This deep-sea enzyme survives heat that destroys most proteins - Science Daily

Researchers co-led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University have identified an enzyme that may help protect the liver from the damage that can occur as the most common form of liver disease becomes more severe. The findings, from a preclinical study published in Nature Metabolism, could eventually support new strategies for preventing serious liver injury and progression toward liver failure. An estimated 100 million people in the U. S. have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to the American Liver Foundation. Roughly 20% to 25% of those affected go on to develop metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a more serious form of the condition in which excess liver fat is accompanied by inflammation, cell injury and scarring.

AI design tools make proteins that break bonds that are stable for hundreds of years. A protein is a chain of amino acids held together by what are called peptide bonds. On their own, those bonds are extremely stable; they’re estimated to have a half-life of several hundred years. But in Earth’s environment, most proteins don’t last nearly that long. That’s because organisms have evolved a handful of ways to catalyze the break-up of peptide bonds, which have diversified into countless specialized protein-digesting enzymes. Proteases are everywhere and generally make short work of any proteins that find their way into the environment.

Google DeepMind researchers who developed the method say that this will help uphold scientific integrity and prevent misuse of protein designs Google DeepMind has developed a way to watermark proteins designed by artificial intelligence (AI) during the design process itself, which could help scientists better track the origin of these structures.