Fifty years since its discovery, scientists have finally worked out how a molecular machine found in mitochondria, the 'powerhouses' of our cells, allows us to make the fuel we need from sugars, a process vital to all life on Earth. Scientists have worked out the structure of this machine and shown how it operates like the lock on a canal to transport pyruvate -- a molecule generated in the body from the breakdown of sugars -- into our mitochondria.
Read more …Throwing a 'spanner in the works' of our cells' machinery could help fight cancer, fatty liver...
A new study provides solutions to the pressing need to identify factors that influence Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk or resistance while providing an avenue to explore potential biological markers and therapeutic targets. The researchers integrated computational and functional approaches that enabled them to identify not only specific genes whose alterations predicted increased AD risk in humans and behavioral impairments in AD fruit fly models but also showed that reversing the gene changes has a neuroprotective effect in living organisms.
Read more …Integrative approach reveals promising candidates for Alzheimer's disease risk factors or targets...
A new study suggests that early-life exposure to two widespread environmental pollutants -- small particle air pollution and outdoor artificial light at night -- could increase the risk of pediatric thyroid cancer. The study found a 'significant association' between exposure to ambient fine particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5) and outdoor artificial light at night (O-ALAN) and increased risk of papillary thyroid cancer in children and young adults up to 19 years old. The exposures occurred during the perinatal stage of life, typically defined as the time from when pregnancy occurs up to a year after birth.
Read more …Early-life exposure to air and light pollution linked to increased risk of pediatric thyroid cancer