Toggle light / dark theme

Scientists Develop Drug That Prevents Weight Gain in Junk-Food-Eating Mice

Now maybe we can snack happily! I think this applies to regular food too? I can eat all the Chinese and Mexican and Italian food I want? Plus for people with genetic risks can’t this not help? I hope so.


Mice fed a high-sugar, high-fat diet for most of their lives managed to escape weight gain and protect their livers when they were treated with an experimental new drug.

The small-molecule drug was developed by a team led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio). K nown by its chemical acronym CPACC, it works by limiting the entry of magnesium into the mitochondria, the parts of the cell in charge of generating energy and burning calories.

Mitochondrial abnormalities have been implicated in a range of diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

The causal effect of gut microbiota on psoriasis

Likewise, this dataset had 4,510 cases, 212,242 controls, with 16,380,464 SNPs for psoriasis, and 2,802 cases, 212,242 controls, with 16,380,459 SNPs for psoriasis vulgaris.

The team analyzed the aggregated statistical data using an MR approach to explore the potential causal relationship between the gut microbiome and psoriasis. SNPs with a threshold P-value of 1 × 10−5 worked as genetic instrumental variables in these MR analyses.

PS gene-editing shown to restore neural connections lost in brain disorder

A new study from the University of Minnesota is the first to demonstrate the ability for gene therapy to repair neural connections for those with the rare genetic brain disorder known as Hurler syndrome. The findings suggest the use of gene therapies—an entirely new standard for treatment—for those with brain disorders like Hurler syndrome, which have a devastating impact on those affected.

Uremic Metabolites: Kidney Function Biomarkers

Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhD

Discount Links:
At-Home Metabolomics: https://www.iollo.com?ref=michael-lustgarten.
Use Code: CONQUERAGING At Checkout.

NAD+ Quantification: https://www.jinfiniti.com/intracellular-nad-test/
Use Code: ConquerAging At Checkout.

Epigenetic Testing: https://trudiagnostic.com/?irclickid=U-s3Ii2r7xyIU-LSYLyQdQ6…M0&irgwc=1
Use Code: CONQUERAGING

Oral Microbiome: https://www.bristlehealth.com/?ref=michaellustgarten.
Enter Code: ConquerAging.

At-Home Blood Testing (SiPhox Health): https://getquantify.io/mlustgarten.

Researchers reverse hearing loss in mice

The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a genetic approach to fix deafness in mice with a defective Spns2 gene, restoring their hearing abilities in low and middle frequency ranges. Researchers say this proof-of-concept study suggests that hearing impairment resulting from reduced gene activity may be reversible.

Over half of adults in their 70s experience significant hearing loss. Impaired hearing is associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing depression and cognitive decline, as well as being a major predictor of dementia. While hearing aids and cochlear implants may be useful, they do not restore normal hearing function, and neither do they halt disease progression in the ear. There is a significant unmet need for medical approaches that slow down or reverse hearing loss.


New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has successfully reversed hearing loss in mice.

This proof-of-concept study suggests that gene therapy for this type of hearing loss in humans may be successful in the future.

One Gene Can Have a Major Impact on Strep Infection Severity

Group A streptococci are one of the most common pathogens that humans are exposed to, and they can cause infections with a wide range of severities, from mild rashes and sore throats to flesh-eating and systemic infections that can be fatal. The number of these infections is also on the rise, although the reasons are unclear. Now researchers have learned more about why these pathogens can be mild in some people, and hit others hard. The findings have been reported in Nature Communications.

Scientists suspected that some interaction between a person’s genetics and the bacterial pathogen could be leading to such varied outcomes, said study co-author Fredric Carlsson, a researcher at Lund University.

Gene-edited pig kidney works for 32 days in brain-dead man

A genetically modified pig kidney transplanted into a brain-dead man on life support has exhibited regular functioning for over a month, showing no signs of rejection or infection.

A new milestone in animal-to-human organ transplants in the United States has been achieved.

A gene-edited pig kidney implanted into a brain-dead man on life support has been functioning normally for over a month with no signs of rejection or infection.

‘Cause I’m TNT: New Reprogramming Method Produces Naive Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Researchers from Monash University in Melbourne and The University of Western Australia have demonstrated how a reprogramming method imitates embryonic epigenetic reset. Transient naive treatment (TNT) reprogrammed human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells that are molecularly and functionally more similar to human embryonic stem (hES) cells than primed hiPS cells, which are more like cells in the post-implantation embryo. This research suggests that TNT reprogramming has the potential to set a new standard for therapeutic and biomedical uses.

The research article “Transient naive reprogramming corrects hiPS cells functionally and epigenetically” was published online today in Nature.

“Our work shows that TNT reprogramming is a practical and scalable approach to overcome these intrinsic characteristics of hiPS cells, which is important for the clinical delivery of this technology,” stated the authors. “We foresee TNT reprogramming becoming a new standard for biomedical and therapeutic applications.”

/* */