Study strengthens link between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and
problems in protein production machinery of cells and identifies possible treatment strategy
The gene, known as SRG1, makes ribonucleic acid, or RNA — an important middle
step in protein production — but it does not produce proteins.
Traumatic brain injury persistently turns on the cellular stress response — and the resulting
drop in protein production may slow critical cognitive processes.
But in a recent study, researchers described a balancing act that seems more counterintuitive than most: Bacterial cells prioritize transcription — the process of making RNA transcripts of genes as the first
step in protein production — over repairing double - strand breaks in their DNA.
Traumatic brain injury, for example, persistently turns on the cellular stress response, and the resulting
drop in protein production may slow critical cognitive processes such as learning and memory, which require brain cells to produce proteins that help create long - lasting connections in the brain.