(Press-News.org) UAlberta researchers are taking a closer look at how two metabolic pathways interact to increase the lifespan of cells with mitochondrial defects. Magnus Friis is the lead author of the study, which was published online on April 10 and will be published in the April 24 issue of Cell Reports.
Mitochondria produce energy for cells through oxidative metabolism, but the process produces toxic byproducts that can accumulate and cause defects in the cell's mitochondria. These defects, in turn, affect the cell's ability to generate energy and can potentially lead to cell death and are associated with aging and various neurological diseases.
Friis, a postdoctoral fellow in Mike Schultz's biochemistry lab, examined how dietary changes at the cell level can affect cell health. He exposed normal and defective yeast cells to two different energy sources: glucose, the preferred sugar of cells, and raffinose, a natural sugar found in vegetables and whole grains.
"[The dietary intervention] is a general shift in what we're feeding the cells to get them to do something different with their whole nutrient metabolism," Friis noted. "There are signaling pathways that allow a cell to sense its environment and co-ordinate events to allow the cell to adapt to what's going on. In this case, [cells are responding to] which nutrients are available."
Friis and Schultz examined two nutrient signaling pathways called the AMPK pathway and the retrograde response. AMPK responds to energy deficits in the cell by down-regulating energy consuming processes, which are often associated with cell growth, and up-regulating energy producing processes. The retrograde response pathway is specific to the yeast used in the study and supplies key amino acids to the cell by changing the metabolic process of the mitochondria.
When activated individually, neither the AMPK pathway nor the retrograde response provided substantial benefits to cells with damaged mitochondria. When activated simultaneously, clear benefits became evident.
"We looked at the effect activating both pathways had on maintenance of cellular viability in what's called a chronological aging experiment," Friis said. "Even when they had defective mitochondria, the cells with the retrograde response and AMPK simultaneously activated during growth were able to live as long as cells with normal mitochondrial function."
Working in collaboration with John Paul Glaves, a postdoctoral fellow in Bryan Sykes' lab, and Tao Huan, a PhD student in Liang Li's lab, Friis measured the molecules produced during the metabolic process. They found that the defective cells had higher levels of branched chain amino acids and trahelose, a carbohydrate found in yeast that can serve an energy source, similar to glycogen in human cells.
"By activating AMPK, we've removed certain blocks in metabolism. With the retrograde response, we've changed the amino acid metabolism in a way that allowed the cells to accumulate storage carbohydrates, which stabilize their function," Friis said.
Activated AMPK and retrograde response pathways allow the cell to accumulate a storage carbohydrate, which can be metabolize normally despite mitochondrial defects that affect the cell's metabolism. The additional energy stabilizes cell function and prevents premature cell death often caused by defects in mitochondria.
"No matter how many people are working on the problem in humans, mitochondrial disorders are too complicated to figure out the nuts and bolts without the work that Magnus is doing," Schultz said. "This research opens the concept, a new concept on how to deal with these metabolic problems."
INFORMATION:
This study was funded through the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.
UAlberta researchers examine metabolism in defective cells
Manipulating the metabolic process in cells may compensate for defects that can shorten cell life
2014-04-11
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Women with diabetes less likely to have a mammogram: Study
2014-04-11
TORONTO, April 11, 2014 – Women with diabetes are 14 per cent less likely to be screened for breast cancer compared to women without diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Women's College Hospital.
The study, published today in the journal Diabetic Medicine, is the first to examine the influence of socioeconomic status on the gap in mammogram screening among women with diabetes.
"Managing the demands of a chronic condition such as diabetes is challenging for many women, leaving other preventative actions, ...
BLOODHOUND team predicts the impact of the 1,000 mph supersonic car
2014-04-11
10th of April, 2014 (London). A new paper from the Swansea University, College of Engineering team working on the BLOODHOUND SSC (Supersonic car) project has been published on the aerodynamic characteristics of travelling at 1,000mph. Simulations have looked at how the car will cope with the supersonic rolling ground, rotating wheels and resulting shock waves in close proximity to the test surface at the record attempt site in Hakskeen Pan, South Africa. Where, in 2015, it will make high speed test runs of up to 800mph, with the full 1,000mph attempt scheduled for 2016.
...
Odds that global warming is due to natural factors: Slim to none
2014-04-11
An analysis of temperature data since 1500 all but rules out the possibility that global warming in the industrial era is just a natural fluctuation in the earth's climate, according to a new study by McGill University physics professor Shaun Lovejoy.
The study, published online April 6 in the journal Climate Dynamics, represents a new approach to the question of whether global warming in the industrial era has been caused largely by man-made emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Rather than using complex computer models to estimate the effects of greenhouse-gas ...
Warming climate has consequences for Michigan's forests
2014-04-11
HOUGHTON, Mich., April 11, 2014 – In the last 100 years, Michigan has become warmer, with more rain coming through heavy downpours. Climate models suggest that the state will continue to warm and variability in precipitation patterns will increase, which will have consequences for the state's forests. A new U.S. Forest Service report describes the potential risks and opportunities of climate change for forests in the eastern Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula.
More than 30 scientists and forest managers contributed to "Michigan Forest Ecosystem Vulnerability ...
Berkeley graduate student brings extinct plants to life
2014-04-11
Jeff Benca is an admitted über-geek when it comes to prehistoric plants, so it was no surprise that, when he submitted a paper describing a new species of long-extinct lycopod for publication, he ditched the standard line drawing and insisted on a detailed and beautifully rendered color reconstruction of the plant. This piece earned the cover of March's centennial issue of the American Journal of Botany.
"Typically, when you see pictures of early land plants, they're not that sexy: there is a green forking stick and that's about it. We don't have many thorough reconstructions," ...
Facial selection technique for ads can increase buyers by 15 percent: INFORMS Marketing Science
2014-04-11
Merely changing the face of a model in an ad increases the number of potential purchasers by as much as 15% (8% on average), according to a study being published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
"Just the Faces: Exploring the Effects of Facial Features in Print Advertising," appears in the Articles in Advance section of the INFORMS journal Marketing Science and will appear in print later this year. The research was conducted by Li Xiao, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Fudan University (China), and Min Ding, Smeal Professor ...
Sudden loss of consciousness
2014-04-11
According to a prospective study (the SPEED Study) presented by Yvonne Greve of Nuremberg Hospital et al. in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111(12): 197), up to 3% of consultations at an emergency department concern a sudden loss of consciousness or near loss of consciousness.
In order to assess the frequency and prognostic significance of near syncope and syncope (the specialist terms for short-term near or complete loss of consciousness), the authors gathered data on 395 patients who presented to an emergency department with the typical ...
To be an organ donor, specific attitudes trump general support, study finds
2014-04-11
WASHINGTON -- Most Americans say they support the idea of organ donation, yet fewer than half of eligible donors ever register, national polls show. That may be because supporting a good cause doesn't mean people will take action. However, people are more likely to sign up if they have positive attitudes specifically about registering as a donor, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
In a 2005 Gallup poll, 95 percent of Americans said they "support or strongly support" organ donation, yet only 40 percent of eligible donors have registered, ...
The Olig family affects central nervous system development and disease
2014-04-11
The oligodendrocyte transcription family (Olig family) is widely expressed in the central nervous system of various mammals, and plays a critical role in central nervous system development by controlling differentiation and maturation of oligodendrocytes, motor neurons and astrocytes. Moreover, accumulating evidence demonstrates Olig family participation in many central nervous system diseases. Therefore, based on current literature, Dr. Lehua Yu and co-workers from Second Affliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University in China examine the role of the Olig family in central ...
Newspapers follow suit when Danish politicians go to war
2014-04-11
Danish newspapers mirror to a high degree the viewpoints of the political elite when Danish military participation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya has been on the public agenda during the past 10 years. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have tested the so-called 'elite-driven media' theory on editorial viewpoints on the military engagements and the results may help explain why support for the war efforts have been remarkably consistent in the small and hitherto less belligerent nation.
While political discussions concerning the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice
ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle
Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air
GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients
Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds
Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity
Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests
Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows
Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer
SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events
Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design
New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients
Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?
Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain
Decoding plants’ language of light
UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC
New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury
New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows
Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?
1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5
In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day
Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds
Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production
Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago
Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP
Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024
PLOS One study: In adolescent lab animals exposed to cocaine, High-Intensity Interval Training boosts aversion to the drug
Scientists identify four ways our bodies respond to COVID-19 vaccines
Stronger together: A new fusion protein boosts cancer immunotherapy
Hidden brain waves as triggers for post-seizure wandering
[Press-News.org] UAlberta researchers examine metabolism in defective cellsManipulating the metabolic process in cells may compensate for defects that can shorten cell life