Enzymes in microbiomes and diseases: SARS-CoV-2, cancer, ageing and obesity as study cases


Abstract

Enzymes are proteins that catalyse biochemical reactions that make life possible since 3.8 billion years ago. We have been able to "domesticate" them in such a way that they, and engineered variants thereof, are now a key part of the circular economy. However, there is no aspect of  microbiome and human biology that escapes the influence of enzymes. In this lecture I summarise new advances in how certain enzymes may be representative of diseases and disorders, including SARS-CoV-2 [1], cancer [2], ageing [3] and obesity [4], and how enzyme-based interventions may solve metabolic deficits.

References
[1]
DanielJiménez,JavierMartínez-Sanz, Talía Sainz, Cristina Calvo, Ana Méndez-Echevarría,Elena Moreno, Daniel Blázquez-Gamero, Pilar Vizcarra, Mario Rodríguez, Robert Jenkins, Matilde Sánchez-Conde, Raquel Ron, Francesca Norman, Santiago Moreno, Manuel Ferrer, Sergio Serrano- Villar, Differences in saliva ACE2 activity among infected and non-infected adult and pediatric population exposed to SARS-CoV-2. J.Infect. 85(1),86-89(2022).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.04.041.
[2]
Sergio Serrano-Villar, Santiago Moreno, Manuel Ferrer,The functional consequences of the microbiome inHIV:insightsfrommetabolomicstudies.Curr.Opin.HIVAIDS.13(1),88-94(2018). https://doi.org/10.1097/COH.0000000000000430.
[3] Susana Ruiz‐Ruiz, Sergio Sanchez‐Carrillo, Sergio Ciordia, María C. Mena, Celia Méndez‐García, David Rojo, Rafael Bargiela, Elisa Zubeldia‐Varela, Mónica Martínez‐Martínez, Coral Barbas, Manuel Ferrer, Andrés Moya, Functional microbiome deficits associated with ageing: Chronological age threshold. Aging Cell19(1),e13063 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13063.
[4] Nuria Salazar,ManuelPonce-Alonso,María Garriga,Sergio Sanchez-Carrillo, Ana María Hernández-Barranco, Begoña Redruello, María Fernández, José Ignacio Botella-Carretero, Belén Vega-Piñero, Javier Galeano,J avier Zamora, Manuel Ferrer, Clara G.de Los Reyes-Gavilán, Rosa  Del Campo,Fecal metabolome and bacterial composition in severe obesity: impact of diet and bariatric surgery. Gut Microbes14(1),2106102 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2106102.


About the Speaker(s)

speakerDr. Manuel Ferrer graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Granada, Spain, in 1994. In the same year, he began his scientific career at the Institute of Catalysis & Petroleochemistry (www.icp.csic.es) that belongs to the CSIC (www.csic.es), where he obtained his PhD in 1999,  under the supervision of Prof. A. Ballesteros and F.J. Plou. In January 2001 he started a postdoctoral stay at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany, after which he returned to the ICP-CSIC where he iscurrently Research Professor and the head of the Systems Biotechnology group (https://www.sysbio.org.es). The research by Prof. Ferrer is multi- and inter-disciplinar, with expertise in all steps from discovery, engineering and implementation of enzymes as key element for the circular economy, to the understanding of the role and connection between enzymes and diseases.


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