintzane Apraiz, professor and researcher at the University of the Basque Country. But how bad it sounds, autophagia is an important process for our body, starting with the aging process that us so much worries. It also relates to muscle loss and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and cancer. The Royal Academy defines it as “the mechanism used by eukaryotic cells to break down their own components with a view to their renewal and replacement.” In a language that we all understand, “it is as if the cells go through the garage and repair everything that does not work well,” explains Antonio Zorzano, head of the complex metabolic disease laboratory of the Institute for Research in Biomedicin (IRB) of Barcelona.
The expert from the Catalan center ensures that it is a very complex process “that we are still trying to understand”, but that actually implies two functions. As mentioned, one is to recognize everything that does not work well in the cell and to repair it. «Every cell is like a miniplanet that has to manage many activities. It has different organelles partes – with a certain function. The core would be the command center; Mitochondria, such as a nuclear power plant that supplies energy; The wire cross are like the factories that make the pieces … », the Basque teacher describes.
In the course of time, “this system deteriorates and proteins or molecules that are damaged or that are damaged, as with the skin when the sun is produced to the sun is produced. Then you have to remove what hinds and does not work.” That waste ended another part of that mini -plane called Lysosomes, “Recycling Plants.” The other function plays in the game in times of lack of nutrients, when the ‘food’ starts to offer this “when they don’t come from outside,” says Zorzano.
Practice, eat little and sleep
Autophagy studies started long ago, in the 50s of the last century. A first step was taken by the Belgian biochemist Christian René de Duve, who received the Nobel Prize in 1974 for discovering the aforementioned lysosomes. In the beginning it was assumed that this kind of cell -IVV was a reaction from the organism to stress (“Celstress has nothing to do with ours
However, the most important finding did not reach the 90s. It was not a job in human cells, not even with laboratory mice. Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi discovered this same mechanism in something much simpler, the yeast used by bakers. «He noted that in some cells the mitochondria or other organelles appeared in a sort of bag and that it was on its way to the lysosome. They ate herself ‘, describes the UPV/EHU teacher. The Japanese researcher showed that autophagia was also present in single -cell organisms, making it thought that it could be a fundamental physiological process of more complex organisms, including ourselves. He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016.
What happens this self -limp does not work well? It influences the muscles that lose quantity and quality. It is what doctors call sarcopenia, which translates into a higher risk of falls and injuries when we are years. Health also suffers in a kind of climb. If a cell does not remain healthy and adds more and more, it will eventually influence the organ of which they are part and finally the entire organism. It also occurs in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, in which there is an accumulation of poorly formed proteins that are not detected and eliminated in this step through the garage. It is also related to some types of cancer.
Can we do something to avoid it? Yes. Apart from some medication, experts recommend moderate physical exercise and a diet with low calories. And sleep because the cells go through the garage when we are relaxed.
