Solving a 30-year old micronutrient mystery vital to health

For the past 30 years, scientists have been unable to explain how our bodies absorb a micronutrient that is vital to our health. But now, a team of international scientists have finally solved the mystery.

Co-led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Florida, the study was able to pinpoint which gene in the human body allows queuosine, a microscopic molecule, to enter the cells.

First discovered in the 1970s, queuosine – pronounced “cue-o-scene” – is a vitamin-like micronutrient that human bodies are incapable of making ourselves. Instead, the micronutrient enters the body from food and our gut bacteria.

“We have known for a long time that queuosine influences critical processes like brain health, metabolic regulation, cancer and even responses to stress,” says Vincent Kelly, a professor at Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology. “But until now we haven’t known how it is salvaged from the gut and distributed to the billions of human cells that take it in.”

In their research, the team were able to identify SLC35F as the specific gene responsible for transporting the micronutrient around the body that helps translate genetic codes into proteins.

“It’s like a nutrient that fine-tunes how your body reads your genes,” says Professor Valérie de Crécy-Lagard, a department associate chair in microbiology and cell science from the University of Florida. 

Cells in the body can then use proteins to make enzymes and build and repair muscles and bones. 

“The idea that this small compound, which people have barely heard of, plays such an important role, is fascinating.” – Professor Valérie de Crécy-Lagard.

The gene has been maintained across millions of years of evolution, being present in both simple, single-cell organisms to modern day humans, indicating its functional importance for life. 

Previous studies about SLC35F have mostly focused on the gene’s role in getting cancer drugs and viruses into the body, but scientists were unsure of what its role was in a healthy body. 

“For over 30 years, scientists have suspected that there had to be a transporter for this nutrient, but no one could find it,” says de Crécy-Lagard. 

“We’ve been hunting for it for a long time. This discovery opens up a whole new chapter in understanding how the microbiome and our diet can influence the translation of our genes.” 

The team is hopeful that the discovery can be a starting point to develop breakthroughs in medical research and potential new therapies, given queuosine’s role includes memory, how the brain learns new information and even cancer suppression. 

“This study not only paves the way for detailed analysis of potential new therapeutic strategies but also provides fresh insight into how what we eat — and the microbes we live with — can influence our fundamental biology,” says Kelly. 

The study was published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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