PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

A receptor that controls appetite presents a target for anorexia, suggests mouse study

2021-04-21
(Press-News.org) By targeting a receptor in the brains of mice, researchers have successfully altered feeding and anxiety-like behaviors linked to anorexia. Although more work is needed in humans, their study suggests that fine-tuning the receptor's activity could help change feeding habits and promote weight gain in patients with eating disorders. Anorexia and other eating disorders affect at least 28 million Americans and cause more than 10,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Studies have linked anorexia to neurons that bear a protein named AgRP; these neurons reside in an area of the brain called the hypothalamus that controls feeding behavior. Researchers have found that removing AgRP neurons leads to fatal anorexia in mice, while activating the neurons results in excessive appetite and obesity. However, there are currently no approved drugs that can target these neurons and change feeding behaviors. In this study, Patrick Sweeney and colleagues discovered that AgRP-bearing neurons controlled feeding in mice via a receptor named MC3R. Deleting MC3R led to anorexia and anxious behavior in the rodents, but activating the receptor with the experimental molecule C18 instead stimulated the rodents' appetites, boosted weight gain, and prevented anxious movement. Interestingly, the team also observed that the Mc3r gene showed sex-specific differences. Female mice had far higher amounts of Mc3r-expressing neurons in the AVPV region of the hypothalamus, and the team also noted sex-specific differences in MC3R expression while analyzing a human transcriptomic dataset. Sweeney et al. speculate that targeting MC3R could either treat anorexia or promote weight loss in obesity and call for safety studies in humans.

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The wave beneath their wings

2021-04-21
Video: https://bit.ly/pelicanflightvideo It's a common sight: pelicans gliding along the waves, right by the shore. These birds make this kind of surfing look effortless, but actually the physics involved that give them a big boost are not simple. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have recently developed a theoretical model that describes how the ocean, the wind and the birds in flight interact in a recent paper in Movement Ecology. UC San Diego mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Ian Stokes and adviser Professor Drew Lucas, of UC San Diego's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering ...

Antibiotics protect apples from fire blight, but do they destroy the native microbiome?

Antibiotics protect apples from fire blight, but do they destroy the native microbiome?
2021-04-21
Like humans, certain plants are treated with antibiotics to ward off pathogens and protect the host. Saving millions, antibiotics are one of the 20th century's greatest scientific discoveries, but repeated use and misuse of these life-saving microbial products can disrupt the human microbiome and can have severe effects on an individual's health. Overuse has led to several microbes developing resistance to the antibiotic, rendering it useless, and created "superbugs" that overpower medication. But do we find that same phenomenon in plants and our food industry? This was the question Dr. Anna Wallis ...

Handwriting analysis of Dead Sea Scrolls indicates text was written by multiple scribes

Handwriting analysis of Dead Sea Scrolls indicates text was written by multiple scribes
2021-04-21
Handwriting analysis of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls indicates the biblical text was likely written by multiple scribes, who mirrored one another's writing styles. INFORMATION: Article Title: Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) Funding: 'Mladen Popovi? Project: The Hands that Wrote the Bible Grant Number: ERC Starting Grant 640497 European Research Council https://erc.europa.eu/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.' Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249769 ...

Weight gain in older age does not appear to preserve cognitive performance

2021-04-21
Weight gain in older age does not appear to preserve cognitive performance, according to study of 58,389 European adults INFORMATION: Article Title: Bodyweight change and cognitive performance in the older population Funding: None of the authors of the manuscript has received specific funding for the work included in this submission. The funders mentioned below did not play any role in the study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The SHARE data collection has been primarily funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), ...

Stress and death in female baboons

Stress and death in female baboons
2021-04-21
DURHAM, N.C. -- Female baboons may not have bills to pay or deadlines to meet, but their lives are extremely challenging. They face food and water scarcity and must be constantly attuned to predators, illnesses and parasites, all while raising infants and maintaining their social status. A new study appearing April 21 in Science Advances shows that female baboons with high life-long levels of glucocorticoids, the hormones involved in the 'fight or flight' response, have a greater risk of dying than those with lower levels. Glucocorticoids are a group of hormones ...

Scientists capture first ever image of an electron's orbit within an exciton

Scientists capture first ever image of an electrons orbit within an exciton
2021-04-21
In a world-first, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have captured an image showing the internal orbits, or spatial distribution, of particles in an exciton - a goal that had eluded scientists for almost a century. Excitons are excited states of matter found within semiconductors - a class of materials that are key to many modern technological devices, such as solar cells, LEDs, lasers and smartphones. "Excitons are really unique and interesting particles; they are electrically neutral which means they behave very differently within materials from other particles like electrons. Their presence can ...

Cracking the code of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Cracking the code of the Dead Sea Scrolls
2021-04-21
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered some seventy years ago, are famous for containing the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and many hitherto unknown ancient Jewish texts. But the individual people behind the scrolls have eluded scientists, because the scribes are anonymous. Now, by combining the sciences and the humanities, University of Groningen researchers have cracked the code, which enables them to discover the scribes behind the scrolls. They presented their results in the journal PLOS ONE on 21 April. The scribes who created the scrolls did not sign their work. Scholars suggested ...

Using floodwaters to weather droughts

Using floodwaters to weather droughts
2021-04-21
Floodwaters are not what most people consider a blessing. But they could help remedy California's increasingly parched groundwater systems, according to a new Stanford-led study. The research, published in Science Advances, develops a framework to calculate future floodwater volumes under a changing climate and identifies areas where investments in California's aging water infrastructure could amplify groundwater recharge. As the state grapples with more intense storms and droughts, stowing away floodwaters would not only reduce flood risks but also build more water reserves for ...

Chronic stress may reduce lifespan in wild baboons, according to new multi-decadal study

2021-04-21
Addressing a much-debated question about the impact of stress on survival in wild, nonhuman primates, a new multi-decadal study involving 242 wild female baboons found evidence to support chronic stress as a significant factor affecting survival. The study found that a female baboon with a stress response - as reflected in fecal glucocorticoid concentrations, a biomarker of stress response - in the top 90% for her age throughout adulthood was expected to lose 5.4 years of life compared to a female with glucocorticoid concentrations in the bottom 10% for her age group. The findings, which leveraged more than 14,000 fecal glucocorticoid measurements over a ...

'Ice cube tray' scaffold is next step in returning sight to injured retinas

Ice cube tray scaffold is next step in returning sight to injured retinas
2021-04-21
MADISON, Wis. -- Tens of millions of people worldwide are affected by diseases like macular degeneration or have had accidents that permanently damage the light-sensitive photoreceptors within their retinas that enable vision. The human body is not capable of regenerating those photoreceptors, but new advances by medical researchers and engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may provide hope for those suffering from vision loss. They described their work today in the journal Science Advances. Researchers at UW-Madison have made new photoreceptors from human pluripotent stem cells. However, it remains challenging to precisely deliver those photoreceptors within the diseased or damaged eye so that ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Cheese may really be giving you nightmares, scientists find

Study reveals most common medical emergencies in schools

Breathable yet protective: Next-gen medical textiles with micro/nano networks

Frequency-engineered MXene supercapacitors enable efficient pulse charging in TENG–SC hybrid systems

Developed an AI-based classification system for facial pigmented lesions

Achieving 20% efficiency in halogen-free organic solar cells via isomeric additive-mediated sequential processing

New book Terraglossia reclaims language, Country and culture

The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet

Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy

Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab

Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy

Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue

Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species

Early birds get the burn: Monash study finds early bedtimes associated with more physical activity

Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change

Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses

Human fishing reshaped Caribbean reef food webs, 7000-year old exposed fossilized reefs reveal

[Press-News.org] A receptor that controls appetite presents a target for anorexia, suggests mouse study