You can feel this acid when you work out. Now it may increase knowledge
of cancer medicine

Date:
January 20, 2022
Source:
University of Copenhagen - The Faculty of Health and Medical
Sciences
Summary:
New research shows that specific enzymes can remove lactic acid
marks.

This finding may increase our understanding of cancer medicine
and how physical exercise, among other things, can affect human
epigenetics.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
When the muscles become acidic after doing too many press-ups, squats
or cycling to work, it is because of lactic acid.


========================================================================== Strained muscles produce energy fast, and a by-product of that process
is lactic acid. However, lactic acid is also abundant in cancer cells,
which invest a lot of energy into dividing and forming tumours.

Now a new study from the University of Copenhagen reveals that specific
enzymes can remove lactic acid marks from proteins, and the researchers
hope this will increase our understanding of the effect of cancer
medicine, among others.

"Of course, the ultimate goal is to develop drugs with as few side effects
as possible," says Professor Christian Adam Olsen from the Department of
Drug Design and Pharmacology, who is responsible for the new study. He
adds: "The more knowledge we are able to generate about the enzymes that
are able to remove lactic acid marks, the easier it will be to design
new drug candidates capable of targeting these specific enzymes. So the discovery may affect the development of new cancer medicine using these
enzymes as the target." The process that leads to lactic acid both helps
the body out in connection with e.g. physical exercise and corrupts it
in connection with cancer.

Therefore, it is interesting to determine how the level of lactic acid
affects the human cells.



==========================================================================
As part of the study, Christian Adam Olsen and the rest of the research
team - - which also includes a team based at the University of Chicago
headed by Professor Yingming Zhao -- have grown healthy human cells as
well as cancer cells in the laboratory.

Several of their experiments involve breaking the cells in order to study
the various parts in more detail using specific antibodies. However,
they also studied living cells directly using reagents able to make
selected cell components fluorescent.

According to the first author of the study, Postdoc at the University of Copenhagen Carlos Moreno-Yruela, this showed that these specific enzymes
indeed remove lactic acid marks.

"The level of lactic acid increased significantly when we removed these enzymes. The same happened when we inhibited the enzymes using existing
cancer medicine," says Carlos Moreno-Yruela.

Besides hoping that the results of the new study are able to contribute
to the development of new cancer medicine, the researchers believe their discovery increases our understanding of epigenetics.

Because the lactic acid in our cells may end up as epigenetic marks that
affect the way genes are read. Unlike genetics -- which we inherit from
our parents - - our epigenetics can change throughout life.

Diet, sleep and physical exercise are some of the factors that can affect
our epigenetics, previous research has shown.

"We still do not know whether lactic acid marks are inherited. But if
they are, it might be interesting to study the possible effect of e.g.,
diet, sleep and physical exercise on the epigenetic marks of the next generation. To answer such a question, you might start by studying
e.g. mice or other animal models," Christian Adam Olsen concludes.

The research conducted at the University of Copenhagen was funded by
the Independent Research Fund Denmark and an ERC Consolidator Grant.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Copenhagen_-_The_Faculty_of_Health_and
Medical_Sciences. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Carlos Moreno-Yruela, Di Zhang, Wei Wei, Michael Baek, Wenchao Liu,
Jinjun Gao, Daniela Dankova', Alexander L. Nielsen, Julie
E. Bolding, Lu Yang, Samuel T. Jameson, Jiemin Wong, Christian
A. Olsen, Yingming Zhao.

Class I histone deacetylases (HDAC1-3) are histone lysine
delactylases.

Science Advances, 2022; 8 (3) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi6696 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220120135128.htm

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