"Biochemical pathways are usually very convoluted, involving up to 50 participants, each activating the next. Finding that a process as important as mitophagy is initiated by only three participants—first AMPK, then ULK1, then Parkin—was so surprising that Shaw could scarcely believe it.Not only does the messaging instruct proteins to go check out mitochondrial damage, but the proteins can detect the extent of damage and decide which cells are too far gone and must be destroyed. All at the intracellular and intra-organelle level. That is so astonishing and mind-boggling! How humans can figure this out in that vanishingly small world with instrumentation is just incredible....Shaw’s research now begins to explain this key first step in Parkin activation, which Shaw hypothesizes may serve as a “heads-up” signal from AMPK down the chain of command through ULK1 to Parkin to go check out the mitochondria after a first wave of incoming damage, and, if necessary, trigger destruction of those mitochondria that are too gravely damaged to regain function.
Mitochondria are membrane-bound cell organelles that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell's biochemical reactions. Chemical energy produced by the mitochondria is stored in a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondria contain their own small chromosomes. Generally, mitochondria, and therefore mitochondrial DNA, are inherited only from the mother.Mitochondria are membrane-bound with two different membranes which is quite unusual for an intercellular organelle. Those membranes function in the purpose of mitochondria, which is essentially to produce energy. That energy is produced by having chemicals within the cell go through pathways, in other words, be converted. And the process of that conversion produces energy in the form of ATP, because the phosphate is a high-energy bond and provides energy for other reactions within the cell. So the mitochondria's purpose is to produce that energy. Some different cells have different amounts of mitochondria because they need more energy. So for example, the muscle has a lot of mitochondria, the liver does too, the kidney as well, and to a certain extent, the brain, which lives off of the energy those mitochondria produce. So if you have a defect in the pathways that the mitochondria usually functions with, you're going to have symptoms in the muscle, in the brain, sometimes in the kidneys as well; many different types of symptoms. And we probably don't know all of the different diseases that mitochondrial dysfunction causes.
William Gahl, M.D., Ph.D. National Human Genome Research Institute
Being a lowly mechanical engineer without a degree in organic chemistry, I could only understand things at the most superficial level.
Old people and men are at higher risk. They have more stored iron.
Diabetes can be caused by excess iron, maybe these conditions too.
People who drink coffee or take statins are at lower risk for the wuhan coronavirus. Drinking coffee or taking statins reduce iron absorption.