Latest news with #CoA
Time of India
19 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
Newfound mechanism rewires cellular energy processing for drastic weight loss: Study
Washington: Mice genetically engineered to lack the ability to make the amino acid cysteine , and fed a cysteine-free diet , lost 30 per cent of their body weight in just one week, a new study shows. Published online May 21 in Nature, the work found that cysteine depletion disrupts the normal metabolic pathways mammalian cells use to convert food into energy, forcing the animals to rapidly burn fat stores in a futile attempt to meet energy demands. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine , the study reveals key details about how cells process fuels like carbohydrates and fats ( metabolism ), and how cysteine depletion affects tissues. Experiments showed that lowering cysteine levels caused a drop in levels of the small molecule called coenzyme A (CoA), which rendered inefficient mechanisms that convert carbohydrates and fats into energy. Despite CoA being involved in more than 100 intermediate metabolic reactions and serving as a partner (cofactor) for 4% of all enzymes in the body, scientists had previously been unable to study its function directly. This is because mice with defective CoA synthesis typically do not survive beyond three weeks of age. The current findings detail, for the first time, how CoA shapes metabolism in adult mice. "Our surprising findings reveal that low cysteine levels triggered rapid fat loss in our study mice by activating a network of interconnected biological pathways," said co-senior study author Evgeny Nudler, PhD, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "While driving weight loss in the clinic remains a key future mission, we are most excited for the moment about the profound, fundamental aspects of metabolism revealed in this study," added Dr. Nudler. The current finding does not immediately suggest a new approach to weight loss, the authors caution, as cysteine is found in nearly all foods. Achieving a truly cysteine-free diet would require patients to consume a specially formulated solution that would be challenging for most. Moreover, because cysteine is involved in numerous cellular pathways, eliminating it -- such as through a drug that inhibits cysteine production -- could make organs more vulnerable to everyday toxins, including medications. That said, the study authors say it is worth considering that fruits, vegetables, and legumes contain much lower levels of cysteine and its precursor, the sulfur-containing amino acid methionine, than red meat. (ANI)
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Health
- Business Standard
New mechanism rewires cell energy processing for weight loss, shows study
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study reveals key details about how cells process fuels like carbohydrates and fats, and how cysteine depletion affects tissues ANI Mice genetically engineered to lack the ability to make the amino acid cysteine, and fed a cysteine-free diet, lost 30 per cent of their body weight in just one week, a new study shows. Published online May 21 in Nature, the work found that cysteine depletion disrupts the normal metabolic pathways mammalian cells use to convert food into energy, forcing the animals to rapidly burn fat stores in a futile attempt to meet energy demands. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study reveals key details about how cells process fuels like carbohydrates and fats (metabolism), and how cysteine depletion affects tissues. Experiments showed that lowering cysteine levels caused a drop in levels of the small molecule called coenzyme A (CoA), which rendered inefficient mechanisms that convert carbohydrates and fats into energy. Despite CoA being involved in more than 100 intermediate metabolic reactions and serving as a partner (cofactor) for 4% of all enzymes in the body, scientists had previously been unable to study its function directly. This is because mice with defective CoA synthesis typically do not survive beyond three weeks of age. The current findings detail, for the first time, how CoA shapes metabolism in adult mice. "Our surprising findings reveal that low cysteine levels triggered rapid fat loss in our study mice by activating a network of interconnected biological pathways," said co-senior study author Evgeny Nudler, PhD, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "While driving weight loss in the clinic remains a key future mission, we are most excited for the moment about the profound, fundamental aspects of metabolism revealed in this study," added Dr. Nudler. The current finding does not immediately suggest a new approach to weight loss, the authors caution, as cysteine is found in nearly all foods. Achieving a truly cysteine-free diet would require patients to consume a specially formulated solution that would be challenging for most. Moreover, because cysteine is involved in numerous cellular pathways, eliminating it -- such as through a drug that inhibits cysteine production -- could make organs more vulnerable to everyday toxins, including medications. That said, the study authors say it is worth considering that fruits, vegetables, and legumes contain much lower levels of cysteine and its precursor, the sulfur-containing amino acid methionine, than red meat.
![[UPDATED] RM1.63mil worth of drones declared as kitchen towels seized](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.nst.com.my%2Fimages%2Farticles%2FBN052607690_1748343104.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![[UPDATED] RM1.63mil worth of drones declared as kitchen towels seized](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.nst.com.my%2Fassets%2FNST-Logo%402x.png%3Fid%3Db37a17055cb1ffea01f5&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
New Straits Times
27-05-2025
- New Straits Times
[UPDATED] RM1.63mil worth of drones declared as kitchen towels seized
PETALING JAYA: A shipment declared as kitchen towels that arrived at North Port, Port Klang last month was found to contain 20 agricultural drones instead. The drones, with an estimated value of RM1.63 million, were shipped from a neighbouring country. Customs Department assistant director-general Raizam Setapa @ Mustapha said the container was detected at 5.15pm on April 23. "Our officers, in collaboration with representatives from the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (Sirim), scanned the container and discovered 20 drones inside, instead of kitchen towels," she told reporters today. "I would like to emphasise that the importation of electronic goods such as drones requires a Certificate of Approval (CoA) from Sirim before they can be legally brought into Malaysia." Raizam said the drones were believed to have been imported from an Asian country for the local market, specifically for agricultural purposes. "This marks the first case of its kind involving the seizure of large-scale drones," she said. "We have recorded statements from several individuals, including the forwarding agent and the importer." In a separate case, Raizam said 21,351 litres of illicit alcoholic beverages, valued at RM2.81 million, were seized at North Port, Port Klang on May 7. The shipment was declared as furniture in an attempt to evade detection. "We believe the consignment, which originated from a neighbouring country, was intended for distribution within the local market," she said.
Irish Examiner
26-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Decision blocking Irish investors from pursuing Cork developer of Polish shopping centre overturned
The Supreme Court has overturned a decision that an Irish developer of a shopping centre in Poland could not be pursued here for a €6.3m judgement obtained against him in Poland on behalf of 57 Irish investors. Last year, Michael Scully won an appeal in the Court of Appeal (CoA) over the enforcement of the Polish judgement here. Coucal Ltd, a company to which the investors had assigned their rights, appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. A five-judge Supreme Court yesterday overturned the CoA decision and said Mr Scully could be pursued for enforcement of the judgement here. Mr Scully, a Clonalkilty farmer who also co-owned Castle Carbery Properties Ltd which built the shopping centre in Opole, Poland, in 2009, had appealed a decision of the High Court that a Polish judgement over the investment scheme against him could be enforced here. Some €48m was borrowed for the purpose of funding the shopping centre. The CoA allowed Mr Scully's appeal after finding that the use of Coucal, a Polish special purpose vehicle company set up by the investors, which brought the case against him in Poland, represented 'the commodification of litigation' which was clearly prohibited by Irish public policy. The 57 investors alleged they were defrauded by Mr Scully when he induced them to divest themselves of their investments in the shopping centre, on terms which were very unfavourable to them and very favourable to Mr Scully. Those claims were denied. While proceedings against Mr Scully in Poland were initially unsuccessful, by 2021 the Warsaw Court of Appeal found that Mr Scully had wrongfully and without authority purported to enter into agreements on behalf of Coucal's shareholders. It awarded judgement against him for some €6.3m. The Warsaw appeal court also permitted Coucal to bring proceedings in Ireland to enforce the judgement against assets he owns here, including a farm in Co Cork. Mr Scully then brought proceedings here against Coucal Ltd seeking refusal of recognition and enforcement of the Polish judgment. The application was brought under an EU regulation, called Brussels I Recast, relating to enforcement of civil and commercial judgements across the EU. In the meantime, Mr Scully had appealed the judgement to the Polish Supreme Court, which decided to make a reference to the Court of Justice of the EU relating to issues concerning judicial independence and impartiality and, in particular, the claimed lack of independence of one of the Polish Court of Appeal judges. Mr Scully's case here was rejected by the High Court in November 2022 and he appealed, winning the appeal in the CoA just over a year ago. Coucal then sought, and was granted, an appeal to the Supreme Court. In two separate concurring judgements on behalf of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell and Mr Justice Gerard Hogan allowed the appeal. The Chief Justice said it was clear that enforcement of the judgement in this case did not approach the required standard for being an exceptional case in which recognition of a foreign judgement should be refused on grounds of public policy. Mr Justice Hogan said in the circumstances of this case, one cannot say that the recognition of the Polish judgement should be refused on the ground that to do so would be 'manifestly contrary to public policy' in this State within the meaning of the Brussels Recast regulation. He said his judgement was subject to the caveat that, while the CoA declined to adjudicate on this issue of Polish judicial independence, which had been argued by Mr Scully in the case, he now invited the parties to make further submissions on this issue. Read More Cork farmer wins appeal preventing €6.3m Polish judgment being enforced
Malaysian Reserve
22-05-2025
- Health
- Malaysian Reserve
Newfound Mechanism Rewires Cellular Energy Processing for Drastic Weight Loss
Beyond Ozempic: Research Outlines Pathways for Future Obesity Solutions NEW YORK, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Mice genetically engineered to lack the ability to make the amino acid cysteine, and fed a cysteine-free diet, lost 30 percent of their body weight in just one week, a new study shows. Published online May 21 in Nature, the work found that cysteine depletion disrupts the normal metabolic pathways used by mammalian cells to convert food into energy, forcing the animals to rapidly burn fat stores in a futile attempt to meet energy demands. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study reveals key details about how cells process fuels like carbohydrates and fats (metabolism), and how cysteine depletion affects tissues. Experiments showed that lowering cysteine levels caused a drop in levels of the small molecule called coenzyme A (CoA), which rendered inefficient mechanisms that convert carbohydrates and fats into energy. Despite CoA being involved in more than 100 intermediate metabolic reactions and serving as a partner (cofactor) for 4% of all enzymes in the body, scientists had previously been unable to study its function directly. This is because mice with defective CoA synthesis typically do not survive beyond three weeks of age. The current findings detail, for the first time, how CoA shapes metabolism in adult mice. 'Our surprising findings reveal that low cysteine levels triggered rapid fat loss in our study mice by activating a network of interconnected biological pathways,' said co-senior study author Evgeny Nudler, PhD, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 'While driving weight loss in the clinic remains a key future mission, we are most excited for the moment about the profound, fundamental aspects of metabolism revealed in this study,' added Dr. Nudler. The current finding does not immediately suggest a new approach to weight loss, the authors caution, as cysteine is found in nearly all foods. Achieving a truly cysteine-free diet would require patients to consume a specially formulated solution that would be challenging for most. Moreover, because cysteine is involved in numerous cellular pathways, eliminating it – such as through a drug that inhibits cysteine production – could make organs more vulnerable to everyday toxins, including medications. That said, the study authors say it is worth considering that fruits, vegetables, and legumes contain much lower levels of cysteine and its precursor, the sulfur-containing amino acid methionine, than red meat. While earlier studies have linked low sulfur amino acid intake to health benefits, this study clarifies that these benefits are due to cysteine depletion specifically, and not methionine restriction. 'Given that achieving maximum cysteine deprivation weight loss in the mice was dependent on both diet and deletion of the gene, moving forward we can now restore cysteine production genetically in specific cells or tissues and determine the role of each in the dramatic weight loss we observed,' said co-senior author Dan L. Littman, MD, PhD, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology in the Department of Pathology, and a professor in the Department of Cell Biology, at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. 'We hope in the future to hijack parts of this process to induce a similar weight loss in humans but without completely removing cysteine,' added Dr. Littman, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Overlapping MechanismsThe study is the first to examine the effects of removing cysteine, or any of the nine of the essential amino acids, which must be obtained through diet and are required for building proteins that make up most of the body's enzymes, tissues, and signaling molecules. The findings revealed that eliminating cysteine from the mammalian body led to far greater weight loss than the removal of any other essential amino acid. Specifically, cysteine deprivation disrupted oxidative phosphorylation, the main process for producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule that serves as cells' energy currency. Oxidative phosphorylation is known to be tightly dependent on CoA. As a result, sugar-derived intermediate molecules (carbon skeletons) such as pyruvate, orotate, citrate, and α-ketoglutarate were no longer used efficiently, and were instead lost in the urine. In response, the body turned to stored lipids (fats) to make energy. Further, the team found that cysteine restriction activates both the integrated stress response (ISR), a signaling network that restores cellular balance after stress, and the oxidative stress response (OSR), which is triggered by higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) following depletion of glutathione, the body's primary antioxidant. ROS can oxidize (take away electrons from) and damage sensitive cell parts like DNA. Remarkably, this simultaneous activation of ISR and OSR—previously observed only in cancer cells—was shown to occur in normal tissues in mice in the cysteine-restriction group, with the two stress responses reinforcing each other. The study also shows that ISR and OSR, acting independently of CoA depletion, increase production of the stress hormone GDF15, which contributes to food aversion and degradation of acetyl-CoA-carboxylase, a key enzyme in lipid synthesis. This increased weight loss further in the study mice by preventing the replenishment of their fat stores. Along with Drs. Evgeny Nudler and Dan Littman, the study's co-senior authors, co-first authors were Alan Varghese, a joint student in labs of Drs Littman and Nudler in the Department of Cell Biology, and Ivan Gusarov in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Additional NYU Langone contributors included Daria Dolgonos, Yatin Mankan, and Mydia Phan from the Department of Cell Biology; Ilya Shamovsky and Drew Jones from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; Begoña Gamallo-Lana and Adam Mar from the Department of Neuroscience; Rebecca Jones from the Division of Advanced Research Technologies; Thales Papagiannakopoulos from the Department of Pathology, and Michael Pacold from the Department of Radiation Oncology and Perlmutter Cancer Center. Other study authors were Maria Gomez-Jenkins and Eileen White of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and Rui Wang of the Department of Biology at York University in Toronto. The study was supported by the long-term funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Additional support was provided by the National Institutes of Health grants S10OD010584-01A1, S10OD018338-01, 1OT2CA278609-01, R35GM147119, and R01AI158687. The research was also funded by the American Cancer Society (grant RSG-21-115-01-MM), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant RGPIN-2023-05099), and Cancer Research UK (grant CGCATF-2021/100022). About Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)HHMI is one of the largest private funders of biomedical research, with an endowment exceeding $27 billion. Through its Investigator Program, HHMI supports approximately 300 leading scientists across the United States, selected for their bold and fundamental approaches to scientific discovery. Each investigator receives unrestricted annual funding through renewable seven-year terms, granting them the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward research that often falls outside the scope of traditional funding mechanisms. About the Blavatnik Family Foundation The Blavatnik Family Foundation provides many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and future leaders with the support and funding needed to solve humankind's greatest challenges. Led by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, founder and chairman of Access Industries, the Foundation advances and promotes innovation, discovery, and creativity to benefit the whole of society. Over the past decade, the Foundation has contributed more than US$1 billion to more than 250 organizations. About NYU Langone HealthNYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone the No. 1 comprehensive academic medical center in the country for three years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently placed nine of its clinical specialties among the top five in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across 7 inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise. Contact: Gregory Williams,
