New technique allows scientists to measure mitochondrial respiration in frozen tissue
FINDINGSScientists led by Dr. Orian Shirihai, director of themetabolism theme at theDavidGeffen School of Medicine at UCLA,have developed a method for restoring oxygen-consumption activity to previously frozen mitochondria samples, even years after they have been collected. The process of freezing and thawing mitochondria depresses their oxygen consumption and, until now, has hindered researchers ’ ability to accurately carry out large-scale studies examining the crucial role of mitochondria in both health and disease.BACKGROUNDThe mitochondria in our cells consume 90% of the oxygen we breathe and use that oxygen to conv...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - June 22, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
T cells with dysfunctional mitochondria induce multimorbidity and premature senescence
The effect of immunometabolism on age-associated diseases remains uncertain. In this work, we show that T cells with dysfunctional mitochondria owing to mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) deficiency act as accelerators of senescence. In mice, these cells instigate multiple aging-related features, including metabolic, cognitive, physical, and cardiovascular alterations, which together result in premature death. T cell metabolic failure induces the accumulation of circulating cytokines, which resembles the chronic inflammation that is characteristic of aging ("inflammaging"). This cytokine storm itself acts as a sys...
Source: ScienceNOW - June 17, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Desdin-Mico, G., Soto-Heredero, G., Aranda, J. F., Oller, J., Carrasco, E., Gabande-Rodriguez, E., Blanco, E. M., Alfranca, A., Cusso, L., Desco, M., Ibanez, B., Gortazar, A. R., Fernandez-Marcos, P., Navarro, M. N., Hernaez, B., Alcami, A., Baixauli, F., Tags: Immunology, Medicine, Diseases reports Source Type: news
Ultraviolet Light Treats Influenza?
The healing power of ultraviolet light (UV) has flown under the radar for decades. Yet, it’s one of the most powerful detoxifying agents known to man. It kills bacteria and viruses and can be used in a clinical setting.
The therapeutic benefits of light have been known for millennia. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, believed light was essential to balance the body and emotions.
And there is good reason why, during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, medics discovered that severely ill patients had hugely better recovery rates when they were nursed outside and had regular exposure to sunlight.1
You see, UV r...
Source: Al Sears, MD Natural Remedies - May 21, 2020 Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Dr.A.Sears Tags: Health Source Type: news
Subcellular chatter regulates longevity
(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) As people get older, they often feel less energetic, mobile or active. This may be due in part to a decline in mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside of our cells, which provide energy and regulate metabolism. In fact, mitochondria decline with age not only in humans, but in many species. Why they do so is not well understood. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne set out to understand how mitochondrial function is diminished with age and to find factors that prevent this process. They found that communication between mitochondria and other parts of the cell pl...
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - May 19, 2020 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Mitochondria to the rescue
(Source: ScienceNOW)
Source: ScienceNOW - May 13, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Hurtley, S. M. Tags: twil Source Type: news
Ronald Reagan ’s Secret Cancer Cure
There’s no faster way to purify your body of viruses, bacteria and fungi — and at the same time ramp up your immune system — than a 125-year-old “cure” banned by the FDA.
I’m talking about ozone therapy — and it’s not just good for cleansing your body.
You see, ozone — a special “energized” kind of oxygen — can help heal almost any condition.
Despite being banned by the FDA back in the 1940s, after more than 60 years of successful use, ozone therapy has saved millions of lives in countries where it has become a commonplace medical treatment.
In countries like Germany, I...
Source: Al Sears, MD Natural Remedies - May 12, 2020 Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Dr.A.Sears Tags: Health Source Type: news
High calcium levels in mitochondria linked to neuronal death in Alzheimer's disease
(Massachusetts General Hospital) For the first time, using a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have documented a link between raised levels of calcium in mitochondria and neuronal death in the living brain. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - May 12, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
CLUHing in mitochondria to starvation
The RNA-binding protein CLUH helps reprogram hepatocyte mitochondria in response to starvation. (Source: Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment)
Source: Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment - May 11, 2020 Category: Science Authors: VanHook, A. M. Tags: STKE Editors ' Choice Source Type: news
Elesclomol alleviates Menkes pathology and mortality by escorting Cu to cuproenzymes in mice
Loss-of-function mutations in the copper (Cu) transporter ATP7A cause Menkes disease. Menkes is an infantile, fatal, hereditary copper-deficiency disorder that is characterized by progressive neurological injury culminating in death, typically by 3 years of age. Severe copper deficiency leads to multiple pathologies, including impaired energy generation caused by cytochrome c oxidase dysfunction in the mitochondria. Here we report that the small molecule elesclomol escorted copper to the mitochondria and increased cytochrome c oxidase levels in the brain. Through this mechanism, elesclomol prevented detrimental neurodegene...
Source: ScienceNOW - May 6, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Guthrie, L. M., Soma, S., Yuan, S., Silva, A., Zulkifli, M., Snavely, T. C., Greene, H. F., Nunez, E., Lynch, B., De Ville, C., Shanbhag, V., Lopez, F. R., Acharya, A., Petris, M. J., Kim, B.-E., Gohil, V. M., Sacchettini, J. C. Tags: Medicine, Diseases r-articles Source Type: news
Light-powered CO2 fixation in a chloroplast mimic with natural and synthetic parts
Nature integrates complex biosynthetic and energy-converting tasks within compartments such as chloroplasts and mitochondria. Chloroplasts convert light into chemical energy, driving carbon dioxide fixation. We used microfluidics to develop a chloroplast mimic by encapsulating and operating photosynthetic membranes in cell-sized droplets. These droplets can be energized by light to power enzymes or enzyme cascades and analyzed for their catalytic properties in multiplex and real time. We demonstrate how these microdroplets can be programmed and controlled by adjusting internal compositions and by using light as an external...
Source: ScienceNOW - May 6, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Miller, T. E., Beneyton, T., Schwander, T., Diehl, C., Girault, M., McLean, R., Chotel, T., Claus, P., Cortina, N. S., Baret, J.-C., Erb, T. J. Tags: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology reports Source Type: news
Interleukin-13 drives metabolic conditioning of muscle to endurance exercise
Repeated bouts of exercise condition muscle mitochondria to meet increased energy demand—an adaptive response associated with improved metabolic fitness. We found that the type 2 cytokine interleukin-13 (IL-13) is induced in exercising muscle, where it orchestrates metabolic reprogramming that preserves glycogen in favor of fatty acid oxidation and mitochondrial respiration. Exercise training–mediated mitochondrial biogenesis, running endurance, and beneficial glycemic effects were lost in Il13–/– mice. By contrast, enhanced muscle IL-13 signaling was sufficient to increase running distance, glucose...
Source: ScienceNOW - April 29, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Knudsen, N. H., Stanya, K. J., Hyde, A. L., Chalom, M. M., Alexander, R. K., Liou, Y.-H., Starost, K. A., Gangl, M. R., Jacobi, D., Liu, S., Sopariwala, D. H., Fonseca-Pereira, D., Li, J., Hu, F. B., Garrett, W. S., Narkar, V. A., Ortlund, E. A., Kim, J. Tags: Online Only, Physiology r-articles Source Type: news
Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation regulates mitochondrial dynamics in brown adipocytes
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) engages mitochondria at specialized ER domains known as mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs). Here, we used three-dimensional high-resolution imaging to investigate the formation of pleomorphic "megamitochondria" with altered MAMs in brown adipocytes lacking the Sel1L-Hrd1 protein complex of ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD). Mice with ERAD deficiency in brown adipocytes were cold sensitive and exhibited mitochondrial dysfunction. ERAD deficiency affected ER-mitochondria contacts and mitochondrial dynamics, at least in part, by regulating the turnover of the MAM protein, sigma rece...
Source: ScienceNOW - April 1, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Zhou, Z., Torres, M., Sha, H., Halbrook, C. J., Van den Bergh, F., Reinert, R. B., Yamada, T., Wang, S., Luo, Y., Hunter, A. H., Wang, C., Sanderson, T. H., Liu, M., Taylor, A., Sesaki, H., Lyssiotis, C. A., Wu, J., Kersten, S., Beard, D. A., Qi, L. Tags: Cell Biology, Physiology r-articles Source Type: news
New mechanism underlying organelle communication revealed in brown fat cells
(Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan) A new study reveals an underappreciated interplay between the endoplasmic reticulum and the mitochondria with implications for weight loss and disease. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - March 30, 2020 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Spinal nerve healing enhanced by boost in cellular energy
Mice engineered to lack a protein that anchors mitochondria in injured nerve cells showed regrowth of those cells after a spinal cord injury. (Source: NIH Research Matters from the National Institutes of Health (NIH))
Source: NIH Research Matters from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - March 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
New research may help older adults stay physically capable for longer
(University of Birmingham) Drug therapies that help older adults maintain their skeletal muscle mass and physical function for longer could be a step closer after researchers at the University of Birmingham identify a key mechanism that drives the clearance of damaged mitochondria. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - March 22, 2020 Category: Biology Source Type: news
