Sunday, November 15, 2020

Studying Squids to Help Find a New Way of Pain Relief

 

    Some organisms can make edits or changes to their genetic material. Most organisms perform this function of editing their RNA in the nucleus and then are sent out to the rest of the cell. Squids however, discovered a way to change up the genetics of their cytoplasm. This is a first for animals editing genetic information outside of the nucleus. Studying how the squid species perform this odd function could aid in medical research. A study on this matter was conducted by extracting cytoplasm for a squid's axons after they discovered that mRNA editing proteins were found in the squids nerve cells. The protein ADAR2 was found to be located in both the squids cytoplasm and the nucleus of neurons. This would explain why these squids were able to change the genetic material in the cytoplasm. 

I believe that these findings are important because they could help scientists find a way to reduce long term pain in human nerve cells. I think manipulating the genetics of the mRNA can help find new advances in modern medicine. Axon dysfunction in humans is linked to neurological disorders, these new findings and studies could potentially also help humans therapeutically.


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/squid-edit-their-genetic-material-uniquely-weird-place


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200323125629.htm#:~:text=In%202015%2C%20Rosenthal%20and%20colleagues,produced%20in%20the%20nervous%20system

2 comments:

  1. I think it is also important because if we can find a safe way to relieve pain it would help alot. People have long term pain issues like arthritis and carpel tunnel that could use better pain reducers.

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  2. I like this a lot. It is always good to find a new way to relieve pain and get people off of addictive drugs such as opiates. I am a cannabis studies minor and am all about holistic medicine or medicine that is different from the main stream pharmaceutical companies so reading this tells me there is a lot more to explore when it comes to pain management. Thanks for the information.

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