• Question: 'PI3K isoforms in T cells' < what is this ??? :D

    Asked by minidt2208 to Amy on 21 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by fatimaxxo.
    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hey guys!

      Awesome question – and sorry it’s taken me so long to answer!! My bad!

      Inside our cells there is a humungous number of proteins which all interact in very complicated pathways to direct the cell to do things – like release chemical messages (cytokines) or divide into more cells (proliferate).

      No one is very clear on how some of these proteins work, what other proteins they interact with and how some of them are needed for important cell functions. What happens if we don’t have these proteins in the cell? or we have a broken version of a protein that can’t do its job? what makes very similar proteins different? if one isn’t there can another one step in and take over? These are the sorts of questions I am trying to answer about a family of proteins called the Class 1A phosphoinositide-3-kinases (catchy huh?!)…at least one of them appears to be very important for the functioning of white blood cells in our bodies.

      So what is PI3K?

      PI3K is a protein that is found inside all of the cells in our body. But it’s not just that simple – there are actually lots of different sorts (or “flavours”) of PI3K. Think of it like smarties – there are actually blue ones, pink ones, green ones, orange ones. These are split into “classes” (like in school) and the class that I am interested in has 3 smarties in it I guess! They are called “alpha”, “beta” and “delta” (yeah I would have called them much cooler names – like Bernard and Fatima …but it wasn’t up to me).
      All three of these proteins are found in white blood cells that we have in our bodies to help fight infection. There is not much of beta though (so not many blue smarties) but quite a lot of alpha and delta. Delta is like the orange smartie – it has all the taste!! Up until now everyone thought that it was the main protein in the cell for lots of important functions…but I am looking at what alpha (the pink one) could be doing and why.

      This could be really important for designing drugs to help people who have diseases caused by over-active immune systems where these proteins are far too excited and are doing things they shouldn’t!

      Does this make any sense at all? if you are totally confused and I am just rambling about smarties please say! 🙂

Comments