Scientists discover structural clues to calcium regulation in cells
Inside almost every cell in the human body, tiny mitochondria are continuously generating energy to power countless cellular activities. That process of energy generation also happens to be closely tied to intracellular calcium regulation by a membrane gateway inside mitochondria known as the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU), which has critical roles in both bioenergetics and cell death. How MCU regulates calcium uptake has been unclear, but the recent structural discovery of a key MCU domain by scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University points toward the involvement of not one, but two ions - calcium and magnesium - opening new paths to the development of MCU-modulating agents for the treatment of diseases involving mitochondrial dysfunction.