This Review discusses the role of organelles, including the ER, mitochondria and lysosomes, as metabolic signalling hubs in ageing and longevity regulation, and highlights their crosstalk that maintains cellular homeostasis and organism fitness.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 263
Negative effects of artificial sweeteners may pass on to next-generation, study suggests
Health organizations are starting to raise concerns about the potential long-term impacts of artificial sweeteners, which taste sweet but—unlike sugar—contain no calories, suggesting they could interfere with energy metabolism and increase the eventual risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Now a new study in mice indicates that the popular sweeteners sucralose and stevia have negative effects on the gut microbiome and gene expression, potentially compromising metabolic health, which can be transmitted between generations.
“We found it intriguing that despite the growing consumption of these additives, the prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance has not declined,” said Dr. Francisca Concha Celume of the Universidad de Chile, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Nutrition.
You have no free will at all | Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky
Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_… How your biology and environment make your decisions for you, according to Dr. Robert Sapolsky.
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Robert Sapolsky, PhD is an author, researcher, and professor of biology, neurology, and neurosurgery at Stanford University. In this interview with Big Think’s Editor-in-Chief, Robert Chapman Smith, Sapolsky discusses the content of his most recent book, “Determined: The Science of Life Without Free Will.”
Being held as a child, growing up in a collectivist culture, or experiencing any sort of brain trauma – among hundreds of other things – can shape your internal biases and ultimately influence the decisions you make. This, explains Sapolsky, means that free will is not – and never has been – real. Even physiological factors like hunger can discreetly influence decision making, as discovered in a study that found judges were more likely to grant parole after they had eaten.
This insight is key for interpreting human behavior, helping not only scientists but those who aim to evolve education systems, mental health research, and even policy making.
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Abstract: SLC26A4-gene mutations are a frequent cause of hereditary HearingLoss
SLC26A4-gene mutations are a frequent cause of hereditary HearingLoss.
https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI193812 Here, Tsai et al. report that targeted AAV delivery to the endolymphatic sac and cochlear lateral wall restores auditory physiology and ameliorates cochlear pathology in a mouse model of Slc26a4-related deafness. Pendred syndrome DFNB4.
The image shows an AAV-GFP–transduced spiral prominence, a structure within the cochlear lateral wall. GFP (green) marks successfully transduced cells, phalloidin-568 (red) labels the actin cytoskeleton, and DAPI (blue) stains nuclei, highlighting efficient gene transfer to inner ear tissues essential for auditory function.
Address correspondence to: Chen-Chi Wu, Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 1, Changde St., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100,229, Taiwan. Phone: 886.2.2312.3456; Email: [email protected]. Or to: Yen-Fu Cheng, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shipai Rd., Beitou District, Taipei City 11,217, Taiwan. Phone: 886.2.2875.7642; Email: [email protected].
Find articles by Tsai, Y. in: | Google Scholar
1Institute of Brain Science, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Diabetes flips immune cells from repair to inflammation in peripheral artery disease, study finds
Type 2 diabetes can turn immune cells that help with tissue repair and anti-inflammatory responses into triggers of chronic inflammation. A recent study investigated why people with type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk of severe complications from peripheral artery disease (PAD).
PAD is a common circulatory condition in which plaque buildup narrows the arteries, reducing blood flow, usually in the legs. This can lead to lower extremity infections and the formation of non-healing ulcers in people with diabetes.
Using RNA-sequencing and gene mapping, researchers discovered that diabetes causes certain immune cells called macrophages that express the protein TREM2 to reprogram their behavior from helping cells repair to causing harmful inflammation and preventing blood vessels from healing. The findings were published in Science Translational Medicine.
Brain-inspired chip could reduce AI energy use by 70%
Replicating the brain’s capabilities, an impossible task, may theoretically require thousands of H100, one of NVIDIA’s most powerful GPUs. At 700 watts per chip, we are looking at power consumption in the megawatt range. The brain runs on 20 watts. Scientists have taken inspiration from this remarkable organ to create chips that could cut conventional energy use by 70%.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a new brain-inspired nanoscale device that they say could dramatically reduce the enormous energy demands of artificial intelligence hardware. The team created an ultra-low-power “memristor”: a device that can both store and process information in the same location, much like synapses in the human brain.
In conventional computing architectures, memory and processing units are physically separated, requiring data to shuttle back and forth between these units for every task. This seemingly simple process consumes enormous amounts of electricity and is a significant contributor to AI’s exploding power demands.
Powerful Antioxidant Found To Play a Key Role in Proper Protein Folding
Glutathione balance in the ER, controlled by SLC33A1, is essential for proper protein folding and disease prevention.
Scientists discover the “Goldilocks” secret behind life on Earth
Earth may be habitable because it got unbelievably lucky with its chemistry from the very start.
Earth may have won a cosmic chemistry lottery. Researchers found that during the planet’s earliest formation, oxygen had to be in an extremely narrow “Goldilocks zone” for two life-essential elements, phosphorus and nitrogen, to stay where life could use them. Too much or too little oxygen, and those ingredients could be lost or trapped deep inside the planet. This could reshape the search for life by showing that water alone is not enough.
Life cannot begin on a planet unless certain chemical elements are available in large enough amounts. Two of the most important are phosphorus and nitrogen. Phosphorus helps build DNA and RNA, which store and pass along genetic information, and it also plays a key role in how cells manage energy. Nitrogen is a major part of proteins, which are essential for building cells and helping them function. Without enough phosphorus and nitrogen, life cannot emerge from nonliving matter.
MRI reveals cerebrospinal fluid shifts after mild brain injury
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have found that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) microdynamic motion shows region-specific alterations after mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Using a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, the team noninvasively visualized these CSF changes, which have been difficult to quantify with conventional imaging. The approach is expected to advance the understanding of the relationship between post-traumatic brain conditions and cognitive function. The study is published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.
The brain contains cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which protects neural tissue and helps clear metabolic waste. Rather than being static, CSF exhibits continuous subtle motion, and this motion is thought to be closely linked to brain health. However, little has been known about how CSF motion is altered after a mild head injury.
The researchers employed a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique known as intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI to evaluate CSF microdynamic motion through the incoherent movement of water molecules. The results showed that, after mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), CSF motion increased in some brain regions and decreased in others.
T cells secrete DNA to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability
Activated immune cells secrete tiny capsules bearing DNA that can enter other immune and tumor cells to stimulate the body’s defense systems, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The discovery extends the scientific understanding of the immune system, identifies a new strategy for boosting immunity against cancers and potentially offers a new tool for delivering genetic payloads to other cells.
Most animal cells secrete tiny capsules known as extracellular vesicles—nanoscale, membrane-bound particles—whose cargo can include proteins, snippets of DNA and other molecules. In the new study, published April 30 in Cancer Cell, the researchers discovered that vesicles secreted by activated T cells —major weapons of the immune system—carry DNA that enters immune cells and nearby tumor cells to enhance the immune response against the tumor. Preclinical experiments showed that this vesicle-associated DNA could be useful therapeutically, boosting T cell attacks against tumors that otherwise evoke little or no immune response.
“These findings reveal a natural mechanism for treating immunologically silent tumors and other diseases that stem from insufficient immune surveillance,” said study co-senior author Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology and a member of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health and the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.