We greet Associate Professor Dmytro Gospodaryov on the publication of the review article “Alternative NADH dehydrogenase: A complex I backup, a drug target, and a tool for mitochondrial gene therapy” in the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta–Bioenergetics. The article describes an enzyme of the respiratory chain of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, plants, and some animals that catalyzes the same redox reaction as complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. This enzyme is absent in humans, but is present in many parasitic bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, and therefore may be a good target for antibacterial, antifungal, and antimalarial drugs. In the late 1990s, it was shown that the above enzyme ensures the survival of cells with defects in complex I. Modern studies show that the introduction of the gene encoding the enzyme from baker’s yeast into mammals allows the treatment of a number of disorders associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. The paper expresses gratitude to Associate Professor of our Department Volodymyr Shvadchak for assistance with molecular modeling and to postdoc Jack Morikka from the Tampere University (Finland) for the English language cleanup.
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) is a series of journals whose main areas of interest are biochemistry and biophysics. Currently, this journal has many sections devoted to individual topics. The journals of the series have repeatedly published works by Nobel laureates and discoveries that radically changed scientists’ understanding of chemical processes in cells. The department’s lecturers have published in such journals as BBA–General Subjects, BBA Advances, BBA–Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids, BBA–Biomembranes, etc.
For several years, Dmytro has taught our students the discipline “Bioenergetics”, and this spring he gave two lectures on the same course as part of the project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service “Online courses for Ukrainian students of biological disciplines”. The newly published review article confirms Dmytro’s expertise in bioenergetics, a field that is becoming increasingly popular in modern biomedical science. This is Dmytro’s second publication in BBA–Bioenergetics. The first article was devoted to the properties of fruit flies expressing an alternative NADH dehydrogenase gene taken from the entomologist Ciona intestinalis.
