Near future
Contact us
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • energia
  • Transportation
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • Gadgets
  • Italy Next
  • H+
June 29 2022

Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine

Near future

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

Read in:  Chinese (Simplified)EnglishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseRussianSpanish

Reshape the mitochondria to reverse obesity

A study confirms that the shape of mitochondria affects calorie absorption and metabolic function.

Gianluca Ricciodi Gianluca Riccio
in Medicine
Share41Pin10Tweet26SendShare7ShareShare5
Mitochondria
3 September 2021
⚪ Reads in 4 minutes
A A

Changing the shape of mitochondria can reverse some of the molecular processes behind obesity (at least in mice)

Do you have a BMI over 30? Welcome to the land of obesity.

It is easy to get there, it is no coincidence that BMI (weight in kg / (height in cm) ²) is a disputed metric. It does not take into account body composition.

Maybe you are also interested

Update: the anti-obesity drug works wonders, but must be taken for life

Tirzepatide, remarkable tests: average weight loss of 24kg. Goodbye obesity?

Oxford study: meat-free diet reduces cancer risk by 14%

Cutting back on meats and dairy can make you live up to ten years longer

For the average person, it's a fairly acceptable quick measure to monitor body composition. However, many strength-working athletes, for example, would be "obese" based on their BMI simply because they have a lot of muscle mass.

A slightly more accurate way of assessing obesity is the accumulation of excess body fat. For men, this is generally considered> 25% and for women> 30% of body weight.

If excessive, of course, body fat increases the risk of various health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, various cancers and other things we would like to avoid.

It's not always about food

The causes of obesity are more complex than simply "too much food". Yes, this certainly plays a role, but factors such as genetics, gut bacteria, other diseases, medications, and so on, can also change calories in and / or out.

Obese mitochondria?

The small structures of our energy-generating cells, the mitochondria, also appear to be involved. But let's take a small step back, a little history.

in 1994, the molecular geneticist Jeffrey Friedman discovered a hormone, la Leptin. He wanted to find out why some lab mice became obese (kept eating) while others had no problem maintaining weight (stopped when full). Eventually, he focused on leptin, now also known as the satiety hormone.

This hormone is produced by fat cells and absorbent cells in the intestine. Leptin mostly transmits a message to brain cells in the hypothalamus. The message is: "We've had enough food, we can stop eating."

But if leptin is produced in fat cells, why don't people with a lot of body fat get the message of satiety?

They receive it, but they ignore it. They have lost their sensitivity. Leptin resistance causes their body to ignore the "you are full" message.

Obesity, we now know, is strongly correlated with leptin resistance.

This is why even administering extra leptin (once believed to be the holy grail in the treatment of obesity) doesn't do much. The body simply ignores it.

What Affects Leptin Resistance? The mitochondria.

One factor affecting this leptin resistance is a problem with the mitochondria. A Western-style diet with a lot of saturated fat can cause this problem.

Excessive mitochondrial fission changes the shape of the mitochondria. Normally, the mitochondria are somewhat elongated and tube-like. Fission, however, shortens them, crushes them and makes them a kind of blob. When this happens, their function is impaired.

In summary? Swollen mitochondria equals impaired metabolic function, liver insulin sensitivity, and leptin resistance.

What if we could remodel the mitochondria? A new study he tries.

Mitochondria
A graph taken from the study on mitochondrial dynamics

The researchers used a small molecule (patented, of course), called SH-BC-893. A water-soluble and orally bioavailable molecule. This molecule blocks some of the proteins necessary for the fission of mitochondria.

The administration of the molecule both on obese mice and in Petri cells has shown several things: first of all it prevents the fragmentation of mitochondria. What's more, giving mice this compound reverses obesity-associated alterations in leptin. This molecule reduces food intake and promotes weight loss. It also corrects the metabolic dysfunction caused by obesity.

The conclusions of the study

Our work shows that targeting mitochondrial fission is safe, feasible and effective in a diet-induced obesity model, results that could translate into other human diseases where pathophysiology is driven by fragmentation of the mitochondrial network.

Of course, what's safe and effective in lab mice isn't necessarily safe in humans. We will need to determine both the toxicity profile of the molecule and its efficacy in humans.

In addition, the fission of mitochondria (if it is not so excessive) has its own usefulness. Mitochondria are quite dynamic and regular fission and fusion are necessary to maintain good cellular energy production. They should not be blocked completely.

However, this study shows that keeping mitochondria fit… keeps us fit.

tags: dietMitochondriaobesity
Previous post

NASA tests eVTOL air taxi for the first time: it will write the laws of flight

Next Post

Yes, the technology can capture CO2 from the air with 97% efficiency

COLLABORATE

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

    archive

    Have a look here:

    Closer Alzheimer's vaccine after results on mice
    Medicine

    Closer Alzheimer's vaccine after results on mice

    A preventive treatment for dementia, Alzheimer's vaccine advances towards clinical trials after successful tests on ...

    Read More
    Flat earth

    8 ways life would get weird on a flat Earth

    video drones fpv

    The amazing FPV drones do strike in this absurd video

    Electric car is better than the traditional one

    For the planet, the electric car is better than the traditional car, isn't it?

    hybrid photovoltaic 1

    The hybrid photovoltaic system produces electricity and water in the desert

    The daily tomorrow

    Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Environment
    Architecture
    Artificial intelligence
    Gadgets
    concepts
    Design

    Staff
    Archives
    Advertising
    Privacy Policy

    Medicine
    Spazio
    Robotica
    Work
    Transportation
    energia

    To contact the FuturoProssimo editorial team, write to [email protected]

    Chinese Version
    Édition Française
    Deutsche Ausgabe
    Japanese version
    English Edition
    Edição Portuguesa
    Русское издание
    Spanish edition

    This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
    © 2021 Futuroprossimo

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Tech
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Architecture
    • energia
    • Transportation
    • Spazio
    • AI
    • concepts
    • Gadgets
    • Italy Next
    • H+