It is difficult to find similarities between Grenoble and Hollywood or between the researchers at the ESRF and the Institut de Biologie Structural (IBS) and world-known filmmakers.
However, scientists from these institutes based in Grenoble (France) have managed to produce a movie. The actors are not celebrities but a protein whose role is to eliminate toxic molecules. They filmed this protein in action by freezing it at several states. They publish their results this week in Science.
Most of the research done on proteins is based on their study in a resting state and their study in movement is extremely limited due to technological limitations. Today, a French team has made a movie of an enzyme (a protein that catalyses chemical reactions) found in bacteria. "The achievement of this research is two-fold: on one side there is the technological success of filming an enzyme in action and on the other hand there are the results that contribute to the knowledge of how this enzyme works", explains Dominique Bourgeois, corresponding author for the paper.
The enzyme filmed in action is called 'superoxide reductase", its role is to eliminate a toxic molecule called 'superoxide radical'. In order to survive, all living organisms have to fight oxidative stress, produced by outflows of the oxygen metabolism. In humans, about 2% of the oxygen used to breathe is transformed into this toxic 'superoxide radical' molecule, instead of water. This production is increased in people affected by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer. A high amount of these molecules worsen these illnesses, so scientists are looking for drugs to eliminate them.