mitochondria

Working Out the Chemistry of Exercise Endurance

IRP’s Paul Hwang Discovers How Muscle Cells Gear Up for Training

joggers

As the weather warms up in March, which is National Athletic Training Month, many of us come out of hibernation and finally fulfill that new year’s resolution to start exercising. Deep down in our cells, our mitochondria, the tiny power stations that turn oxygen into energy, start getting a workout, too.

IRP senior investigator Paul Hwang, M.D., Ph.D., studies how mitochondria and cellular energy production affect human health and disease, with a particular focus on cardiovascular health and cancer. However, March’s many new fitness enthusiasts might be most interested in a recent finding from his laboratory that seems to explain how muscles build endurance as we train them through exercise. His team’s insights also explain why muscles revert back to couch potato mode so quickly when we stop regular exercise. 

Exercise Energizes Patients With Autoimmune Disease

IRP Study Points to the Biological Roots of Physical Activity’s Benefits

woman exercising on treadmill

British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” While not exactly a “technology,” exercise has such wide-ranging health benefits that it could understandably be mistaken for magic. Still, scientists persist in investigating precisely why physical activity is so good for us. Recently, a small IRP study showed that exercise training can help reduce the debilitating fatigue that often accompanies the autoimmune disease known as lupus, and also illuminated some of the underlying mechanisms that may lead to those benefits.

Languishing Cellular Batteries Foretell Movement Problems

Prediction Method Could Help Prevent Age-Related Physical Decline

burned out lightbulb

Throughout human history, people have sought insight into their fates from self-proclaimed psychics and other dubious fortune tellers. Fortunately, scientists are increasingly developing more reliable, data-driven ways to predict the future. For instance, IRP researchers recently showed that an assessment of the cellular batteries that power our muscles can predict the deterioration of physical abilities in older adults.

A New View of How Muscles Move

IRP Research Challenges Long-Held Ideas About Muscle Structure

sprinter starting to run

It’s not every day an accidental observation overturns 100 years of biological knowledge. But that’s what happened when IRP Stadtman Investigator Brian Glancy, Ph.D., noticed something funny while reviewing high-definition 3D videos of muscle cells.

“To be honest, you could almost call this study an accident,” he says.

Dr. Glancy, who leads the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)’s Muscle Energetics Lab, often uses the high-powered microscopes available through the NHLBI Electron Microscopy Core to study how energy is distributed through skeletal muscle cells — the ones that control voluntary movement — when they expand and contract.

Although he was focused on examining the cells’ energy-producing mitochondria, he could also see the other structures inside them, including the long, tube-like structures called myofibrils that are involved in muscle contraction. As he advanced the video and traveled down the length of the muscle, it looked to him like the myofibrils were changing shape.

Mouse Study Links Anxiety to Neuronal Power Failure

Chronic Stress Diminishes Energy Production in the Brain

unplugged power cord

When power lines come down and the electricity shuts off, it’s understandably a worrying situation. As it turns out, people may become anxious not just when their homes are cut off from energy, but also when their brains find themselves short on power, according to recent IRP research done in mice.

While the misfortune of a blackout is temporary, many people experience chronic stress that bothers them continuously. In some individuals, repetitive stressors can contribute to the development of debilitating anxiety that interferes with everyday life. Intriguingly, past research has found evidence that problems with the biological batteries that power our cells, called mitochondria, might be involved in anxiety disorders, as well as some other psychiatric illnesses.

Experimental Compound Supercharges Cellular Power Plants

Treatment Approach Could Combat Obesity and Its Consequences

light bulb

When your phone or laptop is low on power, you simply connect it to a charger and find the nearest electrical outlet, but the process of restoring lagging energy production in our cells is not nearly as simple. However, a new IRP study has identified a promising approach for doing just that, which could lead to new treatments for obesity and related metabolic ailments like heart disease and diabetes.

Alzheimer’s Patients Show Traces of Cellular Batteries in Blood

Biomarker Discovery Could Aid Diagnosis and Therapeutic Development

extracellular vesicles containing genetic material

Our cells can’t afford to be wasteful, so they prefer to recycle broken components. However, when the mitochondria that provide their energy are damaged beyond repair, cells may have no choice but to throw them out. New IRP research suggests that more of this mitochondrial debris floats in the blood of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, potentially providing an easy, cost-effective way to diagnose or even possibly predict the illness.

Scientists Douse Fat Burning to Combat Cancer

Inhibiting Energy Production Pathway Delays Tumor Formation in Mice

fire truck driving by a birthday party

Despite the common misconception that sugary treats send kids bouncing off the walls, fat actually provides more than twice as much energy as sugar and other carbohydrates. This energy can be a double-edged sword, fueling not just healthy cells but also cancerous ones. A new IRP study in mice suggests that reducing the body’s ability to burn fat molecules for energy could slow the formation of tumors, potentially extending the lives of individuals with strong genetic predispositions to cancer.

IRP’s Richard Youle Receives Breakthrough Prize

‘Silicon Valley Nobel’ Recognizes Groundbreaking Parkinson’s Disease Research

Dr. Richard Youle

It can be easy to underestimate the value of so-called ‘basic science’ that doesn’t appear, upon first glance, to have clear therapeutic applications. One of the hidden strengths of this sort of work is its ability to link seemingly disparate areas of scientific inquiry by identifying commonalities between the structure or behavior of different biological molecules. By following these unexpected connections over the course of his career, IRP senior investigator Richard Youle, Ph.D., has made critical discoveries about Parkinson’s disease — research that this year earned him the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

Cancer Therapy May Drain Cellular Batteries

Decreased Energy Production Could Contribute to Cancer-Related Fatigue

tired man rubbing his eyes

We all know the feeling of being wiped out after a hard workout or a grueling day at the office — you just want to flop down on the couch and not move, or even think. For many cancer patients, the treatment for their disease can trigger that sort of physical and mental exhaustion for weeks or months. New IRP research has found evidence linking this phenomenon, known as cancer-related fatigue, to a slow-down in cells’ energy-producing mitochondria.