energy Archives - Family Medicine News

Proteins cooperate to break up energy structures in oxygen starved heart cells

19.11.2018 Health Problems

During a heart attack, the supply of oxygen to heart cells is decreased. This reduced oxygen level, called hypoxia, causes the cell’s powerhouses, the mitochondria, to fragment, impairing cell function and leading to heart failure. Until now, few details have been known about how this process occurs. Researchers at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, have revealed how filamin […]

Impaired energy production may explain why brain is susceptible to age-related diseases

29.05.2018 Health Problems

Defective energy production in old neurons might explain why our brains are so prone to age-related diseases. Salk researchers used a new method to discover that cells from older individuals had impaired mitochondria—the power stations of cells—and reduced energy production. A better understanding of the effects of aging on mitochondria could reveal more about the link between mitochondrial dysfunction and […]

Receptor proteins that respond to nicotine may help fat cells burn energy

21.05.2018 Health Problems

The same proteins that moderate nicotine dependence in the brain may be involved in regulating metabolism by acting directly on certain types of fat cells, new research from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute shows. Previous research by LSI research assistant professor Jun Wu and others identified a new type of fat cell in mice and humans, in addition […]

Study finds how fat tissue shunts energy to tumors

10.04.2018 Health Problems

Obesity is the second-leading preventable cause of cancer and represents one of the greatest threats to global human health. But it has not been clear exactly how whole-body metabolism affects tumor formation. In particular, the molecular mechanisms by which fat cells communicate with tumor tissue remain poorly understood. Sanford Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) researchers recently addressed this question, revealing […]

Is Alzheimer’s caused by disruptions to the brain’s energy supply?

05.04.2018 Health Problems

It is well known that Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, involves the accumulation of sticky proteins (plaques and tangles) in the brain. But we still don’t know what the root cause of the disease is. Given that someone, somewhere in the world, is diagnosed with dementia every three seconds, there is an urgent race to discover the […]