Tags : liver disease treatment, liver proteins
Chinese Scientists Develop Database of Liver Proteins For Numerous Health Treatments
Beijing, China (AHN) – Scientists from 11 research centers in China are reporting the creation of a database containing proteins produced by genes in a single human organ. Researcher’s area of focus was the liver in the hopes of creating a massive assortment in both protein and transcript levels which could be used as a roadmap for finding possible new biomarkers and treatments for liver disease.
The study of the China Human Liver Proteome Project launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) and chaired by Fuchu He had some of the findings released in a new journal on the topic. Health officials hope that treatments could be could devised for diseases such as hepatitis and liver cancer, which is at epidemic levels in China and affects millions of people worldwide.
He and colleagues point out that the liver plays many essential roles in the body, such as producing digestive enzymes, hormones, most of the proteins in the blood, storing carbohydrates for use in supplying energy to the muscles, and activates and breaks down drugs. Despite that key role, huge gaps likely exist in scientific knowledge about proteins involved in these activities.
Using 10 tissue samples of healthy liver from volunteers, researchers identified 6,788 non-redundant proteins in the liver samples, the largest group of proteins ever identified by scientists in any human organ.
Half of the proteins uncovered in the project have never been seen in the human liver before. An interesting finding scientists uncovered was many of the new-found proteins appear related to diseases in the nervous system.
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