Secrets of the naked mole-rat: new study reveals how their unique metabolism protects them from heart attacks
2024-03-27
(Press-News.org)
This unusual, subterranean mammal with extreme longevity shows genetic adaptations to low oxygen environments which could offer opportunities for advancing other areas of physiological and medical research in humans, including the development of novel therapeutic approaches.
New research from Queen Mary University of London led by Dr Dunja Aksentijevic in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has revealed that that the genome of the naked mole-rat contains specific adaptations that allow them to survive in low-oxygen, and even no oxygen environments in their natural habitat. The findings also show the mammals’ distinct cardiometabolic profile helps to avoid damage to their hearts caused by cardiovascular events.
Dr Aksentijevic led the team of scientists from London, Pretoria and Cambridge to sample heart tissue from the naked mole-rat and compared it to samples from other African mole-rat species (Cape, Cape dune, common, Natal, Mahali, highveld and Damaraland mole-rats), as well as evolutionarily divergent mammals (Hottentot golden mole and C57/BL6 mouse).
In this study, they found that the naked mole-rat has a unique expression of genes in heart cells controlling energy generation from sugars resulting in a metabolic profile that is distinct from any of the other mole-rats as well as the other species studied. These unique cardiac metabolic and genetic features of the naked mole-rat heart led to enhanced energy reserves even during blood occlusion and return of blood flow after in vitro simulated heart attack. Collectively, these adaptations result in the naked mole-rat ’s tolerance to reduced oxygen and negligible damage to their heart tissue.
Dr Chris Faulkes, Reader (Associate Professor) in Evolutionary Ecology at Queen Mary and Lead Author, said: "Naked mole-rats live in a unique hypoxic and social environment, and we believe these factors have driven the evolution of special adaptations in their hearts that contribute to their exceptional longevity and health span,"
Dr Dunja Aksentijevic, Wellcome Trust Career Re-Entry Fellow, Reader (Associate Professor) in Cardiovascular Physiology and Metabolism at Queen Mary, said: “Unlike humans, who are prone to heart injury by hypoxia and anoxia caused by blood occlusion during heart attacks, NMR hearts have adapted to evade such damage. Thanks to our research, we are now able to understand the metabolic and genetic mechanisms underpinning this unique level of protection.”
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2024-03-27
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Understanding the structure of proteins is critical for demystifying their functions and developing drugs that target them. To that end, a team of researchers at Brown University has developed a way of using machine learning to rapidly predict multiple protein configurations to advance understanding of protein dynamics and functions.
A study describing the approach was published in Nature Communications on Wednesday, March 27.
The authors say the technique is accurate, fast, cost-effective and has the potential to revolutionize drug discovery ...
2024-03-27
The researchers had previously identified a ‘weak spot’ in the brain, which is a specific network of higher-order regions that not only develop later during adolescence, but also show earlier degeneration in old age. They showed that this brain network is also particularly vulnerable to schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.
In this new study, published in Nature Communications, they investigated the genetic and modifiable influences on these fragile brain regions by looking at the brain scans of 40,000 UK Biobank participants aged over 45.
The researchers examined 161 risk factors for dementia, and ranked their impact on this vulnerable ...
2024-03-27
Leuven, Antwerp, and London, 27 March – Microglia are specialized immune cells in the brain. While they normally protect our brains, they can also contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The exact mechanism behind this contribution is not yet fully understood due to the complexities involved in studying them in human brain samples. Now, a research team led by Prof. Bart De Strooper (UK-DRI@UCL and VIB-KU Leuven) and Prof. Renzo Mancuso (VIB-UAntwerp) made a xenotransplantation model – mice with stem-cell-derived human microglia in their brains to observe how human microglia respond to the disease environment. Their findings, published ...
2024-03-27
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Conditions that usually accompany the kind of intense hot and cold weather that strains power grids may also provide greater opportunities to capture solar and wind energy.
A Washington State University-led study found that widespread, extreme temperature events are often accompanied by greater solar radiation and higher wind speeds that could be captured by solar panels and wind turbines. The research, which looked at extensive heat and cold waves across the six interconnected energy grid regions of ...
2024-03-27
During the Late Pleistocene, California — at least at its lower elevations — was teeming with vegetation. While much of North America was covered in Ice Age glaciers, here, mastodons lumbered across verdant meadows, stopping to feed on brush, warily eyeing the forest’s edge for saber-tooth cats on the prowl for their calves.
Humans also flourished along the coastline, which extended hundreds of feet below where it is today.
But by 11,000 years ago, mastodons were extinct. Today, scientists are still debating the reasons for their demise: did human hunting do them in? Climate change? ...
2024-03-27
BARCELONA, SPAIN (27 MARCH 2024)—In the most comprehensive assessment of its kind to date, a new study released today reveals that marine protected areas (MPAs, national parks at sea) deliver a range of economic benefits to the fishing and tourism industries. The study examined more than 50 protected areas in more than 30 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania representing diverse ecosystems to find that, in all cases, MPAs boosted either fishing or tourism, with some profits in the billions.
“In every corner of the globe, ocean protection boosts economies,” said ...
2024-03-27
Research Highlights:
People living in neighborhoods with more environmental adversities, including pollution, toxic sites, high traffic and few parks, had higher rates of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular disease risk factors.
This association remained after adjusting for social vulnerabilities, such as high levels of unemployment, low income and low education.
Researchers say comprehensive strategies that simultaneously address social and environmental disadvantages are needed.
Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Wednesday, March 27, 2024
DALLAS, March 27, 2024 — People who live in areas with social and environmental ...
2024-03-27
Feeling sleepy can make you feel ten years older. Researchers at Stockholm University have discovered that sleep affects how old you feel. The study is published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Do you ever find yourself longing for the energy and vitality of your younger years? Feeling young is not just a matter of perception – it is actually related to objective health outcomes. Previous studies have shown that feeling younger than one’s actual age is associated with longer, healthier lives. There is even support for subjective age to predict actual brain age, ...
2024-03-27
A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford Univeristy Press, uncovers well-preserved microbiomes from two 4,000 year old teeth in a limestone cave in Ireland. These contained bacteria that cause gum disease, as well as the first high quality ancient genome from S. mutans, an oral bacterium that is one of the major causes of tooth decay.
These discoveries allowed the researchers to assess the impact of past dietary changes on the oral microbiome across millennia, including major changes coinciding with the popularization of sugar and industrialization. The teeth, both derived from the same ...
2024-03-27
Blood is a remarkable material: it must remain fluid inside blood vessels, yet clot as quickly as possible outside them, to stop bleeding. The chemical cascade that makes this possible is well understood for vertebrate blood. But hemolymph, the equivalent of blood in insects, has a very different composition, being notably lacking in red blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets, and having amoeba-like cells called hemocytes instead of white blood cells for immune defense.
Just like blood, hemolymph clots quickly outside the body. How it does so has long remained an enigma. Now, materials scientists have shown in Frontiers in Soft ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Secrets of the naked mole-rat: new study reveals how their unique metabolism protects them from heart attacks
