Freeze them, heat them, blast them into empty space; With more survival skills than any other organism on the planet, these hardy animals known as tardigrades will keep coming back for more. Although it is clear that their ability to withstand stress is due in part to their ability to turn their internal organs into gel, the mechanisms behind this action of metabolic protection have not yet been elucidated.

A new study led by researchers at the University of Wyoming found that expression of key slow-acting proteins in human cells slows metabolism, providing important insights into how these nearly indestructible invertebrates can survive in the harshest environments.

The team focused on a specific protein called CAHS D, which is known to protect against excessive desiccation (drying). Using a variety of techniques, the researchers showed how CAHS D transforms into a gel-like state under stress, protecting the molecules and preventing them from drying out.

“This study provides insight into how slow-moving and potentially other desiccation-tolerant organisms survive desiccation using biomolecular condensation,” the researchers wrote in their published paper. “Beyond stress resistance, our findings pave the way for the development of technologies focused on inducing biostasis in cells and even entire organisms to slow aging and improve storage and stability.”

Tadpoles have already shown that they can withstand high and low temperatures that would be lethal to humans, high levels of radiation, and long periods without water that are normally crucial for life. They can even survive in space.

Previous research has revealed a surprising number of tricks that slow-moving animals use to survive, developed over hundreds of millions of years. Essentially, they are very good at slowing down vital processes with CAHS D, and this can also be beneficial for human cells.

“Surprisingly, when we inject these proteins into human cells, they form a gel and slow down their metabolism, like tadpoles,” says molecular biologist Sylvia Sanchez-Martinez of the University of Wyoming. “When you introduce human cells containing these proteins into biostasis, they become more resistant to stress and transfer some of the tadpoles’ abilities to human cells.”

A little further down the road, we may find out how to transfer some of this tadpole’s surprising resilience into our own cells and tissues, potentially slowing biological aging and aiding treatments where safe storage of cells at low temperatures is vital. such as organ transplantation.

Much more research will be needed to exploit this transfer; This research is already ongoing, with some studies examining whether slow-acting proteins can stabilize important blood products used to treat genetic diseases. Early indications are promising in many areas, including how proteins are sensitively activated when environmental stress is present and deactivated in the absence of stress.

“When the stress is removed, the slow-acting gels dissolve and human cells return to their normal metabolism,” says molecular biologist Thomas Boothby of the University of Wyoming.