AI Insight
Researchers at Nagoya University discovered that a brain enzyme responsible for producing polysialic acid, a sugar chain essential for brain development and function, can build this sugar chain on itself. This self-modification causes the enzyme to be secreted from the cell in an inactive state, and it becomes active again only after the sugar chain is removed outside the cell. This finding challenges the long-held understanding of how polysialic acid is produced and reveals a previously unknown mechanism of enzyme self-regulation.
Why it matters
This discovery could advance our understanding of brain development and neurological disorders, as polysialic acid plays a critical role in neural plasticity and cell migration. The newly identified self-regulatory mechanism may inform future therapeutic approaches for conditions involving abnormal brain development or function.
A chance discovery at Nagoya University in Japan has shown that a well-known brain enzyme has a hidden ability: It builds a sugar chain on itself, becomes secreted from the cell and deactivates, then switches on outside the cell once the chain is removed. The finding, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, overturns a decades-old assumption about how polysialic acid, a sugar chain critical for brain development and function, is produced and shows a new way an enzyme can regulate its own activity.
Source: Brain enzyme caught doing something unexpected—it builds polysialic acid on itself