Category Health/Medical

Trehalose

Trehalose prevents fructose – thought to be a major contributor to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease – from entering the liver and triggers a cellular housekeeping process that cleans up excess fat buildup inside liver cells. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition closely linked to obesity, affects ~25% of people in the U.S. There is no drug treatment for the disease, although weight loss can reduce the buildup of fat in the liver.

“In general, if you feed a mouse a high-sugar diet, it gets a fatty liver,” said Brian J. DeBosch, MD, PhD, a pediatric gastroenterologist. “We found that if you feed a mouse a diet high in fructose plus provide drinking water that contains 3% trehalose, you completely block the development of a fatty liver...

Associate Professor Peter Barlis examines a 3-D printed heart artery. The ability to 3-D model the intricacies of the human heart are giving cardiologists incredible new insight into heart disease. Credit: The University of Melbourne

The images, gathered during a routine angiogram, are fed into a supercomputer. Within 24 hours, a model of a person’s artery is 3D printed. This gives cardiologists crucial information about the behaviour of blood flow and the precise structure of the artery from the inside. It also helps them make decisions about the best stent to use. The technique can also detect ‘hot spots’ for plaque which have been difficult to find using traditional techniques.

Heart disease remains the number one killer in Australia, affecting 1 in 6 adults...

Japanese researchers have made a sweeter version of thaumatin, a natural sweetener widely used in “diet” beverages, gummies, and jelly candies. Credit: Eiri Ono/Kyoto University

Researchers have made a sweeter version of thaumatin, a natural sweetener commonly used in ‘diet’ beverages, gummy, and jelly candies. Thaumatin, a protein derived from the fruit of an African tropical plant, is the sweetener of choice when it comes to “diet” beverages and gummy and jelly candies boasting natural ingredients. Thaumatin also masks bitterness and helps enhance flavor.

Only humans and primates taste sweetness from thaumatin. Masuda and colleagues have analyzed its structure with X-rays to determine which parts of the protein make it taste sweet to us...

Volunteers in a study who scored higher on the Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS), had a higher likelihood of having normal glucose levels (ranges reflect intervals of 95 percent confidence). Credit: Brown University

Researchers investigating how mindfulness may affect cardiovascular health have measured a significant association between a high degree of ‘everyday’ mindfulness and a higher likelihood of having normal, healthy glucose levels. Their analysis showed that a lower risk of obesity and greater sense of control among more mindful people may play mediating roles.

The results show an association and do not prove a cause, but they are part of a program led by Brown University where researchers are studying whether interventions that increase mindfulness can improve cardiova...