Studies have found that green tea extract EGCG can treat rare autoimmune diseases

recently, Li Tao Of the Institute of Military Medicine of the Academy of Military Sciences, in collaboration with Zhang Xuemin, discovered cGAS's new regulatory factor G3BP1, and found that a natural small molecule compound from green tea, EGCG, inhibits cGAS activation. The study was published online December 3 in Nature-Immunology.
cGAS is a nucleic acid transferase that functions as a DNA receptor in mammals and is essential for hosts to fight viral infections. cGAS recognizes cytopherIC DNA and produces cGAMP, activates interferon stimulating proteins, regulates the secretion of downstream type I interferons and other cytokines, and initiates the body's immune response. Recent studies have shown that, in addition to feeling the virus invasion, abnormal activation of cGAS directly leads to the occurrence of a class of autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, AGS syndrome and so on.
" abnormal activation of cGAS is a direct cause of many important diseases, and many large pharmaceutical groups and research teams around the world are working hard to find cGAS inhibitors. Li Tao, ph.D., of the Military Medical Research Institute and author of the paper, told China Science Daily that the team decided to start with the study of the regulatory mechanism of cGAS and look for regulatory targets to control cGAS activation, with a view to providing a new direction for the treatment of antiviral infections and related diseases.
researchers first used mass spectromet technology to identify the important regulatory factor G3BP1 of cGAS, and further verified that the regulatory factor plays a key role in cGAS-mediated body immune response by means of gene editing and other techniques. In-depth mechanism studies have revealed that G3BP1 ensures that cGAS can efficiently identify viral DNA by helping cGAS form polymers.
more importantly, through the above-mentioned regulatory mechanisms, the researchers further discovered that EGCG, a natural small molecular compound from green tea, can efficiently inhibit cGAS activation. In addition, the researchers used autoimmune animal models and cells in AGS patients to verify the effectiveness of EGCG in suppressing cGAS in the body.
The study not only revealed a key molecular mechanism of the body's antiviral infection, but also first reported the first cGAS inhibitor in the world, providing therapeutic strategy options for a series of autoimmune diseases that currently lack treatment methods, and achieving an important breakthrough in the frontier field of immunology. (Source: Science Network Cheng Weijia)