Mysterious "blobs" in cells whose function remains unknown 50 years after their discovery could be crucial to life and play a key role in diseases such as cancer.
They're not talking about the de-frosted Blob of terror but rather strange cloudy structures, known as "assemblages", which consist of shifting collections of proteins.
Scientists have no idea why they are there - despite knowing of their existence since the invention of the electron microscope half a century ago.
Now two American experts are calling on colleagues around the world to step up research on the blobs in the hope of opening up new avenues for treating disease.
Professor Jeffrey Toretsky, from Georgetown University in Washington DC - one of the authors of a review article in the Journal of Cell Biology, said: "I want to know what these assemblages are doing in Ewing sarcoma, the disease I concentrate on - and I would think all other researchers who study human biology would want to know their functions in both health and disease."
He and colleague Professor Peter Wright, from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, together compiled an overview of what is known about assemblages.
If the blobs play a role in disease, it might be possible to target them with a small-molecule drug, the scientists believe.
Toretsky added: "Current drug-discovery dogma suggests that it is very hard to make a small molecule to prevent two structured proteins from interacting. However, small molecules have a greater likelihood of disrupting intrinsically disordered protein-protein interactions.
"This review links together very basic biologic phenomena of protein interaction with the potential for new drug discovery. It's an exciting challenge."
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/research-appeal-over-cell-blobs-185814322.html
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