2024-03-31 10:01:25
March žurnale „Nature Communications“ In a new study published in 2015, researchers examined massive datasets of human genetic information and compared the genes of people with and without Lyme disease.
The researchers found three genes associated with a higher risk of infection, two of which were known to be associated with the disease. But a third gene, which makes a protein found in skin and sweat, has never been linked to her.
This mutated gene carried by individuals with Lyme disease appears to increase their susceptibility to developing the disease. But the researchers discovered that the standard, unaltered version of the gene can actually prevent the bacteria that cause Lyme disease from multiplying. It is believed that about 60 percent have the standard version of the gene. people, they noted.
This kind of study, which searches through large numbers of human genomes for genes associated with a particular disease, has never been done for Lyme disease, said one of the senior authors, Michal Tal, a principal scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. The researchers analyzed a dataset containing the genetic information of more than 410,000 Finns, more than 7,000 of whom had been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
This work revealed a mysterious variant in the gene that produces a protein called SCGB1D2. Secretoglobins are small proteins secreted by cells, in this case they are found in sweat glands.
After the scientists announced this discovery on the pre-publication site, they were contacted by a group of scientists from Estonia who discovered the same gene variant while studying data from the Estonian Biobank. This repository contains data on more than 210,000 Estonian residents, including 18,000 diagnosed with Lyme disease.
The two groups decided to collaborate and included additional data in a new study published in the journal Nature Communications. In both data sets, people with the mutated version of SCGB1D2 were more likely to be diagnosed with Lyme disease.
The researchers then conducted experiments in laboratory vessels containing the bacteria that cause Lyme disease Borrelia burgdorferi: Mutated and standard version of sweat protein affected. The standard version inhibited bacterial growth, but it took twice as much of the mutated version to keep the bacteria from growing.
They also injected mice with a standard version of secretoglobin and a different type of secretoglobin normally found in the lungs – and then infected the rodents with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. Mice injected with pulmonary secretoglobin developed Lyme disease, while those injected with the standard version of SCGB1D2 did not develop the disease even after a month.
The discovery of this gene has great potential to improve scientists’ understanding of Lyme disease, said Janis Weis, professor of the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah (USA), who was not involved in the study.
Many secretoglobins are found in the lungs and other organs and play an important role in the body’s immune response. Uncovering the role of SCGB1D2 in Lyme disease may help scientists better understand the disease and answer the question of why about 5 to 10 percent of treatment for those infected is not effective, Mr. Weis said.
But the study has several flaws, including the fact that it only looked at Finnish and Estonian residents, Weis noted. She noted that future studies could include genetic information from other demographic groups.
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2024-03-31 10:01:25