metabolism

Scientists ID molecular 'switch' in liver that triggers harmful effects of saturated and trans fats

... activated by harmful fats, PGC-1beta alters liver metabolism through a cascade of biochemical signals. The result is an upsurge in the liver's production of very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol, the precursor of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (known as the "bad" form of cholesterol) and t...

W.M. Keck Foundation funds study of friendly microbes

...ims to directly identify the products of bacterial metabolism in the intestine. The goal is to characterize previously unknown chemical compounds that play important roles in regulating the properties of the microbial community and human physiology. To do so, the researchers will use a new type of mass spectrom...

Gene variations explain drug dose required to control seizures

...nking variation in genes involved in the action or metabolism of the anti-epileptic drugs, carbamazepine and phe... because of the drug's variable affects on patient metabolism and its potential neurologic side effects. The team identified genes considered to be obvious candi...

Plant hemoglobins: Oxygen handlers critical for nitrogen fixation

...bins are important for oxygen transport and energy metabolism in plant root nodules. Furthermore, these proteins help to maintain free-oxygen concentrations in nodules at levels low enough to avoid damage of oxygen-sensitive nitrogenase, the bacterial enzyme complex responsible for symbiotic nitrogen fixation. ...

Development of portable infectious disease detector

...t three years developing the ability to measurethe metabolism of small groups of cells and studying how they respondto drugs, toxins and pollutants. To do so, the interdisciplinary teamhas developed two basic technologies: special electrodes that canmeasure the concentrations of the chemicals that cells consume...

RNA project to create language for scientists worldwide

...mportant role in understanding normal and abnormal metabolism and physiology and in designing new strategies for intervention in the form of gene therapy, Leontis said. ...

Opposing fat metabolism pathways triggered by a single gene

Regulating metabolism of fat is an important challenge for any animal, f...s for altering their function for treatment of fat metabolism disorders such as diabetes and obesity. ### Citation: Van Gilst MR, Hadjivassiliou H, Jolly A, Yam...

Breast-Cancer Risk Linked to Exposure to Traffic Emissions at Menarche, First Birth

...mining whether genetic polymorphisms involving PAH metabolism may modify the risk, if lifeline cumulative exposure may be associated with the risk and if this study may be replicated in another geographic settings. Jo Freudenheim, Ph.D., UB professor of social and preventive medicine, heads the WEB study. Add...

Use of PET can reduce, may eliminate more strenuous drug development trials with animals

... as it tracks a range of biological processes from metabolism to receptors, gene expression and drug activity. T...sted tracer molecules, and it is used to study the metabolism of the brain, the heart and cancer. A miniature version of PET was developed and is used in much the...

Fleshing out the genome

...ing a role in everything from energy transport and metabolism to cellular communication. This new ability to rank hypothetical sequences according to their likelihood to encode proteins "will be vital for any further experimentation and, eventually, for predicting biological function," said Eugene Kolker, pres...

Researchers discover chemical compounds that affect plant growth

...emicals resembled pyocyanin a product of bacterial metabolism thought to target yeast cell membranes. With chemical genomics, the team could identify valuable genetic characteristics beyond the reach of conventional mutations, which are often lethal when present in essential genes such as those that encode many...

PET/CT can identify new cancer lesions at early stage, allowing for prompt treatment

...(CT) and a merged or "fused" picture of the body's metabolism and structure. ...

UCSD research reveals mechanism involved with type of fatal epilepsy

...rchers have long thought that a defect in glycogen metabolism is intimately linked to the disease. Recessive mutations in two genes have been shown to cause Lafora disease. The genes encode the proteins laforin and malin, but the molecular mechanism defining how loss of laforin or malin causes Lafora disease ha...

Mouse with designer liver has enhanced glucose tolerance, insulin response

...re modulated in liver cells for glucose uptake and metabolism is unknown. Gen-Sheng Feng, Ph.D., a Professor in... conducted a thorough investigation of the glucose metabolism and insulin activity in this newly-created mouse strain. Interestingly, the LGKO mice had reduced bl...

Map of life on Earth could be used on Mars

...e distribution of traits such as those involved in metabolism by laying it onto the tree," she said. Timely appearances of certain traits among prokaryotes on the tree of life can betray a trend of habitat divergence, facilitated by lateral gene transfer. The emergence of traits corresponding to measurable cha...

Excess liver gene protects against high-fat diet

...nal environments." The researchers examined lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis in mice with an approximately ..., M.A. (2005). Diet-dependent cardiovascular lipid metabolism controlled by hepatic LXRalpha. Cell Metab. 1, 297-308. ...

Fat's fate depends on its source

A healthy metabolism requires a healthy dose of fat, suggests a new stu...ey found. The findings in mice suggest that normal metabolism requires so-called "new" fat--further evidence that a healthy diet should include an adequate source...

Proteomics brings researchers closer to understanding microbes that produce acid mine drainage

...n the electron transport chain associated with the metabolism of the organism." Interestingly, many of the proteins produced by the biofilm bacteria are responsible for maintaining correctly folded proteins and defending against free radicals, "suggesting that these are significant challenges in this hot, acid...

Bioinformatics reveals new gene regulation system

...e 100 enzymes functioning at the core of bacterial metabolism for which the genes are still unknown," said Gelfand. Using multiple bioinformatics tools can uncover cell systems that might have escaped experimental detection, he suggested. "By comparing hundreds of genomes, you can see patterns that are not seen...

Researchers extend mouse lifespan by protecting against free radicals

...nd oxygen. Hydrogen peroxide is a waste product of metabolism and it can be a the precursor of free radicals that can damage the cell. The damage can in turn lead to more flaws in the cell's chemical processes, making a vicious cycle that leads to more free radicals, more cellular damage, and so on. The resear...

USC researchers determine mechanism of action of chemotherapy drug

...ic Medicine, "and this leads to disruption of zinc metabolism and alteration of key enzymes and metabolites nece...upport for the hypothesis that agents that disrupt metabolism and increase intracellular zinc levels have potential applications as anticancer therapeutics." ...

Insulin pulses keep the liver lean

...section of the pathways regulating insulin and fat metabolism in liver," Najjar said. "Although mutations in CEACAM1 have not been found in patients with diabetes or insulin resistance, it is tempting to speculate that CEACAM1-dependent inhibition of fatty acid synthesis might be compromised as a consequence o...

Malfunctioning bone marrow cells sabotage nerve cells in diabetes

...awrence Chan, chief of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at BCM. It may even provide an explanation for some of the other complications associated with the disease. "These insulin-producing bone marrow cells are like terrorists that infiltrate the nerve-cell populations," he said. They produce proteins th...

Study: Predatory dinosaurs had bird-like pulmonary system

... gas exchange potential within the lungs, boosting metabolism and creating warm-bloodedness. The researchers are quick to point out, however, that the new study doesn't clearly peg predatory dinosaurs as habitually warm-blooded animals. The creatures probably had a more complex strategy, falling somewhere betwe...

UCSD study clarifies insulin's role in blocking release of energy in patients with type II diabetes

... best known example of a catecholamine. For normal metabolism to occur, the body needs a balanced input of insul...f energy storage in the body where many aspects of metabolism are controlled. There, energy is stored in the form of triglycerides, commonly known as fat. If a pe...

Life-extending protein keeps blood sugar in check

...ogical and molecular functions of Sirt1 in glucose metabolism and suggest therapeutic interventions for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and other age-associated metabolic disorders." ...

Sea Ice May Be on Increase in the Antarctic

...ogical and molecular functions of Sirt1 in glucose metabolism and suggest therapeutic interventions for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and other age-associated metabolic disorders." ...

Global warming increases oyster sensitivity to pollution

... seals. In humans, cadmium interferes with calcium metabolism and deposition in the bone. Accumulation over time can cause serious illnesses such as itai itai disease. Future research will focus on to what extent cadmium reduces thermal tolerance of cold-blooded species. ...

Genomics researchers discover protein deficit that causes drug toxicity

...Prior efforts to explain the mystery of thiopurine metabolism had focused on biochemical mechanisms -- not changes in protein levels. Background Researchers have known for decades that 1 in 300 patients of Caucasian European genetic background has two copies of the variant gene -- specifically, a switch in 2 ...

Genes linked to treatment resistance in children with leukemia

...d genes code for enzymes which are involved in the metabolism and activity of chemotherapy drugs in the body, and were therefore likely to have effects on treatment outcomes. In the analysis of the high-risk group, the GSTM1 non-null genotype was associated with hematological relapse, a recurrence of the cance...

Neurotransmitters signal aggressive cancer, offer potential for early diagnosis

...e computer-assisted predictions about what type of metabolism was going on in these abnormal cells compared to t...se cancer, are linked to abnormalities in cellular metabolism - an area called 'metabolomics'. We've described a unique tumor-associated pattern that we hope will...

Baby's genes affect mom's cholesterol levels

...ussels, studied genes and proteins involved in fat metabolism from the blood and placenta of 525 pregnant women. Because all cells from the placenta originate from the fetus, they are a good indication of the genes and proteins produced by the baby. Descamps and his co-workers discovered that the baby's genes...

Bone marrow stem cells may heal hearts even years after heart attacks

... uptake by 15 percent, which represents myocardial metabolism and viability, into infarct tissue was observed," Dr. Strauer said. "The stem cell therapy demonstrates that restoration is possible, clinically feasible and associated with an improvement of the performance of the heart by approximately 20 to 30 pe...

NC State researchers redesign life for Mars and beyond

...e is not found in plants, Boss, an expert in plant metabolism and plant responses to stimuli, and Grunden, an expert in organisms that grow in extreme environments, wanted to use this genetic manipulation as a test run to gauge the feasibility of inserting a gene from an extremophile - an organism that survives...

New classification of eukaryotes has implications for AIDS treatment, agriculture and beyond

...s important information about the biochemistry and metabolism of disease-causing organisms. The new classification recognizes 6 major clusters of organisms, rather than the 4 traditional Kingdoms. Here are three examples. 1) Pneumocystis, an opportunistic pathogen causing mortality in AIDS patients and immuno...

New molecule may aid in production of biofuels and fungi-resistant plants

...ver increases our ability to interfere with chitin metabolism in insects and other plague organisms. CBP21 also has the potential to aid in the production of biofuel. "In principle, large quantities of chitin are available for exploration, primarily due to fishing and farming of crustaceans such as shrimps," s...

Research Permits First-Ever Visualization of Psychological Stress in the Human Brain

...rectly measured changes in cerebral blood-flow and metabolism induced by neural activation, using a technique that is sensitive to the oxygenation levels in blood. “The fMRI technique employed in our study ?arterial spin labeling ?can measure cerebral flood-flow directly,?states John A. Detre, MD, Associate Pro...

CO2 sensing proves critical for fungal pathogens to adapt to life in air and human hosts

... they provide new evidence for how CO2 sensing and metabolism utilize evolutionarily conserved enzymes to contro...disease, provide new evidence that CO2 sensing and metabolism govern growth, sexual reproduction, and virulence of this pathogenic microbe. In this work, the re...

Life in deadly conditions

... cell membrane. Important functions of the energy metabolism - for example, the respiratory chain - are embedde... low incidence of nitrogen: through the uptake and metabolism of nitrate and urea, as well as the efficient uptake of ammonia. The co-operation of theoretically ...

MicroRNA gene that regulates lifespan found by Yale scientists

...emonstrating the connection between insulin-driven metabolism and aging. "This microRNA is conserved in humans leading to the enticing idea of being able to beneficially affect the results of aging including diseases of aging," said Slack. Work is under way to identify other microRNAs regulators and genes the...

War on terror meets war on cancer

...ion of the water inside the bacteria can come from metabolism of the food and oxygen they consumed," and not fro...her hard-to-biopsy areas of the body, or study the metabolism of obese people or people suffering anorexia or bulimia, says Hegg, an assistant professor chemistry...

Researchers quantify more noise in gene expression

...uorescence marker linked to a gene involved in the metabolism of the sugar galactose. The galactose gene and 10 others were chosen because they are expressed in yeast cells in high copy numbers, a feature that makes intrinsic noise in their expression statistically insignificant. By making cell-to-cell comparis...

Novel protein complex enables survival in hostile environment

...em and provides a clue to the development of early metabolism on earth. The research appears in the Nov. 18, 20... that are important in the context of evolution of metabolism and enzyme mechanism," Mukhopadhyay said. "We do not know whether the splitting of the fsr gene gave...

How Fruitflies Know It's Time for Lunch

... hug neurons extend into the ring gland, a crucial metabolism and growth organ in flies. Other axons contact the protocerebrum, a structure close to brain centers for learning and remembering odors. A third set of these axons extend to throat muscles—which is surprising because most subesophageal ganglion neuro...

Clocking in Pillow Time without the Pillow

... PET signal reflected the distribution and rate of metabolism of ingested radioactively labeled glucose in the m...etermined that for sleep-deprived monkeys, glucose metabolism drops off in brain areas previously associated with memory tasks—namely, the prefrontal cortex, the ...

Noise And Delays Explain Why Some Genes Oscillate In Activity

... PET signal reflected the distribution and rate of metabolism of ingested radioactively labeled glucose in the m...etermined that for sleep-deprived monkeys, glucose metabolism drops off in brain areas previously associated with memory tasks—namely, the prefrontal cortex, the ...

Fitting in: Newly evolved genes adopt a variety of strategies to remain in the gene pool

...ssified duplicate pairs of genes involved in yeast metabolism into four functional categories: (1) back-up, whe...erent, often overlapping functional roles." Yeast metabolism provides an ideal model for investigating the functional basis for gene duplication because a large ...

How E. coli bacterium generates simplicity from complexity

...s a human, has more than 1,000 of them involved in metabolism and metabolic regulation. Activation of random com...ly organized into interacting networks involved in metabolism or regulation of gene activation, or transcription. These linked networks are devoted to sensing, in...

Microbes under Greenland Ice may be preview of what scientists find under Mars' surface

...renheit) or a bit warmer - would allow just enough metabolism for them to keep alive, just as the microbes in the Greenland ice sheet are doing. ...

Setting the standard for computer models of life

...rmatics resources: for example, a model of alcohol metabolism in the liver would be annotated with links to the protein databases for all the enzymes involved in this pathway, and database links to all the relevant metabolites. The aim of these annotation schemes is to make it easier for researchers to search m...

Drunken elephants: The marula fruit myth

...l on the tree. Disregarding a large fruit pit, the metabolism of alcohol over time, and the unlikeliness of total ethanol absorption, a three-ton elephant gorging itself quickly on nothing but marula fruit would still be hard-pressed to ingest enough ethanol to reach a blood alcohol content indicative of inebri...

Scientists directly view immune cells interacting to avert autoimmunity

...effrey Bluestone, PhD, distinguished professor of metabolism and endocrinology at UCSF and senior author on the paper. Bluestone directs the UCSF Diabetes Center. The research provides a "blueprint" of what immune regulation looks like, says study co-author Max Krummel, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of pathol...

Antibacterial coatings cut infection rates

...oup on the surface. The bacteria then change their metabolism and start producing a slimy biofilm that protects them from antibiotics. Sitting under the protective biofilm, the bacteria multiply and grow, and that's what causes infection," Professor Griesser said. Professor Griesser likens this process, calle...

Hot-spring bacteria flip a metabolic switch

...is, but it looks like they have a more complicated metabolism than we initially suspected." All cells require n..., but it seems that they are engaging in community metabolism that changes depending on the time of day. Perhaps it is more correct to consider the mat as a singl...

A real time look at interactions between RNA and proteins

...a workable system to understand all aspects of RNA metabolism in a cell," say Eberwine. "For the first time, we can study how manipulation of cellular physiology, such as administering a drug, changes RNA-binding protein and RNA interactions. This technology allows us to see that in real time in real cells." R...

Of mice, men, trees and the global carbon cycle

...cher has found a universal rule that regulates the metabolism of plants of all kinds and sizes and that may also...difference between plants and animals in how their metabolism varies with size. The larger an animal, the slower its metabolism on a per-weight basis. Thus, altho...

Clock molecule's sensitivity to lithium sheds light on bipolar disorder

...nce. "We're interested in the internal control of metabolism because feeding behavior is on a daily cycle, and hormonal activities that regulate this are circadian," says senior author Mitch Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at Penn. "Many studies, including those ...

Amazon rainforest greens up in the dry season

...refore either go dormant or die. Figuring out the metabolism of the Amazon rainforest, the largest old-growth rainforest on the planet, is crucial for understanding how rainforests and other tropical biomes function and how deforestation affects biodiversity and sustainable land use in the tropics. It will als...

Lactic acid not athlete's poison, but an energy source - if you know how to use it

...t time two metabolic cycles - oxygen-based aerobic metabolism and oxygen-free anaerobic metabolism - previously thought distinct. "This is a fundamental change in how people think about metabolism,"...

Alternatives to the use of nitrate as a fertiliser

...compared the effect of ammoniacal nutrition on the metabolism of sensitive plants, such as spinach and on tolerant ones, like the pea. The results indicate that the processes associated with tolerance to ammonia in the pea are multiple with respect to spinach. In the pea plant there is greater regulation of the...