When a team of scientists from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center genetically-modified mice to be deficient of one muscle protein, these mice were able to run on a steep treadmill about 30% longer than unmodified mice. Interestingly, the protein that was removed from these genetically-modified mice, only contains 46 amino acids. Larger muscle proteins are typically thousands of amino acids long. This muscle protein that the modified mice lacked is called myoregulin and is an example of miniproteins, which are small proteins that only contain a short stretch of amino acids.
Besides myoregulin, many scientists have also discovered other miniproteins that have important functions as well as can be used in medical science. For instance, a miniprotein that is found in the venom of the deathstalker scorpion is highly attracted to tumours and not normal cells. Given this capability, this miniprotein can be fused with a fluorescent dye to highlight the boundaries of tumours so that doctors can more precisely remove them.
Scientists are now searching for more unique miniproteins which is a class of proteins which we had previously and entirely overlooked.
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