Penn Medicine researchers have solved a decades-old mystery around a key molecule fueling the power plant of cells that could be exploited to find new ways to treat diseases, from neurodegenerative disorders to cancer.
Reporting in a new study published in Nature, researchers from the Department of Physiology in the Perelman School of Medicine and other institutions found that the SLC25A51 gene dictates the transport of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a fundamental coenzyme in cellular metabolism, to the mitochondria, where energy from nutrients is converted into chemical energy for the cell. A low level of NAD+ is a hallmark of aging and has been associated with diseases including muscular dystrophy and heart failure.
“We have long known that NAD+ plays a critical role in the mitochondria, but the question of how it gets there had been left unanswered,” says co-senior author Joseph A. Baur, an associate professor of physiology and member of Penn’s Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism. “This discovery opens up a whole new area of research where we can actually manipulate—selectively deplete or add—NAD+ at a subcellular level, now that we know how it’s transported.”
This story is by Melissa Moody. Read more at Penn Medicine News.
