Ferreri Carla, Chatgilialoglu Chryssostomos
ISOF, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy.
Chembiochem. 2005 Oct;6(10):1722-34. doi: 10.1002/cbic.200500109.
Evidence that lipids play different roles in the biological environment, particularly in dealing with metabolic regulation and cell signaling, has led to a growing interest in these molecules, and nowadays the research field of lipid structures and functions is called lipidomics. The term describes diverse research areas, from mapping the entire spectrum of lipids in organisms to describing the function and metabolism of individual lipids. Recent investigations on geometrical trans isomers of fatty acid derivatives, which have the double bonds in the same position as the natural compounds but with the trans instead of the naturally occurring cis geometry, highlighted these compounds as a new target for lipidomics. In addition to the identification of their structures and functions, research in a multidisciplinary context aims at understanding the biochemical significance of cis and trans lipid geometry, and a chemical biology approach can be envisaged to explore the role of the geometry change as either an alteration or a signal that can perturb a biological system and induce a cellular response.
脂质在生物环境中发挥不同作用，尤其是在代谢调节和细胞信号传导方面，这一证据引发了人们对这些分子越来越浓厚的兴趣。如今，脂质结构与功能的研究领域被称为脂质组学。该术语描述了从绘制生物体中脂质的全谱到描述单个脂质的功能和代谢等不同的研究领域。最近对脂肪酸衍生物几何反式异构体的研究表明，这些异构体的双键位置与天然化合物相同，但具有反式而非天然存在的顺式几何结构，这凸显了这些化合物作为脂质组学的一个新靶点。除了鉴定它们的结构和功能外，多学科背景下的研究旨在理解顺式和反式脂质几何结构的生化意义，并且可以设想采用化学生物学方法来探索几何结构变化作为一种能够干扰生物系统并诱导细胞反应的改变或信号所起的作用。
