Human cells have a defense mechanism that protects them from microbial attacks, an international researchers has discovered.

When microbes enter our body, they liberate toxins that can damage cells by poking holes in the external cell layer. To defend themselves from the intrusion, cells scramble their membrane fat (lipid) into a more liquid form that allows them to fix the holes, the research team found.

Those repairs prevent the cells from breaking up and dying. The discovery was recently published in Cell Reports.

''Our body is very clever", said the author. "Some microbes cause diseases by punching holes in the external layer of cells and killing these cells. But our body has the ability to repair these holes. We have identified a molecule, known as TMEM16F, that can repair the holes and prevent the cells from dying."

Upon pore formation and the subsequent influx of intracellular calcium, TMEM16F induced rapid “lipid scrambling” in the plasma membrane. This response was accompanied by membrane blebbing, extracellular vesicle release, preserved membrane integrity, and increased cell viability.

TMEM16F-deficient mice exhibited compromised control of infection by Listeria monocytogenes associated with a greater sensitivity of neutrophils to the pore-forming Listeria toxin listeriolysin O (LLO). Thus, the lipid scramblase TMEM16F is critical for plasma membrane repair after injury by pore-forming agents.

The researchers hope that by stimulating the scrambling of cell fat with new drugs, they may help to protect humans from some microbes such as listeria, which causes severe diarrhea, and streptococcus, which can trigger destruction of blood cells.

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(19)31723-1

http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=publications%2Fcritical-role-of-lipid&filter=22