circadian clocks tagged posts

Disruption of the circadian clocks that keep the body and its cells entrained to the 24-hour day-night cycle plays a critical role in weight gain, according to a pair of studies by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

One study, published June 27, in Cell Reports revealed that stress caused by chronically administering glucocorticoid stress hormones and disturbing the normal daily cycle of release triggers a temporary protective mechanism in mice. This mechanism boosts fat cell growth and insulin production while reducing excess blood sugar and fat levels in the bloodstream and liver. The second study, published Aug...

Can your liver sense when you’re staring at a television screen or cellphone late at night? Apparently so, and when such activity is detected, the organ can throw your circadian rhythms out of whack, leaving you more susceptible to health problems.

That’s one of the takeaways from two new studies by University of California, Irvine scientists working in collaboration with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, Spain.

The studies, published tod...

Highlights • Loss of CRY2 stabilizes c-MYC and enhances cellular transformation • CRY2 can function as a co-factor for the SCF substrate adaptor FBXL3 • c-MYC phosphorylated on threonine 58 (T58) interacts with CRY2 • SCFFBXL3+CRY2 promotes the ubiquitylation and turnover of c-MYC

TSRI researchers find an unexpected role for proteins involved with our daily “circadian” clocks in influencing cancer growth. The new research suggests disruptions in circadian rhythms might leave levels of an important cancer-linked protein, cMYC unchecked. “This appears to have big implications for the connection between circadian rhythms and cancer,” said TSRI biologist Katja Lamia, senior author of the study.

There is growing evidence that shift work and frequent jet lag can raise a person’s risk of ...