Posted Today Assistant professor of medical engineering Wei Gao is enriching the field of personalized and precision medicine with an abundant source of chemical data: sweat. Gao’s perspiration-analysis technology enables early detection of physiological aberrations, customized treatment plans, and greater accuracy in drug monitoring. Low energy, for example, is a symptom that could be associated with a multitude of...
Category: <span>Metabolic</span>
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Common foods linked to arterial stiffening in new metabolomics study
By Lois Zoppi, BA Reviewed by Kate Anderton, B.Sc. (Editor) Using untargeted metabolomics profiling, researchers have identified several lifestyle factors that could cause arteries to stiffen and increase the risk of heart disease. Whilst many of the factors -such as diabetes and high cholesterol – were already known, the researchers also identified two peptides commonly found in foods that may increase...
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Keeping bone in its place
by Anivarya Kumar, Vanderbilt University Heterotopic ossification (HO) is the formation of bone within soft tissue such as muscle, leading to pain and potentially the inability to use a limb. Once thought to be primarily a genetic disease, the cause of most trauma-induced HO is unknown. Reporting this month in the journal Calcified Tissue International, Jonathan Schoenecker, MD,...
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Researchers identify how metabolites target brain-homing immune cells to treat MS
NEW YORK, February 28, 2019 – Understanding and mitigating the role of epigenetics (environmental influences that trigger changes in gene expression) in disease development is a major goal of researchers. Now, a newly published paper featured on the March cover of the journal Brain adds significantly to this work by detailing how metabolites can be...
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Acromegaly: Are You Missing the Signs?
Acromegaly is one of those diseases that immediately caught our attention when we first heard about it in medical school. We stared at the textbook pictures of big hands and coarse faces—maybe a very tall young man photographed next to a person of average height. We were led to believe that although acromegaly is a...
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Metabolomic Profiling for Disease Diagnosis
The Human Metabolome Database presently lists over 114,000 molecules. Each cell type, tissue or organ has a particular metabolomic fingerprint, unique due to the number and type of certain metabolites that are found there. Unexpected amounts or types of metabolites may imply a current or impending health issue. Christoph Burgstedt | Shutterstock While genomics and...
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Scientists discover a brain molecule connecting anxiety to weight loss
Anxiety and fat-burning may seem entirely unrelated so far as bodily functions go, but scientists have found that a certain molecule appears to connect one with the other. Through experiments on mice, the researchers believe that this shared mechanism may open up new pathways for the development of drugs to help manage anxiety disorders and...
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Essential amino acid in humans, methionine, controls cell growth programs
A recent study from the Laxman lab at inStem, Bangalore, elucidates how a small metabolite and amino acid, methionine, acts as a growth signal for cells, by setting into motion a metabolic program for cell proliferation NATIONAL CENTRE FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES IMAGE: A RECENT STUDY FROM THE LAXMAN LAB ELUCIDATES HOW A SMALL METABOLITE AND AMINO ACID, METHIONINE, ACTS AS A GROWTH SIGNAL FOR CELLS, BY SETTING INTO...
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Genetic polymorphisms and zinc status
This article by Dr. Angela Polito et al. is published in Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2018 BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS Zinc is one of the essential components in the diet of all living organisms. It is the second most abundant biological trace element after iron. Zinc is of great importance in various metabolic functions and its deficiency can cause many...
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Metabolic syndrome patients need more vitamin C to break cycle of antioxidant depletion
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A higher intake of vitamin C is crucial for metabolic syndrome patients trying to halt a potentially deadly cycle of antioxidant disruption and health-related problems, an Oregon State University researcher says. That’s important news for the estimated 35 percent of the U.S. adult population that suffers from the syndrome. “What these findings...