Common plant compound may protect against deadly pancreas disease
Tian Y, Zhang Y, Gao Q, Zhang P, You L
Medicinal Plants
The compound behind this discovery, kaempferol, is the same flavonoid found in kale, broccoli, and the tea leaves growing in your garden, and it turns out to have a surprisingly precise molecular trick up its sleeve.
Kaempferol is a natural compound found in lots of everyday plants like kale, broccoli, and tea. Researchers found it can latch onto a specific protein on pancreatic cells and rewire its internal signal, turning a self-destruct switch into a survival switch. In mice with severe pancreatitis, this stopped a huge number of pancreatic cells from dying, hinting that a plant nutrient many of us already eat might one day help treat a serious disease.
Key Findings
CD47 protein is upregulated in severe acute pancreatitis and its removal reduces pancreatic acinar cell death through a KEAP1/PGAM5/AIFM1 death pathway called oxeiptosis
Kaempferol binds an allosteric site on the CD47 ectodomain, stabilizing a CD47-UBQLN1 complex and redirecting signaling from a Gαi death pathway to a Gβγ/ERK/NRF2 survival pathway
Kaempferol's protective effect was fully CD47-dependent: it gave no extra benefit in CD47-knockout cells/mice and its effect wasn't overridden by CD47 overexpression, while ERK inhibition blocked its protection
chevron_right Technical Summary
Kaempferol, a natural plant compound found in foods like kale and tea, protects pancreatic cells from dying during severe pancreatitis by binding a cell-surface protein called CD47 and flipping its signaling from a death pathway to a survival one. This could point toward a new treatment for a disease that currently has no targeted therapy.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Kaempferol functionally reprograms CD47 signaling to promote cytoprotection and attenuate oxeiptosis in severe acute pancreatitis.
Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) lacks targeted therapies, and massive loss of functional pancreatic acinar cells (PAC) drives mortality. Kaempferol (KA) possesses well-established anti-inflammatory...
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