A study published in the journal Scientific Reports, of the Nature group, has demonstrated for the first time, using computational tools, that polyunsaturated lipids can alter the rate of binding of two types of receptors involved in some diseases of the nervous system. Researchers at UB Francisco Ciruela and Maricel Gómez-Soler (Faculty of Medicine and IDIBELL), and Juan Carlos Domingo and Begoña Cordobilla (Faculty of Biology) involved in this study, which was led by researchers at the Research Program on Biomedical Informatics at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and the University Pompeu Fabra, together with researchers from the University of Tampere (Finland).

Through molecular simulations last generation, which would become like “computational microscope”, researchers have shown that a decrease of polyunsaturated lipids in neuronal membranes, as occurs in patients with Parkinson or Alzheimer directly affects the rate of binding the adenosine and dopamine receptors. These receptors are part of the family of receptors coupled to the G protein (GPCR) located on the cell membrane and responsible for transmitting signals inside the cell. So far, studies have shown that the brain lipid profile of people with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is very different from that of healthy people. These studies showed that levels of polyunsaturated fatty acid present in neuronal membranes are considerably lower in the brains of diseased individuals. Researchers believe that this difference in the lipid membrane composition may alter the way that certain proteins interact with each other, as in the case of GPCRs receptors.

These results allow, in the future, initiate new paths for therapeutic intervention to regulate the binding of these receptors, either through the lipid composition of the membrane or by designing new lipids that have a modulatory effect on the binding rate.

http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/ca/menu_eines/noticies/2016/02/066.html