Dietary manipulation may provide protection against toxic substances such as nicotine and chemotherapy, study finds

A Monash University study found that removing a single essential amino acid conferred tolerance to chemicals such as nicotine.

Removing amino acids may also offer protection against physical trauma such as surgery and chemotherapy.

A study by researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences announced today that open biology It has broad implications for improving health outcomes.

The research team used the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to examine the relationship between dietary amino acids and stress tolerance.

They used a chemically defined medium for fruit flies to limit adult flies to a single essential amino acid, which usually protects them from lethal doses of nicotine, a naturally occurring insecticide. I found

“This protection depends on the restricted amino acid and the duration and intensity of that restriction,” said study author Talia Fulton, Ph.D. She is a candidate for the Faculty of Biological Sciences.

“Our study provides new insights into the physiological responses to restriction of individual amino acids that confer stress tolerance.”

“These findings may one day form the basis for the optimal pre-treatment diet for humans, pets and farm animals to eat before physical stress.”

A nutritionally modified diet promotes stress tolerance in model systems, but the reasons for this are unknown.

The full spectrum of these signaling interactions and the specific mechanisms by which each individual amino acid is detected remain to be clarified.

However, in this study, researchers found that transient deprivation of nearly all essential amino acids increased nicotine tolerance in Drosophila.

Flies fed diets lacking isoleucine tolerated nicotine doses from 0.33 mg/mL to 1 mg/mL compared to complete diet controls. We show that at nicotine concentrations below 0.17 mg/mL, adult flies survive without isoleucine, and that the benefit of this diet on survival becomes apparent only when flies are exposed to greater nicotine stress. I’m here.

Long-term removal of isoleucine from the diet shortened lifespan, whereas short-term removal of isoleucine had no effect on the lifespan of flies.

Protection is mediated by interactions between two known amino acid sensors, GCN2 (General Control Non-derepressible 2) and mTORC1 (mechanical target of rapamycin complex 1).

“This study paves the way for a better understanding of the environmental factors that alter insect susceptibility to pesticides and the opportunity to use diet to help patients recover from planned treatments with toxins such as chemotherapy. may open.