Metabolism News and Research

Latest Metabolism News and Research

Investigators use genome analysis to eliminate lifetime drug prescription in two children

Using genome-wide analysis, investigators at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and the University of Montreal have potentially eliminated a lifetime drug prescription that two children with a previously unknown type of adrenal insufficiency had been receiving for 14 years.

4 Feb 2013

PKCζ protein plays a critical role in regulating tumor metabolism

Cancer cells need food to survive and grow. They're very good at getting it, too, even when nutrients are scarce. Many scientists have tried killing cancer cells by taking away their favorite food, a sugar called glucose. Unfortunately, this treatment approach not only fails to work, it backfires-glucose-starved tumors actually get more aggressive.

2 Feb 2013

Potential connection between autism and insulin-like growth factor

A New York-based physician-researcher from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, best known for his research into fertility and twinning, has uncovered a potential connection between autism and a specific growth protein that could eventually be used as a way to predict an infant's propensity to later develop the disease.

2 Feb 2013

Novel computer algorithm can easily quantify major risk factor for breast cancer

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have developed a novel computer algorithm to easily quantify a major risk factor for breast cancer based on analysis of a screening mammogram. Increased levels of mammographic breast density have been shown in multiple studies to be correlated with elevated risk of breast cancer, but the approach to quantifying it has been limited to the laboratory setting where measurement requires highly skilled technicians.

1 Feb 2013

Breezing offers new portable device that can track an individual's metabolism

Breezing, a new startup based on technology developed by researchers at Arizona State University, is offering the world's first portable device that can track an individual's metabolism and use that information to provide diet and exercise recommendations for maintaining or reaching a healthy weight.

1 Feb 2013

Scientists uncover key mechanism that links obesity and diabetes with cancer

Sugars are needed to provide us with energy and in moderate amounts contribute to our well-being. Sustained high levels of sugars, as is found in diabetics, damages our cells and now is shown that can also increase our chance to get cancer: The dose makes the poison as Paracelsus said.

1 Feb 2013

Brandeis University researchers to receive Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences

Deborah E. Wiley, Chair of The Wiley Foundation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., announced today that the twelfth annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences will be awarded to Dr. Michael Young, Rockefeller University, Dr. Jeffrey Hall, Brandeis University (Emeritus), and Dr. Michael Rosbash, Brandeis University.

1 Feb 2013

Study supports hypothesis that disulfiram reduces drug consumption by blocking DβH

Disulfiram was the first medication approved for the treatment of alcoholism over 50 years ago. It works, at least in part, by preventing the metabolism of an alcohol by-product, acetaldehyde. High levels of acetaldehyde in the body quickly cause unpleasant symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, headache, and accelerated heart rate. Thus, disulfiram provides a very strong incentive to avoid drinking.

1 Feb 2013

Gene variant boosts ulcer susceptibility in NSAID users

A single nucleotide polymorphism in the cytochrome P450 2C gene cluster influences the risk for peptic ulcer disease in people taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, a study reveals.

31 Jan 2013

Study shows how gut microbes conspire with poor diets to trigger childhood malnutrition

A study of young twins in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa, finds that bacteria living in the intestine are an underlying cause of a form of severe acute childhood malnutrition.

31 Jan 2013

Scientists review damage-control in metabolism

In this week's issue of the prestigious journal Nature Chemical Biology, scientists Carole Linster (University of Luxembourg), Emile Van Schaftingen (Louvain University), and Andrew D. Hanson (University of Florida, Gainesville) review an important, but so far neglected, part of metabolism, namely metabolite damage-control.

31 Jan 2013

Binge drinking causes insulin resistance and increases risk of Type 2 diabetes

Binge drinking causes insulin resistance, which increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to the results of an animal study led by researchers at the Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

31 Jan 2013

Possible new direction for treatment of metabolic syndrome

Obesity might be a very modern problem, but a team of scientists from Taiwan and China is turning to the age-old principles of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to help fight it. Breaking research published in the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics indicates a possible new direction for the treatment of metabolic syndrome.

31 Jan 2013

Maternal diet, first-year housing affect foals' osteochondrosis risk

Mares that are fed a diet that includes or is solely comprised of concentrates during gestation are significantly more likely to produce foals that develop permanent osteochondrosis lesions compared with mares who are fed a diet of roughage alone, report researchers.

30 Jan 2013

Tributyltin exposure may cause ‘transgenerational obesity’

Research shows that offspring of mice exposed to low doses of the chemical tributyltin, used in paints, plastics, and other consumer products, have greater than normal body fat, liver fat, and fat-specific gene expression.

30 Jan 2013

Lack of exercise, television viewing associated with risk of metabolic syndrome

A team of scientists at Umeå University, in collaboration with colleagues in Melbourne, Australia, have found that television viewing and lack of exercise at age 16 is associated with the risk of developing metabolic syndrome at 43 years age.

30 Jan 2013

Researchers create CoQ9-deficient mutant mouse model with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy

At three to six months of life, this genetic alteration in mice -similar to that occurred in human- causes a rapid degeneration in the lower limbs to death for cardiac arrest.

30 Jan 2013

SOD1 enzyme protects cells by regulating cell energy and metabolism

Just like a comic book super hero, you could say that the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD1) has a secret identity. Since its discovery in 1969, scientists believed SOD1's only role was to protect living cells against damage from free radicals. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have discovered that SOD1 protects cells by regulating cell energy and metabolism. The results of their research were published January 17, 2013, in the journal Cell.

30 Jan 2013

Acceleron commences ACE-536 phase 2 study in myelodysplastic syndromes

Acceleron Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing protein therapeutics for cancer and orphan diseases, today announced the initiation of a phase 2 study of its investigational protein therapeutic, ACE-536, to treat anemia in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

30 Jan 2013

Phenformin decreases size of lung tumors and increases survival in mice

Ever since discovering a decade ago that a gene altered in lung cancer regulated an enzyme used in therapies against diabetes, Reuben Shaw has wondered if drugs originally designed to treat metabolic diseases could also work against cancer.

30 Jan 2013