Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more

honokiol

Honokiol, Jack of all trades

Emory dermatologist Jack Arbiser discovered the anti-angiogenic properties of honokiol, a compound derived from magnolia cones, more than a decade ago. Since then, honokiol has been found to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anticancer properties.

A paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications from researchers at the University of Chicago shows that honokiol inhibits the mitochondrial enzyme Sirt3, which has connections to longevity. Manesh Gupta and colleagues demonstrate that honokiol can block cardiac hypertrophy in mice, a finding with possible relevance for the treatment of heart failure.

Sirt3 has been linked both genetically to human life span, and until now, the only way to increase levels of Sirt3 was old-fashioned calorie restriction and/or endurance exercise.

The authors write: It is believed that Sirt3 does not play a role in embryonic development, but rather it fine tunes the activity of mitochondrial substrates by lysine deacetylation to protect cells from stress… To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing a pharmacological activator of Sirt3.

 

Posted on by Quinn Eastman in Cancer, Heart Leave a comment

Magnanimous magnolias keep on giving

Honokiol, the versatile compound found by Emory dermatologist Jack Arbiser in the cones of magnolia trees, makes a surprise appearance in a recent paper in Nature Medicine.

Jack Arbiser, MD, PhD, and colleagues originally isolated honokiol from magnolia cones. It can also be found in herbal teas.

The paper, from Sabrina Diano, Tamas Horvath and colleagues at Yale, probes the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that regulates appetite. In the paper, Horvath’s laboratory uses honokiol as a super-antioxidant, mopping up ROS that suppress appetite. Arbiser initiated the collaboration with Horvath after finding, while working with Emory free radical expert Sergei Dikalov, how effective honokiol is at neutralizing ROS.

The paper is intriguing partly because it’s an example of a situation where ROS, often thought to be harmful because of their links to aging and several diseases, are actually beneficial. In this case, they provide a signal to stop eating. A recent paper from Andrew Neish’s lab at Emory provides another example, where probiotic bacteria stimulate production of ROS, which promote healing of the intestine.

Arbiser notes that since honokiol can increase appetite, the compound may be helpful in situations where doctors want patients to eat more.

“This might be particularly valuable in patients who are nutritionally deficient due to chemotherapy and provides a rationale for adding honokiol to chemotherapy regimens,” he writes.

Satiety producing neurons in the hypothalamus

A note of caution: in the Nature Medicine paper, honokiol is infused directly into the brain.

Honokiol has been shown to counteract inflammation and slow the growth of blood vessels (important in fighting cancer). Collaborating with Arbiser, Emory endocrinologist Neale Weitzmann has recently found that honokiol stimulates osteoblasts, the cells that build bone, suggesting that it could reduce bone loss in osteoporosis.

Posted on by Quinn Eastman in Cancer Leave a comment