Reply #4: thi- (like the thigh of the leg) oh-neen [View All]

[Th1onein]

It's a protein. Actually, it's an apo-protein (it's empty of what it normally carries in this form). The protein, when "full" of what it normally carries, is called metallothionein, and carries zinc, copper and probably nitric oxide. It's a very interesting protein and I studied it extensively for about two years. It is induced when the cell is under stress, and it normally carries seven zinc molecules (or a lesser amount of copper, and 20 nitric oxide molecules), and delivers this zinc to certain enzymes (and even to the DNA inside the nucleic membrane of the cell) to activate them, or deactivate them. I suspect that it might be a major player in the system (along with glutathione, glutathione disulfide, and nitric oxide) that controls the switch from cell-mediated to humoral immunity.

If this is correct, it could mean a hell of a lot to people with autoimmune diseases. I stopped studying it when I found out that it wasn't transported by the CFTR protein. I should go back to it, because a lot of good can be done for people, by studying it, and learning to control it's function, but I am only interested in CF right now, and it is not transported by the protein central to that disease.

You never should have asked, you know.