03/09/2025

Original Article -https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/israeli-team-maps-cell-traffic-network-that-tunes-blood-sugar-in-minutes/

Publication: The Media Line

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba say they have mapped a fast, built-in “traffic network” on the surface of human cells that senses nutrients in real time and fine-tunes energy use and blood sugar—findings published this week in Nature Communications. The team, led by Prof. Ehud Ohana with doctoral student Noa Yehoshua, describes how two transporter proteins—the liver citrate transporter (NaCT) and glucose transporters (Glut)—coordinate like synchronized signalmen. The goal: Explain how cells respond within minutes, not hours, and turn that insight into new therapies for diabetes, cancer, and other metabolic disorders.

In lab and animal studies, the researchers showed the tandem can be nudged with experimental molecules to lower glucose in mice. They also report tumor models that were wiped out while sparing healthy tissue, developed with collaborators Prof. Shimon Ben-Shabat, Prof. Nicola Mabjeesh, and Dr. Sabri El-Saied. The work continued even after Ohana’s lab was relocated when Soroka University Medical Center was damaged by an Iranian missile strike—an interruption that did not stop the project’s momentum. “This research fundamentally changes how we think about cellular nutrition and energy balance,” Ohana said.

The mechanism reads like a control room for metabolism: when glucose is scarce, liver cells boost uptake of both glucose and citrate; when sugar returns, intake snaps back. In mice lacking NaCT, cells pulled in more glucose and blood sugar dropped—evidence, the authors say, that targeting the partnership, not single proteins, may pay off. Tech-transfer arm BGN Technologies is already courting partners. “This scientific discovery is an example of cutting-edge research, which becomes an opportunity to develop new drugs. BGN Technologies, the tech transfer company of Ben-Gurion University, is committed to translating this achievement into collaborations with international companies to bring these discoveries ‘from lab bench to bedside’ to affect millions worldwide,” said Dr. Galit Mazooz-Perlmuter.