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M. Shchepinov reported on his research of isotope-reinforced polyunsaturated fatty acids
December 20, 2013
Yesterday, in our Institute Mikhail Shchepinov (Retrotope Inc., USA) made a report on the latest advancements in his research of deuterium-reinforced polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA).
The project on isotope reinforcement became well-known in Belarus after several publications in media, which discussed the use of deuterated fatty acids from the point of view of human life prolongation. Our Laboratory and the Belarusian State University were taking part in this work for several years. Still, the project has a large potential for cooperation, and biological or medical institutions could also be interested in it. It was the reason the reason why Dr. Shchepinov was invited to present the current state of his research to the personnel of the Institute and our guests.
At the beginning, Dr. Shchepinov shared his thoughts about how creatures began their "oxygen" life and how dramatic were the effects of the oxygen on their biochemical processes. Then he presented briefly the mechanistic considerations on the oxidative stress and explained how isotope-reinforced PUFA stop the propagation of free-radical reaction which does harm to a living cell.
The initial experiments of Mikhail and his collaborators were conducted on yeast cells which lacked the natural mechanisms of oxidative stress protection. It was shown that not only site-specifically deuterated PUFA, but even fatty acid mixtures with only 20 % of deuterated material suppressed lipid autooxidation.
The work of Mikhail Shchepinov is not only of theoretical interest. It has a variety of practical implementations in medicine. Several neurological and mitochondrial diseases are in sight of Mikhail's team. Friedreich's ataxia, parkinsonism, Alzheimer's disease and eye disorders are among them. The results obtained on cells, organ cultures and mice and presented during the report show pronouned effect of deuterated PUFA on organism protection.
The take-home message of the report was that the lipid autooxidation might be the main trigger of several diseases, and isotope reinforcement of lipids was certainly the method of overcoming these problems.
See also
- Visit Retrotope website.
- Check our Publications page for publications on isotope reinforcement.
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Page last updated: 01.25.2014 21:51