Scientists Solved The 30-Year Mystery Of This 'Longevity Vitamin' That Fights Cancer

Queuosine is a modified nucleoside that forms part of transfer RNA, a molecule that helps our cells decode the genetic instructions in DNA to make proteins through a process called translation. Scientists believe that queuosine plays a role in learning, memory, and stress response, as well as in preventing cancer and metabolic disorders. Our bodies cannot make this important building block. Instead, we can only get it from bacteria in our gut or in the food we eat. Eating the right foods is just one of five ways to increase your intelligence.

Until recently, researchers didn't know how queuosine binds to cells and exerts its effects. Finally, after more than 30 years, scientists have identified the queuosine receptor or the molecule on cells that binds to queuosine. Reporting in PNAS, Lyubomyr Burtnyak and colleagues described their discovery of the queuosine receptor, which turns out to be SLC35F2, a member of the family of proteins called "solute carrier" proteins.

As co-author Vincent Kelly, Professor in Trinity's School of Biochemistry and Immunology, said in a press release, "We have known for a long time that queuosine influences critical processes like brain health, metabolic regulation, cancer and even responses to stress, but until now we haven't known how it is salvaged from the gut and distributed to the billions of human cells that take it in."

Through its effects on translation, queuosine appears to play a role in cancer regulation. Reduced queuosine modification of transfer RNA has been reported in diverse types of cancer, including colon, ovarian, brain, and lung tumors. But the story is complex, with some reports such as a breast cancer study in Cancers indicating a link between a lack of queuosine and lower levels of cell proliferation and migration, suggesting less risk of cancer development. On the other hand, a study in Bioscience Reports reported that queuosine enhanced antioxidant enzyme activity to combat reactive oxygen species and protect against cancer development. 

Scientists have also studied the effects of queuosine in the brain. According to an article in The EMBO Journal, mice lacking queuosine showed changes in translation in the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in learning and memory. This effect was strikingly more pronounced in females than in males, with female queuosine-deficient mice showing hyperactivity and reduced learning and memory, while their male counterparts were less affected. Queuosine-deficient mice had lower neuronal density, as well as shorter and less branched neurons. Unraveling the role of queuosine in the brain could be similar to figuring out the pretty complicated story behind the effect of creatine on the brain.

Queuosine is only half of the story. Its receptor is the other half. A receptor acts like a molecular sensor. It recognizes specific molecules and initiates biological responses inside the cell. By identifying the receptor that binds queuosine, researchers can now trace the signaling pathways that connect this nutrient to essential cellular functions.

This breakthrough allows scientists to understand not only how queuosine enters or influences cells, but also how disruptions in this pathway may contribute to diseases such as cancer and problems with learning and memory. Now that scientists have identified the queuosine receptor, they can figure out how queuine and queuosine are absorbed from the gut, how queuosine is distributed to other parts of the body, and how it works.

The discovery provides a new target for drug development, which wasn't possible before the queuosine receptor was identified. One day, this research could lead to the development of new treatments for conditions influenced by queuosine.