Proved the great antitumoral potential of a compound derived from olives

University of Granada (Spain), March 8, 2022

Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR), in collaboration with the universities of Barcelona and Jaen, have brought to light the antitumoral nature of maslinic acid (a compound derived from olives) in Caco-2 p53-deficient colon adenocarcinoma cells in the short term. Maslinic acid (MA) is a natural triterpene found in high concentrations in the waxy skin of olives. The results of this research, recently published in the renowned PloS ONE magazine, show without a doubt how maslinic acid is capable of early inducing the extrinsic cellular death pathway in Caco-2 cells that don't express protein p53 (known by its pro-apoptotic capacity). In previous works, professor Lupiáñez Cara's research team had reported that maslinic acid induces apoptotic cell death via the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in cancer cell lines.

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Study finds that Nordic diet lowers cholesterol and blood sugar, even if you don't lose weight

University of Copenhagen, March 8, 2022

A healthy Nordic diet can prevent a range of diseases. Until now, the health benefits that researchers had attributed to a Nordic diet primarily focused on weight loss. But in a new study, University of Copenhagen researchers and their Nordic colleagues found clear evidence that a Nordic diet can lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels even without weight loss. In particular, they point to the composition of dietary fats as a possible explanation for the diet's positive effects. Berries, veggies, fish, and whole grains: These are the main ingredients of the Nordic diet concept that for the past decade, has been recognized as extremely healthy, tasty and sustainable. The diet can prevent obesity and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Until now, Nordic diet research has primarily been linked to the diet's positive health effect following weight loss. But a new analysis conducted by University of Copenhagen researchers, among others, makes it clear that a Nordic diet has positive health benefits, regardless of whether one loses weight or not.

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Study finds distinct biological ages across individuals' various organs and systems

Beijing Genomics Institute and Lobachevsky State University (Russia), March 8, 2022

It's common to say that someone looks either younger or older than their chronological age, but aging is more than skin deep. Our various organs and systems may have different ages, at least from a biological perspective. In a study published March 8 in the journal Cell Reports, an international team of investigators used biomarkers, statistical modeling, and other techniques to develop tools for measuring the biological ages of various organ systems. Based on their findings, the researchers report that there are multiple "clocks" within the body that vary widely based on factors including genetics and lifestyle in each individual. Most human aging studies have been conducted on older populations and in cohorts with a high incidence of chronic diseases because the aging process in young healthy adults is largely unknown and some studies have suggested that age-related changes could be detected in people as young as their 20s, we decided to focus on this age range."

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Treating heart attacks with a medium chain fatty acid

University of Michigan, March 8, 2022

A medium-chain fatty acid might one day help protect against heart attack injuries. In this publication, we target the interplay between energy metabolism and epigenetics mediated by the medium chain fatty acid 8C." Wang and colleagues were able to protect against heart attack injury in rat models with octanoic acid, an eight carbon (8C) medium chain fatty acid, as well as a few other metabolites. Those fatty acids produced acetyl-CoA, a building block for energy metabolism, which a stressed heart desperately needs. The idea is that a physician would administer this therapy to a person once they arrive at the hospital after having a heart attack, to reduce further injury and improve heart function during recovery, he says.

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Stress damages the movement centers in the brain

University of Bonn (Germany), March 8, 2022

Stress seems to have a negative effect on the learning of movements—at least in mice. This is the conclusion of a recent study at the University of Bonn. According to the study, the neurons of rodents lose some of their contacts with other neurons after stress. The animals also developed motor deficits. The results may be useful for earlier diagnosis and improved therapy of stress-related diseases such as depression. They also document that stress leaves traces in the brain—possibly permanent ones. The study appeared in the journal Translational Psychiatry.Chronically stressed people often show abnormalities in their motor skills, such as poorer fine motor control. The researchers came across a conspicuous feature: after the stressful situation, the neurons studied lost some of their synapses—these are the contacts to other nerve cells. During learning processes, new synapses are usually formed or existing ones are strengthened. Instead, the stressed rodents lost up to 15 percent of their contacts.

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Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans

Duke University, March 7, 2022

In 1923, lead was first added to gasoline to help keep car engines healthy. However, automotive health came at the great expense of our own well-being. A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today, about half the population of the United States. The findings suggest that Americans born before 1996 may now be at greater risk for lead-related health problems, such as faster aging of the brain. Leaded gas for cars was banned in the U.S. in 1996, but the researchers say that anyone born before the end of that era, and especially those at the peak of its use in the 1960s and 1970s, had concerningly high lead exposures as children. The team's paper appeared the week of March 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lead is able to reach the bloodstream once it's inhaled as dust, or ingested, or consumed in water. In the bloodstream, it's able to pass into the brain through the blood-brain barrier, which is quite good at keeping a lot of toxicants and pathogens out of the brain, but not all of them. One major way lead used to invade bloodstreams was through automotive exhaust.

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Amazon rainforest is losing resilience: New evidence from satellite data analysis

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Germany), March 7, 2022

The Amazon rainforest is likely losing resilience, data analysis from high-resolution satellite images suggests. This is due to stress from a combination of logging and burning – the influence of human-caused climate change is not clearly determinable so far, but will likely matter greatly in the future. For about three quarters of the forest, the ability to recover from perturbation has been decreasing since the early 2000s, which the scientists see as a warning sign. The new evidence is derived from advanced statistical analysis of satellite data of changes in vegetation biomass and productivity. “Reduced resilience – the ability to recover from perturbations like droughts or fires – can mean an increased risk of dieback of the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon rainforest is a home to a unique host of biodiversity, strongly influences rainfall all over South America by way of its enormous evapotranspiration, and stores huge amounts of carbon that could be released as greenhouse gases in the case of even partial dieback, in turn contributing to further global warming. This is why the rainforest is of global relevance. The Amazon is considered a potential tipping element in the Earth system and a number of studies revealed its vulnerability.