In a joint study conducted by Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and a research group at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, researchers have now discovered that lipid peroxides* play a specific physiological role in the cell.
Prior to this study, scientists had already established that accumulation of lipid peroxides* indicate cell stress. Lipid peroxides have further been shown to be very potent inducers of cell death. The results of this study now demonstrate that chemically modified (oxidized) lipids temporarily inactivate protein tyrosine phosphatases*.
These in turn regulate the cellular communication of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK)*. This finding is of central importance because aberrant activation of the receptor tyrosine kinases contributes to many diseases, including cancer. Until now, only hydrogen peroxide was known to oxidize and inactivate protein tyrosine phosphatases and thus to have a regulating effect on kinases.
“We were able to show that lipid peroxides are 100-1000 times more effective than hydrogen peroxide,” said Dr. Marcus Conrad, lead authors of the publication, who has since moved from Helmholtz Zentrum München to the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease. Dr. Arne Ostman and Åsa Sandin from the Karolinska Institutet added:
“It will be very interesting to see if lipid peroxides contribute to the activation of tyrosine kinases in cancer and other diseases, e.g. diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.”
Source: Sven Winkler
Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health