Metabolism News and Research

Latest Metabolism News and Research

Study reveals negative health consequences of sleep disruption for overweight individuals

New research from Oregon Health & Science University reveals negative health consequences for people who are overweight and ignore their body's signals to sleep at night, with specific differences between men and women.

23 Aug 2024

Maternal gut bacteria linked to changes in fetal brain metabolism

The impact of Bifidobacterium breve's presence in the maternal gut during pregnancy on fetal brain metabolism.

23 Aug 2024

Exploring the impact of thyroid hormone on brain function

Thyroid hormone plays a key role in regulating a range of physiologic functions, including metabolism, temperature, heart rate, and growth. It accomplishes this impressive array of activities by interacting with almost every organ system in the body. Yet despite a long history of research on how thyroid hormone influences different organs, its effects on arguably the most crucial organ - the brain - have remained shrouded in mystery.

23 Aug 2024

FDA-approved drug could revolutionize organ transplantation

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University report that they were able to successfully put tadpoles of Xenopus laevis frogs into a hibernation-like torpor state using donepezil (DNP), a drug approved by the FDA to treat Alzheimer's. The team had previously used another drug, SNC80, to achieve similar results in tadpoles and enhance the survival of whole mammalian hearts for transplants, but SNC80 is not approved for clinical use in humans because it can cause seizures. By contrast, DNP is already being used in the clinic, meaning it potentially could be rapidly repurposed for use in emergency situations to prevent irreversible organ injury while a person is being transported to a hospital.

23 Aug 2024

Immune cells' two-pronged approach to maintaining acetyl-CoA reserves

Immune cells use two different routes to produce acetyl-CoA, an essential metabolite required to fight infection and cancer, reports a study led by Van Andel Institute scientists.

23 Aug 2024

SCARB2 deficiency disrupts bile acid metabolism and gut microbiome

The study details the connection between SCARB2 deficiency and gastrointestinal dysfunction, revealing that the loss of SCARB2 leads to alterations in bile acid metabolism and dysbiosis in the gut microbiome. This disruption affects the signaling pathway involving FXR, which normally regulates bile acid synthesis and intestinal lipid absorption. The hyperactive FXR in Scarb2-deficient mice leads to a decrease in epithelial cell turnover and lipid malabsorption, particularly impacting the absorption of vitamin E, which is crucial for maintaining neurological health. The researchers further explored the impact of these changes on the gut-liver axis and found alterations in the expression of genes related to bile acid synthesis.

23 Aug 2024

Kynurenine pathway blockade shows promise for restoring brain metabolism in Alzheimer's

Among the many ways neuroscientists think Alzheimer's disease may strip away brain function is by disrupting the glucose metabolism needed to fuel the healthy brain.

22 Aug 2024

New insights into macrophages' role in MASH and liver fibrosis

Formerly known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) is an inflammatory disease characterized by liver scarring or fibrosis that progressively impairs liver function.

22 Aug 2024

Cancer drug holds promise as a new treatment for neurodegenerative diseases

A type of drug developed for treating cancer holds promise as a new treatment for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, according to a recent study by researchers at Penn State, Stanford University and an international team of collaborators.

22 Aug 2024

Study shows frequent mitochondrial DNA insertion in the brain cells

As direct descendants of ancient bacteria, mitochondria have always been a little alien.

22 Aug 2024

Long-term low-dose cannabis reverses brain aging in mice

A low-dose long-term administration of cannabis can not only reverse aging processes in the brain, but also has an anti-aging effect.

22 Aug 2024

Mother's gut bacteria during pregnancy promote healthy brain development in the fetus

A study in mice has discovered that the presence of Bifidobacterium breve bacteria in the mother's gut during pregnancy promotes healthy brain development in the fetus.

22 Aug 2024

Common fatty acid could improve treatment of recurrent bacterial vaginosis infections

Researchers investigated oleic acid as a potential treatment to inhibit Lactobacillus iners dominance in bacterial vaginosis.

22 Aug 2024

Python's remarkable physiology could lead to new medical breakthroughs

Researchers fed pythons who had fasted for 28 days a meal of 25% of their body weight and compared them to snakes who had not been fed.

22 Aug 2024

mRNA therapy shows promise for maple syrup urine disease

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Gene Therapy Program, and Moderna, have shown that repeated administration of lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA therapy significantly extended survival and reduced serum leucine levels in a mouse model of maple syrup urine disease (MSUD).

22 Aug 2024

New discovery reveals how DNA regulates inheritance of disease mutations

University of Queensland researchers have discovered a mechanism in DNA that regulates how disease-causing mutations are inherited.

21 Aug 2024

Gut molecule blocks fat burning during fasting in C. elegans

In a struggle that probably sounds familiar to dieters everywhere, the less a Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) worm eats, the more slowly it loses fat.

21 Aug 2024

Fasting and ketogenic diet reveal new vulnerability of pancreatic tumors to existing cancer drug

Researchers examine the role of fasting and ketogenesis in regulating protein synthesis and its potential implications for cancer therapy.

21 Aug 2024

Tea, coffee, and fruits found to be top contributors to polyphenol intake in study exploring GI inflammation in healthy adults

Researchers estimated dietary polyphenol intake in healthy adults and investigated its associations with gastrointestinal and systemic inflammation markers.

21 Aug 2024

Spatial transcriptomics unlocks malaria's liver stage secrets

For the malaria parasite to reach the blood of its human host, it must first enter the liver, where only a small number of parasites differentiate and replicate for upwards of seven days, making it a bottleneck in the parasite's lifecycle. This bottleneck makes the liver stage an optimal target for effective and long-lasting vaccines against the disease. Using Spatial Transcriptomics and single-cell RNA-sequencing technologies, researchers at Stockholm University have for the first time managed to create a spatio-temporal map of malaria infection in the mouse liver. A study that was recently published in Nature Communications.

21 Aug 2024