Sugar

Thai spice helps cut blood sugar swings

In this obesity-obsessed world, the dream ingredient must be something that tastes good enough to be a condiment or flavoring and yet somehow helps us keep our weight down. Consider hydroxycitric acid (HCA), known variously as Brindle berry or Malabar tamarind, which is used in Indian and Thai food as a condiment and flavoring agent. In Indian folk medicine as a dried powder or tea it's in...

Sugar beet virus mutation requires Texas touch

The only sugar beets growing in Texas are in the laboratory. But those few plants are getting to the root of problems throughout the sugar beet industry. Just the...

Cats' indifference towards sugar explained

Unlike most mammals, cats--both domestic and wild--are indifferent to sweets. A new study in PLoS Genetics explains the molecular mechanism behind their strictly carnivorous behavior. "We took a behavioral question and answered it molecularly," says Joseph Brand, senior author of the study and Associate Director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Scattered on mammalian tongues are speci...

Sugar helps control cell division

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a deceptively simple sugar is in fact a critical regulator of cells' natural life cycle. The discovery reveals that, when disturbed, this process could contribute to cancer or other diseases by failing to properly control the steps and timing of cell division, the researchers say. The findings are described in the Sept. 23 issue of the Journal...

Life-extending protein keeps blood sugar in check

A protein that extends lifespan in yeast, worms, and flies keeps blood sugar under control in mice, reports a new study in the August Cell Metabolism. The findings suggest therapeutic interventions for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes, which frequently arise with age, the researchers said. The team found that mice with an excess of the protein Si...

Too much sugar not good for coral reefs

The race is on to buy up inexpensive land along coastlines for vacation homes and tourist hotels. But increased development can mean more nutrient rich runoff that threatens the very coral reefs attracting tourists in the first place. David Kline at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and colleagues find that bacteria on coral reefs grow out of control as the level of simple sugars in...

Darkness unveils vital metabolic fuel switch between sugar and fat

Constant darkness throws a molecular switch in mammals that shifts the body's fuel consumption from glucose to fat and induces a state of torpor in mice, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston reports in the Jan. 19 edition of Nature. While their findings could provide new insight into mammalian hibernation, researchers note that the pivota...

Scientists seek to unwrap the sweet mystery of the sugar coat on bacteria

Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a quick and simple way to investigate the sugar coating that surrounds bacteria and plays a role in infection and immunity. The sugars coating bacteria can change very quickly during the course of an infection, cloaking the bacteria from the immune system of their host. Previous techniques for studying the sugars were too slow...

A single sugar found responsible for an antibody's ability to treat inflammation

For years, researchers have struggled to understand how IVIG worked. It's ability to treat autoimmune diseases seemed to bean apparent contradiction. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a complex mixture of IgG antibodies made from human plasma that contains the pooled antibodies from thousands of people, and is only FDA-approved to treat a few assorted conditions; nonetheless, practiti...

Researchers attack tumor cells by exploiting dependency on sugar metabolism

Although scientists have known for nearly 90 years that cancer cells commonly display altered sugar metabolism, the molecular significance of this phenomenon is not completely understood. Now, a new study published in the June issue of Cancer Cell reveals a functional connection between carbohydrate-driven energy production and tumor maintenance. Importantly, the results suggest that inhibition o...

Acid rain causing decline in sugar maples, say researchers

Acid rain, the environmental consequence of burning fossil fuels, running factories and driving cars, has altered soils and reduced the number of sugar maple trees growing in the Northeast, according to a new study led by Cornell University researchers. The sugar maple is the most economically valuable tree species in the eastern United States because of its high-priced lumber, syrup and...

Herbal medicine silymarin may help sugar-control in people with type II diabetes

Diabetes is a growing health problem. Giving antioxidants is recognised as one way of helping people with diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. The herbal medicine extracted from seeds of the Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum (silymarin) is known to have antioxidant properties and research published this week in Phytotherapy Research shows that this extract can help people significan...

Developing uses for sugar-cane bagasse: Biotechnology applied to the paper industry

The principal raw material used for manufacturing paper pulp is wood. However, growing demand in the paper industry, at a time of dwindling forest resources, have compelled the sector to turn to other sources of raw materials, such as cereal straw, reeds, bamboo or sugar-cane bagasse. This residue, obtained after crushing of the cane, is already used as a source of paper-making fibres in...

From managing sugar to managing healing

Insulin is a hormone known primarily for regulating sugar levels in the blood, yet researchers at the University of California, Riverside, recently found that applying insulin directly to skin wounds significantly enhanced the healing process. Skin wounds in rats treated topically with insulin healed faster"surface cells in the epidermis covered the wound more quickly and cells in the derm...

'Juiced-up' battery fueled by sugar could power small portable electronics

Dutch researcher Harm Veling has demonstrated that our brains fend off distractions. If we are busy with something we suppress disrupting external influences. If we are tired, we can no longer do this. Social-psychologist Veling proved that the brain selects incoming information to remember useful things. Distracting information is refused and neutral information may enter. In the event o...

Blood sugar's manufacture limited by building blocks' supply

Researchers have discovered a factor that controls blood sugar's manufacture in a novel way: by limiting the supply of its building blocks. The findings are reported in the April issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. The study found that mice deficient for KLF15, a member of the so-called Krüppel-like family of transcription factors, become severely lacking in the...

Targeting sugar on blood vessels may inhibit cancer growth

In a study that could point to novel therapies to prevent cancer spread, or metastasis, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have targeted a sugar that supports blood vessel growth in the tumor. Their findings will be published in the May 7 on-line issue of Journal of Cell Biology. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death and an ar...

Nicotine rush hinges on sugar in neurons

A University of Southern California study appearing with a commentary in Nature Neuroscience online proposes a role for sugar as the hinge that opens a gate in the cell membrane and brings...