News

Prostate cancer health disparities between blacks and whites in the U.S. are well-documented, with studies demonstrating higher incidences of the cancer and poorer response to treatments among African-American men. Now, a new report suggests that mitochondrial problems in blacks with prostate cancer may account for their resistance to chemotherapy. The study, “Mitochondrial dysfunction-mediated apoptosis associates with defective…

Early onset and extensive brain lesions are predictors of a poor prognosis in patients with Leigh syndrome, a mitochondrial disease affecting infants and small children. But findings also suggest that clinical outcomes of the syndrome, in terms of function, might be better than previously believed. Leigh syndrome is a neurodegenerative…

NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB, together with researchers from Lund University, will release new research data in three poster presentations at the upcoming Mitochondrial Medicine: Developing New Treatments for Mitochondrial Disease conference, to be held May 4–6, in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The data will largely be related to NeuroVive’s drug discovery platform, NVP015.

A new study from Korea indicated that statins could be a possible treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a form of liver disease. The report, “Statins Increase Mitochondrial and Peroxisomal Fatty Acid Oxidation in the Liver and Prevent Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Mice“ appeared on April 21 in the …

A study using mathematical analysis of mitochondrial morphology in malignant mesothelioma found that inhibiting mitochondria might be an effective treatment strategy against the deadly cancer — and suggested that the appearance of mitochondria might predict the response to such inhibition. The findings indicated that selectively blocking mitochondria might be a promising new…

In a new study, researchers at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research in Dallas, Texas, showed that immune cells, called neutrophils, in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) release oxidized DNA from their mitochondria, stimulating a damaging immune response. Therapies targeting the pathway that lead to the accumulation of this DNA, or finding those…

The benefits of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, generated from patient-derived skin samples and used to repair damaged tissue, may be hampered by age-related mutations in mitochondrial DNA, a new study reported. The study argues for careful screening of mitochondrial DNA mutations in these cells. Patient-derived stem cells, obtained through a…

Timothy Shutt, a researcher at the University of Calgary, was recently awarded $250,000 through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) to advance research focused on the role of mitochondria in childhood diseases. Mitochondria are specialized structures unique to cells that serve as energy sources, powering various…

A recent study revealed a new role for the mitochondria protein PITRM as a potential key player in Alzheimer’s disease. Future research is expected to reveal its role in other neurodegenerative diseases and establish its potential as a new therapeutic target in these types of diseases. The study, “…

CohBar, a developer of mitochondria-based therapeutics, announced that preclinical research by its academic collaborators has found small humanin-like peptides (SHLPs) that can control metabolism and cell survival. The findings have implications for age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. The study, “Naturally Occurring Mitochondrial-derived Peptides are Age-dependent…