Dr. David Gubb of CIC bioGUNE

A team of researchers from CIC bioGUNE and the Andalusian Centre for Development Biology, led by the British scientist David Gubb, from the Basque centre’s Functional Genomics Unit, has discovered a mechanism for regulating the serum protein serpin (serine protease inhibitor) thanks to the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The research project was published in the prestigious science journal Plos Genetics.

Serpins are a numerous group of proteins with similar structures with an ability to inhibit other proteins (namely enzymes in the protease group). They are of great interest to researchers as they control cellular processes such as resistance to fungal and bacterial infections, the coagulation of blood and inflammation.

Disorders in serpin metabolism underlie a major group of human genetic diseases, known as serpinopathies, which are associated with the failure to clear serpin polymers and mutated proteins that produce necrotic molecules similar to inactive polymers.

Gubb highlighted the importance of the discovery. “In humans fungal infections are very important, especially in cases where the immune system is depressed: for instance, in cases of HIV/AIDS, medication following an organ transplant, and fungi such as Aspergillus, very common in humans. In such cases, they can lead to death within 24 hours.”