Even after piring in cells for decades, biologists are still surprised.
In a turn, researchers at the University of Virginia and the National Institute of Health exposed a new organnell, called Hemifsom. This small membrane-bound structure acts as a cellular recycling center and can keep the key to treat many genetic diseases. Research has been published Nature communication.
“It’s like searching for a new recycling center inside the cell,” said in a biophysicist co-writer at the University of Virginia, Ibrahim said in one, A in A statement“We think hemifsom helps manage how package and process material to cells, and when this process is disturbed, it can contribute to diseases that affect many systems in the body.”
Scientists did not first identify the structure because it manifests only when needed. But thanks to the cryo-electron tomography-an imaging technology that captures flash-free-free and in 3D and near-atomic resolution-the guards were able to inspect the short-term structure.
Researchers say that hemifasomes can help in the formation of cellular vesicles, small bags that shut down and combine the material throughout the cell. They can also help in making other organels made of several vesicles, the study shows. However, some evidence suggests that hemifsomes do not participate in endocytosis, traditional passage by which cells combine external materials.
“You can think of vessels such as small delivery trucks inside the cell,” Abrahim said in a statement. “Hemifasom is like a loading dock where they add and move the cargo. This is a step in the process we did not know.”
Despite their fleeting nature, hemifsomes are not rare. They appear to be surprisingly common in parts of cells, especially near the cell membrane.
Nevertheless, scientists are not sure how or why hemifasomes are formed and then disappear. They are expecting to find out that – at the same time understanding what happens when hemifsomes fail to work properly. Problems with the cargo of cells are in the root of many genetic disorders.
“This is just the beginning,” Abrahim said in a statement. “Now that we know that hemifasomes are present, we can start asking how they behave in healthy cells and what happens when things go wrong. This can lead us to new strategies to treat complex genetic diseases.”
