#Steeven.™ Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 To respond to fasting, cells use autophagy, a process of cell self-recycling. Researchers from the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom, have discovered how cells respond to fasting and activate the process called autophagy, which means that a healthier lifestyle can be promoted to help people maintain a healthy life, as published in the magazine 'Cell Reports'. The UK has the highest level of obesity in Western Europe, and its levels have more than tripled in the past 30 years, with more than half the po[CENSORED]tion estimated to be obese by 2050 in the UK. Obesity is a significant risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality. The cause of the rapid rise in obesity was attributed to modern lifestyles, including the high-calorie diet. Intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting, and other forms of periodic calorie restriction have gained po[CENSORED]rity in recent years because they are considered beneficial in maintaining a healthy body weight. To respond to fasting, cells use autophagy, a process of cellular self-recycling. A team of researchers led by Professor Ioannis Nezis of the University of Warwick School of Life Sciences discovered how cells activate autophagy genes during fasting. In the article, Dr. Anne-Claire Jacomin, Dr. Stavroula Petridi, PhD student Marisa Di Monaco, and Professor Ioannis Nezis have discovered proteins that are necessary for the transcription of autophagy genes. The proteins are called Sequoia, YL-1 and Sir2, these proteins interact with the protein related to cytoplasmic autophagy Atg8a. These interactions recruit Atg8a into the nucleus to control autophagy gene transcription. This is the first study to discover a nuclear role of the Atg8a cytoplasmic protein. The lead author of the research, Professor Ioannis Nezis, from the University of Warwick School of Life Sciences, explains that "understanding the molecular mechanisms of autophagy gene activation during fasting will help us to use interventions to activate autophagic pathways to maintain a normal body weight and promote healthy well-being. " What is autophagy? Autophagy is a fundamental process for the human being since it allows the survival of cells in stressful situations and participates in cell death. Autophagy has been known for more than 50 years, but its importance in physiology and medicine was not recognized until the 1990s, precisely thanks to the discoveries of Oshumi, who studied the function of proteins encoded by key genes in autophagy and outlined how stress signals initiate autophagy and the mechanism by which proteins and protein complexes promote different stages of their development. But what is autophagy? It would literally be 'eat yourself', because it involves the process in which cells self-destruct. Being more concrete, from the Superior Center for Scientific Research they explain to Infosalus that autophagy is a process of intracellular degradation that allows the recycling of cellular components to maintain cellular balance (homeostasis). It is not about the death of the cell, "it is the process of survival of the cell," they point out. To see it in a simple way, it would be a cellular process that is responsible for the degradation and recycling of cellular components with the aim of keeping the body stable. In addition, it has an essential role in obtaining nutrients under fasting conditions, in the degradation of damaged organelles (structures contained in the cytoplasm of cells), which is why it is a mechanism that allows cells to survive under stress conditions. 3
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