Inflammation Gene Discovered

The finding has implications for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and infections.

The protein, called SEPS1 (selenoprotein), was identified as a type of "garbage truck” that helps clear cells of misfolded proteins that build up when cells are placed under stress. Inflammation develops when those faulty proteins accumulate in a cell. People with a genetic variation that impairs the ability of SEPS1 to purify the cells by clearing out the bad proteins tend to suffer higher levels of inflammation than people in whom the gene fulfills that role more efficiently. The researchers found the same relationship between SEPS1 and inflammation in two ethnically distinct populations living in different geographic regions of the United States: Wisconsin and Texas.

"Practically every common disease involves an inflammation component,” said senior author John Blangero, Ph.D., a scientist at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in San Antonio (TX, USA), one of the world's leading independent research institutions. "So the discovery of a new player in the inflammation pathway opens up many potential avenues for intervention on a broad range of health issues.”

Scientists from Deakin University (Geelong, Australia), the International Diabetes Institute (Melboune, Australia), and ChemGenex Phamaceuticals (Geelong, Australia) also contributed to the study. Their findings were reported in the October 9 online issue of Nature Genetics.