Author Archives: Margarida Azevedo, MSc

The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation’s UMDF Regional Symposium, taking place Feb. 12-13 in Houston, Texas, will include for a first time local specialists treating mitochondrial patients to further understanding and insights into managing patients with mitochondrial disease. The 2016 symposium will be hosted by McGovern Medical School’s Mitochondrial Center of Excellence…

Santhera Pharmaceuticals recently announced an agreement with Ewopharma to make Raxone available for the treatment of a rare mitochondrial disease, known as Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), throughout Eastern Europe following the European Commission’s market authorization for the company’s oral drug. Under the partnership, Raxone (idebenone) will soon be a treatment option…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Boston-based Stealth BioTherapeutics Fast Track designation for its MTP-131 (also known as Bendavia) for the treatment of primary mitochondrial myopathy. Genetic mitochondrial diseases are a group of rare inherited disorders generally characterized by systemic mitochondrial dysfunction, impairing patients’ health and well-being. It…

MitoQ, the first antioxidant formula able to penetrate mitochondria and deliver antioxidants at meaningful levels, has been selected for an internationally renowned anti-aging test known as the Intervention Testing Program (ITP) and run by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. MitoQ is a synthetic antioxidant,…

A new study suggested a novel physiological role for mitochondria. Researchers found that mitochondrial dysfunction in proliferating human cells induces senescence (biological aging) and causes a distinct secretory phenotype. The research study results, which might have great importance for the study of mitochondrial diseases and age-related conditions such as Parkinson’s,…

In a new study, researchers linked the protein YME1 with a proper mitochondrial function and its absence to the fragmentation of mitochondria in vivo, dysfunction of mitochondrial activity, and the consequent onset of dilated cardiomyopathy in mice. The researchers also showed that dietary changes can restore proper heart function. The research study, titled…

According to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mitochondria may play a previously unknown role in mind-body interactions. The findings, based on new investigations into stress responses, may carry implications for the biology of psychiatric and neurological diseases, as well as…

In recent study, a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Rockefeller University hypothesize that abnormal mitochondrial functions could affect — by differentially modulating — an organism’s multisystemic response to psychological stress.  The article, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United…

A mitochondrial defect causes maternally inherited, nonsyndromic deafness, an extreme case of tissue-specific mitochondrial pathology. Now, in a study published in the American Journal of Pathology, a team of researchers using a transgenic mouse model with a mitochondrial defect that causes an analogous premature hearing loss discovered…

NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB, a company focused on the development of therapeutic drug candidates to treat mitochondrial diseases, announced in a press release the presentation of the first preclinical results from its Complex I Deficiency discovery program at the 6th World Congress on Targeting Mitochondria in Berlin, Germany. Complex I…