Category Health/Medical

A new University of Iowa study in mice indicates that exercise causes muscle to release a peptide that improves energy production and endurance. Credit: Ekaterina Subbotina

The study shows that Musclin, is an “exercise factor” – a hormone-like substance made by skeletal muscle in response to exercise and released into the bloodstream. The study shows that increased levels of circulating musclin trigger a signaling cascade that improves muscle performance and promotes production of mitochondria in muscle cells.

“Exercise is an extremely powerful way to improve people’s health, but unfortunately, increasing physical activity can be really difficult in many circumstances,” says Assoc. Prof. L Zingman, MD...

This visual abstract depicts how drugging the gut microbiota with a nonlethal inhibitor that blocks production of the metabolite trimethylamine reduces the formation of atherosclerotic lesions and represents the first step toward treatment of cardiometabolic diseases by targeting the microbiome. Credit: Wang et al./Cell 2015

Dietary supplementation with a compound that is naturally abundant in red wine and olive oil prevented gut microbes from turning unhealthy foods into metabolic byproducts that clog arteries. The findings suggest that a Mediterranean diet exerts its beneficial health effects by altering the activity of gut microbes...

found nestin labeling in cells of the vascular system, indicating blood vessels plasticity. Evidence of angiogenesis was seen throughout superior temporal cortex (primary auditory cortex), fusiform cortex (face recognition center), pons/midbrain and cerebellum in postmortem brains from ASD patients but not control brains. We found significant increases in both nestin and CD34, which are markers of angiogenesis localized to pericyte cells and endothelial cells, respectively. This labeling profile is indicative of splitting (intussusceptive), rather than sprouting, angiogenesis indicating the blood vessels are in constant flux rather than continually expanding.

Evidence of autism may be found in the composition and malfunction of the brain’s blood vessels, a team of scientists has found...

© Fanny Bonachera / IBMC / ICT / PDB. Modeling of the 3D structure of the P140 peptide. The P140 peptide corresponds to the 131-151 sequence of the nuclear ribonucleoprotein U1-70K, whose residue 140 is a phosphoserine (visible on the left).

This peptide is the subject of a CNRS patent (granted in 2009) and has already successfully completed phases I and II of its regulatory clinical trials. An international phase III pivotal trial will begin in a few days’ time in the US when the first patient starts the treatment, before the trial is extended to Europe. Phase III is the last stage in the testing of a candidate drug, before it can be given market approval. The launch of phase III was the subject of a meeting involving around a hundred physicians on December 11-12, in Paris.

Lupus is a ch...