Is It Our DNA?

I came across a very interesting article. It shows how the way of thinking about DNA transcription, where the information in DNA is not directly converted into proteins, but first copied into RNA, then translated into protein, may not be so simple. While the DNA information does not change, the messenger RNA  which uses an enzyme called ADAR (adenosine deaminase, RNA-specific) can make adjustments for the formation of the right proteins based on what is needed and essentially by changes in environment.

In other words, the sleek simplicity of the general medical view: DNA to RNA to proteins isn’t so slick and simple. This means the world around us can change which proteins our bodies make. It is huge for the realization of gene-targeted therapy. Up until now the thought of “nothing can change our genes” was the way of the world. The mere thought of gene-targeted therapies were thought to be foolish and followed only by crazies.

While we can not change the core of our DNA/genes, we can alter their production of proteins by adjusting or repairing RNA transcription errors with an enzyme called ADAR. Essentially, it can restore the function of a mutated gene. The scientists in this article use a technique that allows the process to be studied by making it fluorescent after being repaired by the enzyme.

It is all new to the majority of science very interesting to them indeed. Because the technique actually repairs an error and restores a function, it offers promise for gene therapy-based treatments at the RNA not the DNA level. This treatment would target transcription mistakes, which may contribute to diseases such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and suicidal depression.

What amazes me is, gene-targeted therapy has been successfully implemented on a different level by Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski. He has been fighting for the right to help and really cure people of different types of cancers for around 20 years. It irks and excites me that finally the scientific community will see there is a better way to treat many of the diseases prevalent in our society other than dangerous drugs or the traditional ways of treating cancer.

Read on to learn more…

RNA Editing in Real Time

In the picture – Glowing genes: White arrows show hot spots of ADAR activation; courtesy of Reenan Lab/Brown University

It’s a long way from gene to protein. The dogmatic scenario is: DNA gets transcribed into RNA, which gets translated into protein. But in real life, and in real living things, the workings aren’t quite that simple.

One example: individual units of RNA sometimes need to be converted, in what’s called RNA editing, into related entities for the ultimate formation of the right proteins. An enzyme called ADAR (adenosine deaminase, RNA-specific) is responsible for a specific such alteration important for good nervous system function.

Now researchers have devised a technique for seeing this particular RNA editing process in real time the corrected strand gives off a green glow and even for the restoration of functionality. “We can take a mutant version of a gene and restore its function,” Brown University’s Robert Reenan explained in a prepared statement. The findings were described online Sunday in the journal Nature Methods (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

Reenan and colleagues produced fruit flies that included an altered version of the gene for the oft-used lab tool green fluorescent protein. The protein product of their genetic construct would not glow until it was first repaired by ADAR. “We’re actually repairing RNA at the level of a single informational bit, or nucleotide,” Reenan said.

By following the green glow, the team was able to track the patterns of ADAR in the fruit flies’ brains in vivo. “We designed the molecular reporter to give us a fluorescent readout from living organisms,” Reenan said.

Because the technique actually repairs an error and restores a function, it suggests promise for gene therapy-based treatments but at the RNA rather than DNA level. Such treatment would target transcription mistakes, which may contribute to diseases such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and suicidal depression.

Reenan and colleagues have previously described connections between ADAR function and a fruit fly model for Fragile X mental retardation, caused by a mutation on the X chromosome. If the new tool can expose correlations between ADAR activity and disease states, it could reveal the role of RNA editing errors in the genesis of those syndromes.

Future research will reveal whether the green glow technique gets a green light to help researchers study and maybe even treat gene-related neurological diseases in humans.

Steve Mirsky contributed to this story.

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