In a study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers describe how a cancer-linked version of the protein mitoNEET can close the primary gateways in the outer surface of mitochondria, the “power plants” that supply cells with chemical energy. These gateways, or “voltage-dependent anion channels” (VDACs), normally open and close to allow the passage of metabolites and other small molecules between mitochondria and the rest of the cell.
“The VDAC channel transports all types of metabolites between the cytosol and the mitochondria,” said study co-author José Onuchic, a physicist and co-director of Rice University’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP). “Dysfunction of this channel is involved in many diseases including cancer and fatty liver disease.”
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