Virginia Tech researchers discover potential biomarker for pre-diabetes
Fralin Life Science Institute researchers find link between insulin response, energy producer
2015-08-20
(Press-News.org) Virginia Tech researchers have identified a biomarker in pre-diabetic individuals that could help prevent them from developing Type II diabetes.
Publishing in Clinical Epigenetics, the researchers discovered that pre-diabetic people who were considered to be insulin resistant -- unable to respond to the hormone insulin effectively -- also had altered mitochondrial DNA.
Researchers made the connection by analyzing blood samples taken from 40 participants enrolled in the diaBEAT-it program, a long-term study run by multiple researchers in the Fralin Translational Obesity Research Center and funded by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
Participants did not have diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but were pre-diabetic and showed signs of insulin resistance.
Blood samples revealed participants had lower amounts of mitochondrial DNA with a higher amount of methylation -- a process that can change the expression of genes and mitochondrial copy numbers in cells -- than healthy people.
Mitochondrion is responsible for converting chemical energy from food into energy that cells can use.
"If the body is insulin resistant, or unable to respond properly to insulin, it could affect a person's mitochondrial function and overall energy levels," said Zhiyong Cheng, an assistant professor of human, nutrition, foods, and exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate. "Mitochondrial alterations have previously been observed in obese individuals, but this is the first time we've made the molecular link between insulin resistance and mitochondrial DNA changes."
Cheng and collaborator Fabio Almeida, an assistant professor of human nutrition, foods and exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, think this link could be important for treating pre-diabetic individuals to prevent Type 2 Diabetes.
According to the NIDDK, more than 2 out of 3 adults are considered overweight and more than 1 out of 3 adults are considered obese. The growing epidemic of obesity is largely attributed to energy overconsumption -- taking in more food calories than the body burns through physical activity.
"There is no known cure for Type 2 diabetes, and early diagnosis and intervention is critical to prevent this disease," said Almeida. "Discovery of the biomarker in obese, pre-diabetic individuals advances our understanding of how diabetes develops and provides evidence important for future diagnosis and intervention."
INFORMATION:
Additional resources are available at Virginia Tech News.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-08-20
(BOSTON) - Last year, a Wyss Institute team of scientists described the development of a new device to treat sepsis that works by mimicking our spleen. It cleanses pathogens and toxins from blood circulating through a dialysis-like circuit. Now, the Wyss Institute team has developed an improved device that synergizes with conventional antibiotic therapies and that has been streamlined to better position it for near-term translation to the clinic. The improved design is described in the October volume 67 of Biomaterials.
Sepsis is a common and frequently fatal medical ...
2015-08-20
Having a baby at home can save thousands of dollars over a hospital birth and is just as safe for low-risk births, according to a new UBC study.
Researchers with UBC's School of Population and Public Health and the Child and Family Research Institute looked at all planned home births attended by registered midwives in B.C. between 2001 and 2004. They compared them to planned hospital births attended by registered midwives or physicians in which the mothers met the criteria for home birth.
For the first 28 days postpartum, they found planned home births saved an average ...
2015-08-20
Amsterdam, August 20, 2015 - A new study published in Journal of Transport & Health reveals that middle-aged drivers are at higher risk of crashes because they use their cellphone regularly while driving. The research reveals that most drivers admit to using their cellphones regularly while driving, even with children in the car; drivers also feel pressured to answer work calls while driving.
The authors of the study, from the University of California San Diego, are now working with companies to teach employees about the risks associated with distracted driving, and show ...
2015-08-20
TORONTO, Aug. 20, 2015--A new study has found a "significant association" between adults who have suffered a traumatic brain injury at some point in their lives and who also have attention deficit hyperactive disorder.
The study, published today in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, supports research that found a similar association in children, said Dr. Gabriela Ilie, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael's Hospital.
The data used in the adult study was collected by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's Monitor, a continuous, cross-sectional ...
2015-08-20
Oxford, August 20, 2015 - Researchers in China have developed tiny nanocrystals that could be used in the next generation of medical imaging technologies to light up cancer cells. In a study published in the inaugural issue of the journal Applied Materials Today, a new rapid, online only publication, the team of researchers describe how they make these films which are based on the heavy metals lanthanum and europium.
Dr. Yaping Du of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, and colleagues have developed a way to make high-quality nanocrystals of lanthanide oxybromides, where ...
2015-08-20
NEW YORK, NY - Patients with scoliosis who undergo surgery may be less likely to develop an infection or other complications after the procedure when a novel wound closure technique pioneered at NYU Langone Medical Center is utilized, according to new research. The study was published online this past July in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics.
In this new technique, surgeons use a multilayered flap closure that enables doctors to close several layers of muscle and fascia while maintaining blood supply from the donor site to the recipient site. The researchers believe ...
2015-08-20
Post-discharge disease management provided in their own homes could be a cost-effective alternative for recently-hospitalised elderly patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).
Just published in the International Journal of Cardiology, this is the finding of a recent economic evaluation conducted by Griffith University using data from a randomised controlled trial (The WHICH Study).
In collaboration with the Australian Catholic University, 280 patients with CHF recruited from three public hospitals, received multidisciplinary disease management.
With the aim of reducing ...
2015-08-20
The solid waste left over from wine-making could make a competitive biofuel, University of Adelaide researchers have found.
Published in the journal Bioresource Technology, the researchers showed that up to 400 litres of bioethanol could be produced by fermentation of a tonne of grape marc (the leftover skins, stalks and seeds from wine-making).
Global wine production leaves an estimated 13 million tonnes of grape marc waste each year. Nationally it is estimated that several hundred thousand tonnes are generated annually and it is generally disposed of at a cost to ...
2015-08-20
The problem has been that the vast majority of these atomically thin 2D crystals are unstable in air, so react and decompose before their properties can be determined and their potential applications investigated.
Writing in Nano Letters, the University of Manchester team demonstrate how tailored fabrication methods can make these previously inaccessible materials useful.
By protecting the new reactive crystals with more stable 2D materials, such as graphene, via computer control in a specially designed inert gas chamber environments, these materials can be successfully ...
2015-08-20
In the Arctic, warming increases like a spiral. Global warming means that the periods of growth are becoming longer and vegetation growth is increasing. At the same time, heat transfer to the Arctic from lower latitudes is rising, reducing sea ice there, and this in turn is contributing towards a faster local rise in temperature.
A new research study published in the highly respected research journal PNAS shows that the situation is the reverse on the Tibetan Plateau.
Vegetation on the Tibetan Plateau has also increased as a result of global warming. However, in contrast ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Virginia Tech researchers discover potential biomarker for pre-diabetes
Fralin Life Science Institute researchers find link between insulin response, energy producer
