30 Oct Our team’s review on Membrane Lipid Composition is widely discussed by the scientific community
October 30th, 2020
A recent review article,1 published by Laminar Pharma scientists in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS), has awoken the interest of the scientific community and reaffirmed our company’s pioneering role in the field of membrane lipid composition, especially with regards to therapeutic applications.
Last year, the IJMS invited Laminar researchers to participate in a special volume focused on the Molecular Regulation of the Endomembrane System. The Endomembrane System is the internal membrane system of the cells that make up our bodies and that gives rise to organelles, which, together and with their specialized functions, constitute the internal machinery of the cell and allow it to perform its vital functions. Laminar scientists Doralicia Casares, Pablo V. Escribá and Catalina Ana Rosselló agreed to write a review to show the importance of the lipid composition on the structure, function and compartmentalization of the plasma membrane and subcellular organelles, collecting information from multiple relevant studies from the last decades.
Their article explores the membrane composition of the different subcellular compartments, the mechanisms of regulation and maintenance of this differential composition, and the pathologies that could arise in the event of imbalances in the composition of the membranes. These imbalances in the membrane composition, which are the basis of our company’s research, have been related to the appearance of multiple diseases such as cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases or neurological, immunological and infectious disorders, among others.
The review text also addresses, therefore, what strategies could be followed in the different areas when developing specific treatments whose mechanism of action is the modification of cell membranes; what is known as Membrane Lipid Therapy, or melitherapy.
As a team, we are very pleased with the good reception that this manuscript is having in the scientific community. Our review, titled Membrane Lipid Composition: Effect on Membrane and Organelle Structure, Function and Compartmentalization and Therapeutic Avenues, has become a reference work, since it has accumulated more than 60 citations since its publication. This impact is twelve times higher than the impact factor of the IJMS journal, the average number of citations received by the articles published by it during a year. Our publication has had such a positive effect that it will contribute to increase this figure for the IJMS journal in the year of its publication.
Among the citations, several studies pertaining the SARS-CoV-2 virus — which causes COVID-19 — stand out especially. In fact, the relevance of Membrane Lipid Therapy in viral infections was also investigated by our group in collaboration with expert groups in microbiology. This work was presented in another publication:2 The Implications for Cells of the Lipid Switches Driven by Protein–Membrane Interactions and the Development of Membrane Lipid Therapy.
In short, the quality of the review made by Laminar is awakening the interest of the scientific community for Membrane Lipid Therapy. We are proud share this knowledge as experts and pioneers in the field of membrane lipid composition.
[1] Casares, D., Escribá, P. V., & Rosselló, C. A. (2019). Membrane lipid composition: effect on membrane and organelle structure, function and compartmentalization and therapeutic avenues. International journal of molecular sciences, 20(9), 2167.
[2] Torres, M., Rosselló, C. A., Fernández-García, P., Lladó, V., Kakhlon, O., & Escribá, P. V. (2020). The Implications for Cells of the Lipid Switches Driven by Protein–Membrane Interactions and the Development of Membrane Lipid Therapy. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(7), 2322
The review was possible thanks to public funding received from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (RTC-2015- 3542 and RTC-2015-4094), from the Industrial Doctorate program (grant DI-17-09187) from the State Research Agency, the contribution of the Government of the Balearic Islands and the European Social Fund (grant number PD / 036/2016), as well as European funding (European Commission H2020 Framework Program (agreement number 755179), European Commission Seventh Framework Program (agreement number PIEF-GA-2013-627441) and private (Marathon Foundation).
