EnlargePosted on 03/03/2015 4:23:51 PM PST by LibWhacker
Credit: Martha Sexton/public domain
Scientists at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology have discovered a new hormone that fights the weight gain caused by a high-fat Western diet and normalizes the metabolism - effects commonly associated with exercising.
Hormones are molecules that act as the body's signals, triggering various physiological responses. The newly discovered hormone, dubbed "MOTS-c," primarily targets muscle tissue, where it restores insulin sensitivity, counteracting diet-induced and age-dependent insulin resistance.
"This represents a major advance in the identification of new treatments for age-related diseases such as diabetes," said Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Davis school and senior author of a study on the research, which will appear in Cell Metabolism on March 3.
To test the effects of MOTS-c, the team injected the hormone into mice fed a high-fat diet, which typically causes them to grow obese and develop a resistance to insulin. The injections not only suppressed both effects in mice, they also reversed age-dependent insulin-resistance, a condition that precedes diabetes.
"This discovery sheds new light on mitochondria and positions them as active regulators of metabolism," said Changhan Lee, assistant professor at USC Davis and lead author of the study.
MOTS-c is unique among hormones in that it is encoded in the DNA of mitochondria—the "powerhouses" of cells that convert food into energy. Other hormones are encoded in DNA in the nucleus.
Lee and Cohen collaborated with colleagues from the USC school as well as the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the National Institutes of Health.
While all of the experiments on MOTS-c to date have been performed on lab mice, the molecular mechanisms that make it function in mice exist in all mammals, including humans. The MOTS-c intellectual property has been licensed to a biotechnology company, and clinical trials in humans could begin within the next three years, Cohen said.
The first person to put this hormone in a bottle with about 12% alcohol content will own the world.
Sounds a lot like Jogging in a Jug
Long, long lines at the stores!
Cutting all soy products (including the oil) out of the diet helps too.
I need that!
*** have discovered a new hormone ***
As Benny Hill used to say, “What’s the difference between a vitamin and a hormone?”
“You can’t make a vitamin!”
How do you make a hormone?
a) Put sand in her Vaseline. b) Don't pay her
Sign her up for Obamacare.
All this crap is always in the next three years!
*ouch* And a new answer, to boot!
Ask Benny Hill! ;-D
Like so!
They could make an apple flavor liquid out of it and call it MOTS Applejuice.
Kick her in the knee.
I’m an 82 year old woman and I got the joke.
.
I’m an 82 year old woman and I got the joke.
_____________
We have a new, younger, more innocent generation here at FR.
Don’t pay her. Very old joke.
Highlights
MOTS-c is a 16-amino-acid peptide encoded in the mitochondrial genome
MOTS-c targets muscle and regulates metabolism via the folate-purine-AMPK pathway
MOTS-c mediates mitochondrial regulation of insulin and metabolic homeostasis
MOTS-c protects against age- and diet-dependent insulin resistance and obesity
Summary
Mitochondria are known to be functional organelles, but their role as a signaling unit is increasingly being appreciated. The identification of a short open reading frame (sORF) in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that encodes a signaling peptide, humanin, suggests the possible existence of additional sORFs in the mtDNA. Here we report a sORF within the mitochondrial 12S rRNA encoding a 16-amino-acid peptide named MOTS-c (mitochondrial open reading frame of the 12S rRNA-c) that regulates insulin sensitivity and metabolic homeostasis. Its primary target organ appears to be the skeletal muscle, and its cellular actions inhibit the folate cycle and its tethered de novo purine biosynthesis, leading to AMPK activation. MOTS-c treatment in mice prevented age-dependent and high-fat-diet-induced insulin resistance, as well as diet-induced obesity. These results suggest that mitochondria may actively regulate metabolic homeostasis at the cellular and organismal level via peptides encoded within their genome.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413115000613
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