Food can change the human genes
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Chinese scientists from the University of Nanjing (Nanjing university) have shown that molecules that enter the human body together with plant food, affect the work of genes.
This discovery was published in the journal Cell Research. The study concerned microRNA sequences of 19-24 nucleotides that do not participate in the synthesis of proteins, but perform very important regulatory functions in the human body. Linking to the matrix RNA (mRNA), they directly affect the process of protein synthesis. Recently, their role in the development of various pathologies, such as deafness and diabetes mellitus, has been proven.
Project manager Chen-Yu Zhang and his colleagues discovered the presence of a variety of microRNAs (MIR168a), which is characteristic of rice cells, in the blood of Chinese. Scientists were surprised by the fact that these molecules, being foreign, did not split in the digestive tract into simpler molecules, but were present whole in the blood.
A study of the mechanism of action of MIR168a was performed on cell culture and modified laboratory mice. It was found that as a result of binding of MIR168a to mRNA, the synthesis of the low-density lipoprotein receptor in the liver decreases, which leads to an increase in the level of LDL in the blood plasma. Thus, biologists have proved that the foreign microRNA of plant origin, entering the human blood in unchanged form, changes the metabolism.
This process can be compared with the transfer of genes in prokaryotes, when genes are transferred to unrelated organisms. It is this mechanism that is observed in the development of antibiotic resistance of bacteria.
The results of this study show that food is not only a source of nutrients, but also foreign information that reprograms our genes.
The authors of the article hope that this discovery gives new opportunities for the development of plant biotechnology.
[