Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: health

Mitochondria-Derived Vesicles and Mitochondrial Extracellular Vesicles in Health and Cardiovascular Disease

@CircRes Compendium on Migration of Mitochondria Beyond Cell Boundary.

Authored by Drs. Rapushi & colleagues.

Mitochondria-derived vesicles (MDVs) and mitochondrial extracellular vesicles (mitoEVs) represent 2 related extensions of mitochondrial dynamics that link organelle maintenance to communication within and between cells. MDVs are small vesicles that bud directly from mitochondria, selectively packaging components of the outer membrane, inner membrane, or matrix. They serve as a localized quality control mechanism that removes oxidized or damaged material without engaging the entire mitophagic machinery. After budding, MDVs typically enter the endolysosomal pathway, where they can fuse with late endosomes or lysosomes for cargo degradation. A subset of MDVs also targets other organelles, particularly peroxisomes, contributing to organelle crosstalk, lipid metabolism, and redox balance.

Exercise induces sex-specific assembly of mitochondrial supercomplexes

Mitochondrial supercomplexes assembly in exercise.

The function of supercomplexes (SCs) formed from mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) is not well understood.

The researchers demonstrate that exercise dynamically modulates the assembly of mitochondrial respiratory complexes into supercomplexes (SCs) in human skeletal muscle, with this remodeling being sex dependent.

The authors found that males increased the assembly of complex III (CIII) into SCs, particularly high molecular weight SCs (HMWSCs), in an intensity-dependent manner within skeletal muscle. Females showed a stable content of both HMWSCs and I+III2 SCs during exercise.

This highlights the importance of accounting for biological sex when studying mitochondrial adaptations to exercise. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/mitochondrial-supercomplexes-and-exercise

Huertas et al. demonstrate that exercise dynamically modulates the assembly of mitochondrial respiratory complexes into supercomplexes in human skeletal muscle, with this remodeling being sex dependent. This highlights the importance of accounting for biological sex when studying mitochondrial adaptations to exercise.

Continue reading “Exercise induces sex-specific assembly of mitochondrial supercomplexes” | >

CPUID hacked to deliver malware via CPU-Z, HWMonitor downloads

Hackers gained access to an API for the CPUID project and changed the download links on the official website to serve malicious executables for the popular CPU-Z and HWMonitor tools.

The two utilities have millions of users who rely on them for tracking the physical health of internal computer hardware and for comprehensive specifications of a system.

Users who downloaded either tool reported on Reddit recently that the official download portal points to the Cloudflare R2 storage service and fetches a trojanized version of HWiNFO, another diagnostic and monitoring tool from a different developer.

Could a gut microbe influence muscle strength?

The trillions of microbes living in the human gut are increasingly recognized as important partners in human health. Scientists have linked the gut microbiome to several aspects of health, from metabolism and immunity to mental health.

A recent study suggests that these microbes may also influence an important aspect of fitness—muscle strength.

Muscle strength is a crucial feature of health for many reasons. It supports our joints and keeps our bones healthy, boosts athletic performance and even plays a role in metabolic health.

Street green space can help cool cities, but it will not be enough on its own

A new IIASA-led study finds that expanding street green space can reduce urban heat stress in cities worldwide, but even ambitious greening efforts are unlikely to offset a significant share of the additional heat expected under climate change. Instead, the research shows that street greenery should be part of a broader portfolio of urban adaptation measures.

Cities are on the front line of climate change, with rising temperatures and heat stress posing growing risks to health, productivity, and livability. Street green space, such as trees and vegetation along streets, is often promoted as a practical nature-based solution because it can provide shade, cooling, and other positive benefits, for example, improving the mental health of citizens. Yet, evidence on how much cooling street greenery can deliver, to which extent the amount of vegetation can be increased, and how much cooling can be expected in future climates has remained limited, particularly when taking a global view across very different urban forms and climate zones.

In the new study published in Environmental Research Letters, a team of researchers from IIASA and VITO Belgium combined high-resolution street greenery data with 100-meter urban microclimate model outputs for 133 cities worldwide, providing a neighborhood-scale assessment with global coverage. Rather than relying on satellite-based surface temperature alone, the team assessed how street green space relates to air temperature and wet-bulb globe temperature —a measure that captures heat stress more appropriately than temperature alone because it accounts for humidity, wind, and radiation.

People use the same neurons to see and imagine objects, study shows

Why can images of things we have seen seem so real when we later recall them from memory? A new study led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators sheds light on the answer. The research shows that the same brain neurons are activated when we imagine something and when we perceive something. The research, led by Cedars-Sinai, is the first to provide a detailed understanding of the shared mechanism that underlies visual perception and creation of mental images in the human brain. It was published in the journal Science.

“We generate a mental image of an object that we have seen before by reactivating the brain cells we used to see it in the first place,” said Ueli Rutishauser, Ph.D., director of the Center for Neural Science and Medicine and professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology and Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University, and the study’s joint senior author.

“Our study revealed the code that we use to re-create the images.”

How surface chemistry impacts the performance of malaria nets

Insecticide-treated bed nets remain one of the most effective tools in malaria prevention, acting both as a physical barrier and as an insecticidal surface that kills or disables mosquitoes before they can transmit disease. New research by a multidisciplinary research team from the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) uses surface science to assess how well malaria nets perform.

Published in Science Advances, the focus of the study was the phasing out of PFAS coatings, a group of synthetic fluorinated coating chemicals that have been valued for stability and performance. However, their environmental persistence and potential health risks have made their removal an important priority. The paper is titled “Multimodal platform for ITN efficacy: Surface chemistry, bioavailability, and mosquito behavior.”

To understand the impact of removing PFAS, the team developed a novel multimodal evaluation platform combining chemical analysis, advanced surface imaging, and mosquito behavioral tracking.

Without the right tests, the best medicines make no difference

A new analysis from UC San Francisco argues that diagnostics—medical tests that match patients to the appropriate treatment—are being overlooked both in the United States and around the world. This is slowing progress against major diseases, despite rapid advances in targeted therapies and precision health.

The authors note that nearly half of the world’s population lacks adequate access to diagnostics. These tests receive less investment for research and development, as well as lower insurance reimbursement than drugs, and this is creating barriers to innovation.

“Most people can easily understand how a new drug or surgery might help a patient,” said Kathryn Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of Health Economics in the School of Pharmacy at UC San Francisco and the lead author of the study, which appears in Science. “But the tests that guide medical decisions are just as critical.”

Little-used cholesterol test could prevent more heart attacks and strokes

A routine blood test taken by millions in the U.S. each year to measure “bad” cholesterol is not the best measure to guide treatment and prevent heart attacks and strokes, suggests a new Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA. The study found that another blood test called apolipoprotein B (apoB) outperformed LDL and non-HDL cholesterol in guiding cholesterol-lowering therapy, such as taking statins and other medications.

“We found that apoB testing to intensify cholesterol-lowering medication would prevent more heart attacks and strokes than current practice, and that these health benefits were achieved at a cost that represents good value for U.S. health care payers,” said study lead author Ciaran Kohli-Lynch, assistant professor of preventive medicine in the division of epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

According to Kohli-Lynch, this is the first comprehensive study to show that using apoB testing to guide cholesterol-lowering treatment is cost-effective.

/* */