(Press-News.org) Philadelphia, July 24, 2013 –Researchers have identified a master network of signaling molecules that acts like a "fuse box" to regulate the cellular effects of defective energy flow in mitochondrial respiratory chain diseases—a diverse set of difficult-to-treat genetic-based energy disorders. Using that knowledge, they showed that nicotinic acid, a form of vitamin B3, partially restores normal functioning in cells taken from patients with mitochondrial disease.
The study, from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), suggests that the regulatory signaling network may offer a common avenue to target in the developing effective, personalized treatments for many mitochondrial energy disorders.
Mitochondria are tiny biological structures that act as cellular power plants, extracting energy from nutrients to drive the body. When mitochondria malfunction, they may impair the function of potentially any organ throughout the body, in an often bewildering variety of ways. Mitochondrial disease can have widely varying effects and severity in different tissues, ranging from blindness to exercise intolerance to death, often wreaking progressive havoc over time in both children and adults.
"Finding a common cellular response reveals that some order exists in the chaos of these basic energy diseases," said study leader Marni J. Falk, M.D., director and attending physician in the Mitochondrial-Genetic Disease Clinic at CHOP. "Identifying the central factors regulating manifestations of mitochondrial disease is like troubleshooting a household electrical system: instead of analyzing problems that may occur at each individual light bulb or switch plate, we have located a central problem in the fuse box."
Falk and colleagues published their study today in the journal PLOS ONE.
Primary mitochondrial diseases directly interfere with the function of the respiratory chain (RC)—the highly conserved sequence of chemical reactions within mitochondria that generate energy from oxygen and nutrients.
"There are hundreds of different individual reasons for RC malfunction," said Falk, "but we identified a common cellular response—an integrated, nutrient-sensing signaling network—that recognizes when energy flow is impaired. That response alters a host of biological pathways, and in many tissues, those secondary biochemical changes are actually contributing to the symptoms of disease."
RC malfunction in mitochondrial disease may cause symptoms such as seizures, strokes, blindness, heart disease, progressive muscle weakness, or vulnerability to infections, among other problems. No cure exists, and most current treatments for RC diseases are largely ineffective.
In the current study, Falk and colleagues analyzed cellular responses in human skeletal muscle and skin cell lines, finding that RC disease disrupted crucial biological pathways controlled by a handful of master signaling factors: FOXO, PPAR, sirtuins, AMPK, and mTORC1. All of these factors are integral components of cellular signaling networks that sense nutrient availability and regulate growth.
"The good news in our research is that the signaling pathways regulating the body's response to mitochondrial disease are already well-known for other reasons," said Falk. "Using an agent that restores their collective activity toward more normal functioning offers potential treatments for the diverse symptoms of mitochondrial RC disease."
Building on her team's previous animal studies, showing that a cholesterol-lowering drug called probucol restored kidney function in a mouse model of an RC defect, Falk and colleagues used X a form of vitamin B3, nicotinic acid, in their current study. Like probucol, nicotinic acid is known to stimulate the PPAR signaling pathway. Here, they added nicotinic acid to a fibroblast cell line grown from the skin of a patient with the mitochondrial disease known as Leigh syndrome that causes strokes in young children.
The results, said Falk, were exciting. The nicotinic acid normalized signaling activity not just in PPAR, but across an integrated signaling network, and also improved overall cellular respiration—the cells' ability to use oxygen. "Even though the underlying genetic defect in RC function persisted, we were able to reverse some of its major deleterious downstream effects on crucial cellular functions that are impaired in many varieties of mitochondrial disease."
Falk cautioned that much work remains to be done, including studies in animal models, to determine if this discovery in patient tissues and cell culture may lead to effective clinical treatments. But, she added, "finding a central signaling mechanism common to highly diverse RC disease should allow researchers to better classify subtle differences in this signaling response to understand subtypes mitochondrial disease and fashion personalized treatments that restore specific signaling alterations identified in individual patients."
###
Support for this study came from the National Institutes of Health (grants DK082446, HD026979 and RR024134), the Angelina Foundation Fund from the Division of Child Development and Metabolic Disease at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Tristan Mullen Fund, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute Bridge Fund.
Falk's co-authors were from Children's Hospital, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical School, and the University of California San Diego.
"Primary respiratory chain disease causes tissue-specific dysregulation of the global transcriptome and nutrient-sensing signaling network," PLOS ONE, published online July 24, 2013. http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069282
About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program receives the highest amount of National Institutes of Health funding among all U.S. children's hospitals. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 527-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.
Central signaling response found in mitochondrial energy diseases
Research finding from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia may point to new therapeutic options for a diverse array of challenging medical disorders
2013-07-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Starburst to star bust
2013-07-25
A new study published in the journal Nature shows how vigorous star formation can turn the tables on a starburst galaxy by forcing hydrogen and other gases high into the surrounding galactic halo, leaving little fuel for the next generation of stars.
These new observations may help solve the mystery of the missing high-mass galaxies that theories predict should exist, but are conspicuously absent.
Astronomers using the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have discovered billowing columns of cold, dense gas fleeing the disk of nearby starburst ...
Whole-body computed tomography in severely injured patients in shock increases survival
2013-07-25
The analysis of data from the TraumaRegister® of the German Trauma Society (DGU) was performed by Stefan Huber-Wagner, MD, and colleagues in close cooperation with Professor Rolf Lefering, PhD, from the Institute for Research in Operative Medicine (IFOM), University of Witten/Herdecke in Cologne. Data of 16,719 severely injured patients from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Slovenia were analyzed. The authors compared the observed and the expected mortality rate of severely injured patients with and without whole-body CT. The patients were divided in 3 groups: ...
Web tool could help measure subjective impressions of urban environments
2013-07-25
CAMBRIDGE, Mass- The "broken-windows theory," which was propounded by two Harvard University researchers in the early 1980s, holds that urban "disorder" — visible signs of neglect, such as broken windows — actually promotes crime, initiating a vicious feedback loop. The theory was the basis for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's crackdown on petty crime, but it's come under sharp criticism from some social scientists. One of the difficulties in evaluating the theory is that it's hard to quantify something as subjective as visible disorder.
In the latest issue of the ...
Combining treatments for people who inject drugs is the first step towards eliminating hepatitis C
2013-07-25
The burden of liver disease could be dramatically reduced by scaling up the combination of interventions for hepatitis C infection among people who inject drugs according to University of Bristol researchers. The findings, published today [24 July], form part of new global recommendations on treating the virus.
Around 150 million people globally are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV)1 – a major cause of liver disease that can lead to serious complications such as liver failure or cancer, which are associated with considerable costs to the health care ...
Shedding new light on the brightest objects in the universe
2013-07-25
A Dartmouth-led team of astrophysicists has discovered the extent to which quasars and their black holes can influence their galaxies.
The team is scheduled to publish a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, detailing discoveries based upon observations of 10 quasars. The paper is now publicly available through the Cornell University Library.
The researchers documented the immense power of quasar radiation, reaching out for many thousands of light years to the limits of the quasar's galaxy.
"For the first time, we are able to see the actual extent to which these quasars ...
Western-led 'international beam team' solves Martian meteorite age puzzle
2013-07-25
By directing energy beams at tiny crystals found in a Martian meteorite, a Western University-led team of geologists has proved that the most common group of meteorites from Mars is almost 4 billion years younger than many scientists had believed – resolving a long-standing puzzle in Martian science and painting a much clearer picture of the Red Planet's evolution that can now be compared to that of habitable Earth.
For more information, video and downloadable images, please visit http://communications.uwo.ca/media/agepuzzle/.
In a paper published today in the journal ...
Smithsonian finds color patterns in fish larvae may reveal relationships among species
2013-07-25
Similarities in how different organisms look can indicate a close evolutionary relationship. Conversely, great differences in appearance can suggest a very distant relationship, as in many adult marine fish species. For the first time, however, a Smithsonian scientist has found that color patterns of different fish species in the larval stage can be very similar, revealing a closer evolutionary relationship than their adult forms would suggest. The research is published in the July issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Many marine fish species spend ...
Monoclonal antibody effective against norovirus
2013-07-25
Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) provide the first proof of concept data showing that a monoclonal antibody can neutralize human norovirus. This research, which could one day lead to effective therapies against the virus, was published online ahead of print in the Journal of Virology.
"We initiated this work because there is presently no virus-specific treatment or vaccine to control the norovirus illness," says Kim Y. Green, a researcher on the study. "Our working hypothesis was that a highly specific norovirus antibody ...
A promising target to treat asthma
2013-07-25
An enzyme known for its role in heart disease may well be a promising target to treat asthma. Researchers from the University of Iowa have found that the enzyme, called CaMKII, is linked to the harmful effects of oxidation in the respiratory tract, triggering asthmatic symptoms. The finding could lead to the development of a drug that would target the CaMKII enzyme, the researchers say.
Asthma affects billions of people worldwide. In the United States, 8.5 percent of the population has asthma, which causes 3,000 deaths and more than $56 billion annually in medical and ...
More central line infections seen in children with cancer once they leave the hospital
2013-07-25
Pediatric cancer patients whose central lines are used to treat them at home develop three times as many dangerous bloodstream infections from their devices than their hospitalized counterparts, according to the results of a new Johns Hopkins Children's Center study.
Findings of the research, reported online July 23 in the journal Pediatric Blood & Cancer, provide valuable insight into the safety of central line uses outside the hospital and underscore the need to carefully evaluate the benefits and risk of sending a child home with one, the investigators say.
Furthermore, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Warming temperatures impact immune performance of wild monkeys, U-M study shows
Fine particulate air pollution may play a role in adverse birth outcomes
Sea anemone study shows how animals stay ‘in shape’
KIER unveils catalyst innovations for sustainable turquoise hydrogen solutions
Bacteria ditch tags to dodge antibiotics
New insights in plant response to high temperatures and drought
Strategies for safe and equitable access to water: a catalyst for global peace and security
CNIO opens up new research pathways against paediatric cancer Ewing sarcoma by discovering mechanisms that make it more aggressive
Disease severity staging system for NOTCH3-associated small vessel disease, including CADASIL
Satellite evidence bolsters case that climate change caused mass elephant die-off
Unique killer whale pod may have acquired special skills to hunt the world’s largest fish
Emory-led Lancet review highlights racial disparities in sudden cardiac arrest and death among athletes
A new approach to predicting malaria drug resistance
Coral adaptation unlikely to keep pace with global warming
Bioinspired droplet-based systems herald a new era in biocompatible devices
A fossil first: Scientists find 1.5-million-year-old footprints of two different species of human ancestors at same spot
The key to “climate smart” agriculture might be through its value chain
These hibernating squirrels could use a drink—but don’t feel the thirst
New footprints offer evidence of co-existing hominid species 1.5 million years ago
Moral outrage helps misinformation spread through social media
U-M, multinational team of scientists reveal structural link for initiation of protein synthesis in bacteria
New paper calls for harnessing agrifood value chains to help farmers be climate-smart
Preschool education: A key to supporting allophone children
CNIC scientists discover a key mechanism in fat cells that protects the body against energetic excess
Chemical replacement of TNT explosive more harmful to plants, study shows
Scientists reveal possible role of iron sulfides in creating life in terrestrial hot springs
Hormone therapy affects the metabolic health of transgender individuals
Survey of 12 European countries reveals the best and worst for smoke-free homes
First new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years
Certain HRT tablets linked to increased heart disease and blood clot risk
[Press-News.org] Central signaling response found in mitochondrial energy diseasesResearch finding from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia may point to new therapeutic options for a diverse array of challenging medical disorders