How Selenium Works in the Body – Effects on Cancer, Diabetes and Heart Disease – Healing Practice

Vital processes in the absorption of selenium decoded

For the first time, an international research team deciphered which vital processes in connection with the Intake of the essential trace element selenium are linked. The findings could have implications for the treatment of many different conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease affect.

A German-American working group was able to show for the first time that trace element selenium in 25 specialized proteins is installed. These proteins are involved in a variety of cellular and metabolic processes involved and therefore crucial for the overall health. The corresponding study results were published in the renowned journal “Science” presents.

Selenium is a vital trace element

selenium is a vital one trace element, which is found in soil, water and some foods. Among other things, it is in groceries such as meat, fish, eggs, mushrooms, cabbage, onion vegetables, lentils, asparagus and nuts.

Most detailed explanation to date

As part of the current study, the researchers have now been able to explain in the most detailed way how selenium gets to the places in the body where the trace element is needed. All in all 25 proteins are therefore at the transport of selenium involved.

According to the study, selenium is first obtained from the essential amino acid selenocysteine encapsulated. The amino acid is then incorporated into 25 different proteins known as selenium proteins be designated.

Structures never seen before revealed

“This work has uncovered structures that have never been seen before, some of which are unique in all of biology”emphasizes study author Professor Paul Copeland from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

With the help of the most modern imaging technology – the so-called cryo-electron microscopywhich uses electron beams instead of light, the team was able to generate three-dimensional images of complex biological formations with near-atomic resolution.

In this way, the scientists were able to understand the complicated structures of proteins and others biomolecules represent. By lining up thousands of images, one was created Stop Motion Animationshowing how these structures move and change.

How selenium gets to where it needs to be in the body

It was thus possible to document for the first time how the Incorporation of selenium into proteins takes place and what complex cellular machinery is deployed for it. It was already known which proteins and RNA molecules enable these processes.

However, it was previously unclear how the components involved interact. The study now shows for the first time an ongoing process that otherwise no other known process in the human body is comparable.

It involves attaching the amino acid selenocysteine ​​(SEC) to a unique RNA molecule that needs to be transported to the ribosome via a specialized protein factor, explains Professor Copeland, whose team has spent 20 years trying to understand this process.

“And all of this has evolved in humans specifically so that selenium can be incorporated into this handful of proteins”the professor points out.

What selenium proteins do in the body

According to the working group, once SEC is incorporated into the selenoproteins, the proteins fulfill a variety of vital functionsthat for growth and development are necessary. For example

• they produce building blocks of DNA, the so-called nucleotides,
• break down or store fat for energy
• build cell membranes
• produce the thyroid hormone, which controls the metabolism of the human body,
• the selenium proteins react to oxidative stress by detoxifying by-products in the cells.

Findings relevant to numerous diseases

Is the Production of selenium proteins disturbedcan serious Ailments and illnesses arise, emphasize the scientists involved. Diseases associated with impaired production of selenium proteins include, for example

“Understanding the mechanism by which SEC is taken up is a fundamental part of developing new therapies for a variety of diseases”summed up Copeland.

Numerous institutions from Germany and the USA were involved in the study, including Rutgers University in New Jersey, the Institute for Medical Physics and Biophysics in Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and the University of Illinois in Chicago. (vb)