Metabolism News and Research

Latest Metabolism News and Research

Study assesses gender differences in the efficacy of antiretroviral treatment

Women comprise nearly half of the HIV-infected population worldwide, but these 15.5 million women tend to be under-represented in clinical trials of anti-HIV drug therapies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created a database from 40 clinical studies to assess gender differences in the efficacy of antiretroviral treatments.

12 Aug 2012

Resistant starch can help improve insulin sensitivity

Ingredion Incorporated, a leading global provider of ingredient solutions, today announced the results of a new independent clinical trial published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

10 Aug 2012

Oil derived from wild almond tree seeds may help fight obesity, diabetes

A future weapon in the battle against obesity and diabetes could come in the form of an oil derived from the seeds of wild almond trees, according to researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

10 Aug 2012

Sirtuins help fight off obesity-linked diseases

A protein that slows aging in mice and other animals also protects against the ravages of a high-fat diet, including diabetes, according to a new MIT study.

9 Aug 2012

Researchers uncover new key player in amplifying stress in early stages of diabetes

At its most fundamental level, diabetes is a disease characterized by stress—microscopic stress that causes inflammation and the loss of insulin production in the pancreas, and system-wide stress due to the loss of that blood-sugar-regulating hormone.

9 Aug 2012

Folate, excision biomarkers not predictive for small-cell lung cancer response

Biomarkers associated with the folate metabolism and excision repair pathways are not sufficiently prognostic to aid chemotherapy decisions for patients with extensive-stage disease small-cell lung cancer, results of a phase III trial show.

8 Aug 2012

WSU researchers to test novel hypothesis that cardiolipin deficiency leads to disruption of TCA cycle

Barth Syndrome (BTHS) is a rare and serious genetic disorder that primarily affects males and is passed from mother to son; women who are carriers do not show symptoms of the disorder. Fifty percent of children born to a mother who is a carrier will inherit the defective gene, and all daughters born to an affected man will be carriers. BTHS is caused by a mutation in the tafazzin gene that results in decreased production of cardiolipin, an essential lipid for energy metabolism.

8 Aug 2012

Dieters experience drops in basal metabolic rate, in spite of daily exercise

The International Association for the Study of Obesity has bad news for dieters: as reported in the New York Times, the commonly held belief that exercise is a magic metabolism booster may be largely unfounded. A new study finds that people who lost weight experienced drops in basal metabolic rate (BMR), in spite of daily exercise.

8 Aug 2012

TXNIP protein provides best available target for therapies against diabetes, Wolfram syndrome

Inflammation and cell stress play important roles in the death of insulin-secreting cells and are major factors in diabetes. Cell stress also plays a role in Wolfram syndrome, a rare, genetic disorder that afflicts children with many symptoms, including juvenile-onset diabetes.

8 Aug 2012

Gut microbiota drive metabolic changes in pregnancy

Changes in gut microbiota during pregnancy result in unfavorable metabolic changes that are actually beneficial to a pregnant woman and her developing baby, shows research published in Cell.

7 Aug 2012

Orexigen Therapeutics reports net loss of $16.7 million for second quarter 2012

Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of obesity, today announced financial results for the second quarter of 2012.

7 Aug 2012

Rexahn announces completion of RX-3117 exploratory Phase I clinical trial in cancer patients

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company commercializing potential best in class oncology and CNS therapeutics, today announced that it has completed its exploratory Phase I clinical trial of RX-3117 in cancer patients.

6 Aug 2012

Risky prenatal use of steroid to prevent intersex, tomboys and lesbians

A new paper just published in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry uses extensive Freedom of Information Act findings to detail an extremely troubling off-label medical intervention employed in the U.S. on pregnant women to intentionally engineer the development of their fetuses for sex normalization purposes.

3 Aug 2012

Mechanism provides beneficial characteristics of energy-burning brown fat to white fat

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have identified a mechanism that can give energy-storing white fat some of the beneficial characteristics of energy-burning brown fat. The findings, based on studies of mice and of human fat tissue, could lead to new strategies for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes.

3 Aug 2012

Exercise benefits influenced by sRAGE levels in diabetes

Increased levels of the soluble form of the receptor for advanced glycation end products may underly the beneficial effects of exercise in patients with Type 2 diabetes, research shows.

3 Aug 2012

Alcohol decreases turnover of bone in post-menopausal women

Women after menopause tend to develop weaker bones from what is known as osteoporosis, which may lead to fractures (especially hip fractures) from falling. The weakness of the bones results from an imbalance between the normal resorption (a type of dissolving of old bone) and the laying down of new bone, an ongoing process for both men and women referred to as "bone turnover."

3 Aug 2012

New insights into process of eye-size control in zebrafish

A Purdue University student's research project related to zebrafish eye development could lead to a better understanding of vision problems that affect billions of people worldwide.

3 Aug 2012

Composition of microbes in the gut changes dramatically during pregnancy

The composition of microbes in the gut changes dramatically during pregnancy, according to a study published by Cell Press in the August 3rd issue of the journal Cell. Although these changes are associated with metabolic disease under most circumstances, they could be beneficial in pregnant women.

3 Aug 2012

Anacardic acid can rescue some ALS phenotypes in vitro

A research group at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Japan's Kyoto University has successfully recapitulated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-associated abnormalities in motor neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) obtained from patients with familial ALS, a late-onset, fatal disorder which is also known for Lou Gehrig's disease. In a drug screening assay using the disease model, the team further found that the chemical compound anacardic acid can rescue some ALS phenotypes in vitro.

3 Aug 2012