• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Scientists discover key regulator of neuron function and survival

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 1, 2020
in Health
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Preclinical study in Cell Reports points to possible treatment for epileptic seizures

IMAGE

Credit: Cincinnati Children’s

CINCINNATI – Scientists studying neuronal energy metabolism found evidence that the loss of an important energy regulator called AMPK in neural stem cells or glial cells called astrocytes causes neuronal death in laboratory rodents. They also discovered that AMPK loss in neural stem cells or neurons causes spontaneous brain seizures in the animals.

Publishing their findings in Cell Reports, the multi-institutional research team–led by Cincinnati Children’s cancer biologist Biplab Dasgupta, PhD–said deleting AMPK from astrocyte brain cells led to severe disruption of glucose and lactate metabolism in neurons. The clue came from the first ever magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies in brain-specific AMPK deletion mice done at the University of Minnesota (UM).

The collaborative study, which included Raghu Rao, MD, and Ivan Tkac, PhD, at UM, revealed that AMPK deleted mice have about 40 percent lower lactate levels, a key result that was verified in cultured astrocytes.

The findings that AMPK deleted neurons demonstrate spontaneous seizures and are vulnerable to low dose seizure-inducing agents came from the neurology laboratory of Christina Gross, PhD, of Cincinnati Children’s, and appear to suggest that the popular antidiabetic drug metformin (that also activates AMPK) may mitigate epileptic seizures. Metformin is currently being tested preclinically in laboratory rodents, according to Dasgupta, a principal investigator in the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute.

“Very little is known about how astrocytes regulate glycolysis to generate lactate and supply it to neurons to support their metabolism and proper functioning,” Dasgupta said. “We show for the first time that AMP kinase (AMPK) is the bottom line of the mechanism that controls astrocytic glycolysis and lactate production in the brain. And we show that interfering with this process does little harm to astrocytes but damages neurons.”
Neuronal metabolism is critical to every aspect of our lives and functioning. The question of whether glial cells like astrocytes are necessary for proper neuron metabolism and survival has been debated in the scientific field for decades.

Researchers in the current study set out to make progress toward settling that debate and they used a long list of experimental procedures to come up with some new answers. Importantly, the results obtained in mouse brains from the Dasgupta lab were recapitulated in the brains of the fruit fly Drosophila where using six different models of AMPK deletion.

Study co-author Dr. Stefanie Schirmeier at the University of Münster in Germany found that AMPK deletion in the fly glia causes neuronal death and reduces lifespan of the mutant flies. This and other results, including conservation of these functions in human astrocytes, make it possible that AMPK-controlled lactate metabolism provides life support for neurons in people, according to the researchers.

###

Funding support for the research came from the National Institute of Health (RO1NS075291, RO1NS099162, RO1MH15058, RO1NS092705, P41EB015894, P30N576408).

Media Contact
Nick Miller
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108092

Tags: BiologyCell BiologyClinical TrialsDiet/Body WeightEndocrinologyGastroenterologyInternal MedicineMedicine/HealthPediatricsPulmonary/Respiratory Medicine
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

MiR-140-3p Impairs KIF5A, Drives SMA Transport Degeneration

October 7, 2025

Evaluating the CCCQ for Chinese Cancer Caregivers

October 7, 2025

Soft Bioelectronics with DNA Circuit Monitor Wounds

October 7, 2025

Financial Protection Strategies for Cancer Patients: A Review

October 7, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    867 shares
    Share 346 Tweet 217
  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    98 shares
    Share 39 Tweet 25
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    94 shares
    Share 38 Tweet 24
  • Ohio State Study Reveals Protein Quality Control Breakdown as Key Factor in Cancer Immunotherapy Failure

    76 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19

About

BIOENGINEER.ORG

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Covalent Organic Frameworks: Building Infinite Metal–Organic Structures

MiR-140-3p Impairs KIF5A, Drives SMA Transport Degeneration

Next-Generation Perovskite Solar Cells Near Commercialization Milestone

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm' to start subscribing.

Join 63 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.