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Saturday, December 14, 2013
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Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new optical sensor that can track zinc in the body’s cells, enabling researchers to learn more about its functions.
Zinc is an essential mineral and is found in every tissue in the body. While the majority of zinc is tightly bound to proteins, tiny amounts are only loosely bound, or “mobile.”
These mobile zinc ions are believed to be crucial for the functioning of organs, including the brain, pancreas and prostate gland.
To date, scientists do not fully understand the role zinc plays in biological systems, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists believe their sensor could change that.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they describe how the sensor fluoresces when it binds to zinc and can be targeted to a specific organelle within a cell, enabling them to establish where the zinc is most concentrated.
The sensor relies on Zinpyr1 (ZP1), a molecule originally developed at the same MIT lab more than 10 years ago. ZP1 is based on a dye called fluorescein, but in the sensor this is modified to fluoresce only when it binds with zinc.
The scientists acknowledge that they had difficulty targeting specific structures within the cells, and Robert Radford, an MIT postdoc and author of the study, explains:
“We have had some success using proteins and peptides to target small molecule zinc sensors, but most of the time the sensors get captured in acidic vesicles within the cell and become inactive.”
Scientists can track the location of zinc within cells and are gaining a better understanding of the role the mineral plays in cancerous cells.
To overcome these obstacles, the researchers made two changes to the sensor’s design. First, they installed a zinc-reacting protecting ring, which changed its physical properties and made it easier to target
Zinc is an essential mineral and is found in every tissue in the body. While the majority of zinc is tightly bound to proteins, tiny amounts are only loosely bound, or “mobile.”
These mobile zinc ions are believed to be crucial for the functioning of organs, including the brain, pancreas and prostate gland.
To date, scientists do not fully understand the role zinc plays in biological systems, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists believe their sensor could change that.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they describe how the sensor fluoresces when it binds to zinc and can be targeted to a specific organelle within a cell, enabling them to establish where the zinc is most concentrated.
The sensor relies on Zinpyr1 (ZP1), a molecule originally developed at the same MIT lab more than 10 years ago. ZP1 is based on a dye called fluorescein, but in the sensor this is modified to fluoresce only when it binds with zinc.
The scientists acknowledge that they had difficulty targeting specific structures within the cells, and Robert Radford, an MIT postdoc and author of the study, explains:
“We have had some success using proteins and peptides to target small molecule zinc sensors, but most of the time the sensors get captured in acidic vesicles within the cell and become inactive.”
Scientists can track the location of zinc within cells and are gaining a better understanding of the role the mineral plays in cancerous cells.
To overcome these obstacles, the researchers made two changes to the sensor’s design. First, they installed a zinc-reacting protecting ring, which changed its physical properties and made it easier to target
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