华东理工大学赵玉政小组在最新研究中报道，点亮精氨酸代谢揭示了其生理病理功能的多样性。2024年10月15日出版的《细胞—代谢》杂志发表了这项成果。

研究人员表示，精氨酸是代谢功能最广泛的氨基酸之一，在多种生物和病理过程中起着关键作用。然而，对原位精氨酸动力学的敏感跟踪在技术上仍然具有挑战性。

该课题组设计设计了高性能的荧光生物传感器，称为对精氨酸敏感的传感器（STAR），用于揭示细胞、小鼠和临床样本中的精氨酸代谢。利用STAR，研究人员展示了不同氨基酸在调节细胞内和细胞外精氨酸水平中的作用。

STAR能够监测巨噬细胞激活、吞噬作用、吞噬细胞凋亡和细胞衰老过程中精氨酸的波动，揭示依赖于于精氨酸的可用性的细胞衰老。

此外，基于STAR的简单快速检测显示，血清精氨酸水平随年龄的增长而升高，血清精氨酸水平升高是区分白癜风进展和严重程度的潜在指标。

总的来说，他们的研究为精氨酸的代谢和功能作用，以及它在诊断和治疗应用中的潜力提供了重要的见解。

附：英文原文

Title: Lighting up arginine metabolism reveals its functional diversity in physiology and pathology

Author: Rui Li, Yan Li, Kun Jiang, Lijuan Zhang, Ting Li, Aihua Zhao, Zhuo Zhang, Yale Xia, Kun Ge, Yaqiong Chen, Chengnuo Wang, Weitao Tang, Shuning Liu, Xiaoxi Lin, Yuqin Song, Jie Mei, Chun Xiao, Aoxue Wang, Yejun Zou, Xie Li, Xianjun Chen, Zhenyu Ju, Wei Jia, Joseph Loscalzo, Yu Sun, Wei Fang, Yi Yang, Yuzheng Zhao

Issue&Volume: 2024-10-15

Abstract: Arginine is one of the most metabolically versatile amino acids and plays pivotal roles in diverse biological and pathological processes; however, sensitive tracking of arginine dynamics in situ remains technically challenging. Here, we engineer high-performance fluorescent biosensors, denoted sensitive to arginine (STAR), to illuminate arginine metabolism in cells, mice, and clinical samples. Utilizing STAR, we demonstrate the effects of different amino acids in regulating intra- and extracellular arginine levels. STAR enabled live-cell monitoring of arginine fluctuations during macrophage activation, phagocytosis, efferocytosis, and senescence and revealed cellular senescence depending on arginine availability. Moreover, a simple and fast assay based on STAR revealed that serum arginine levels tended to increase with age, and the elevated serum arginine level is a potential indicator for discriminating the progression and severity of vitiligo. Collectively, our study provides important insights into the metabolic and functional roles of arginine, as well as its potential in diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.09.011

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(24)00375-9