大象传媒

The research group led by Thomas Arnesen has published two "back-to-back" articles in the April issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (Impact factor 9.5).

These articles form a coherent story. They聽describe how the researchers discovered NAA80 as the specific enzyme responsible for N-terminal acetylation of actin. This is an enzyme that the world of science has been looking for since the 80s, and it is only now that both the enzyme and its function have been discovered. The researchers found that this modification is crucial for the structure of the cytoskeleton and cell movement. They also solved the structure of the NAA80 and developed powerful and selective NAA80 inhibitors. This is a good starting point for the development of small molecule drugs.

The articles have solved a puzzle in molecular biology and have inspired multiple laboratories worldwide聽that聽now investigate whether the discovery can be of importance for cancer metastasis or drug development. Preliminary聽unpublished data suggest that the newly-defined enzyme affects the invasiveness of cancer cells.

We have also previously written a popular scienctific聽summary on the findings here: Putting a break on cell movement

Here are the articles:

• Adrian Drazic,聽Henriette Aksnes,聽Micha毛l Marie,聽Malgorzata Boczkowska,聽Sylvia Varland,聽Evy Timmerman,聽H氓vard Foyn,聽Nina Glomnes,聽Grzegorz Rebowski,聽Francis Impens,聽Kris Gevaert,聽Roberto Dominguez聽and聽Thomas Arnesen (2018) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115 (17): 4399-4404.
• Marianne Goris,聽Robert S. Magin,聽H氓vard Foyn,聽Line M. Myklebust,聽Sylvia Varland,聽Rasmus Ree,聽Adrian Drazic,聽Parminder Bhambra,聽Svein I. St酶ve,聽Markus Baumann,聽Bengt Erik Haug,聽Ronen Marmorstein聽and聽Thomas Arnesen (2018) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115 (17): 4405-4410.

The articles were highlighted on聽the journal cover聽and聽a commentary:
Peter A. Rubenstein and聽Kuo-kuang Wen "NATure of actin amino-terminal acetylation", PNAS聽115 (17) 4314-4316.