Posted on | CategoriesDrug Discovery / Prevention | PI: Micah J. Drummond, PhD

Diabetes Drug Protects Against Muscle Loss

As we get older, it can be harder to bounce back from injury or prolonged periods of bed rest. That’s partly because it takes older adults longer to rebuild muscles that have atrophied due to disuse. The resulting weakness can limit mobility and put people at risk for falls, hospitalization, and even chronic disease. Encouragingly, it may be possible to protect older adults against muscle loss with a drug that millions of people already take. Continue reading → Diabetes Drug Protects Against Muscle Loss
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry | PI: Wesley I. Sundquist, PhD

A Potent, Long-lasting HIV Capsid Inhibitor

Reverse transcription and integration are key events in retrovirus replication and are also targets of successful anti-HIV therapies. Reverse transcription creates a double-stranded DNA copy of the viral RNA genome, and integration archives that copy within the genome of the infected cell. However, studies of the mechanisms underlying these steps of the viral life cycle remain challenging because these processes are performed by viral core particles located deep within the infected cell cytoplasm and nucleus. Continue reading → A Potent, Long-lasting HIV Capsid Inhibitor
Posted on | CategoriesDiabetes and Metabolism / Nutrition & Integrative Physiology | PI: Scott Summers, PhD

Lipid Metabolism and Cardiometabolic Disease

Metabolic diseases such as diabetes, steatohepatitis, and coronary artery disease result from the delivery of nutrients that exceed a tissue’s energetic needs or storage capacity. The excess nutrients give rise to deleterious lipid species that impair cellular function. Summers and colleagues found that ceramides, a class of sphingolipids, alter the metabolism of liver and adipose tissue in a way that gives rise to cardiometabolic disease. Continue reading → Lipid Metabolism and Cardiometabolic Disease
Posted on | CategoriesDrug Discovery / Molecular Pharmaceutics | PI: Mingnan Chen, PhD

A New Strategy for Treating Autoimmune Disease While Maintaining Immune Function

The Chen Lab discovered a new therapeutic strategy that avoids immune deficiency while treating autoimmune disease. Specifically, they identified immune cells that express a key immune checkpoint receptor that drives type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The Chen Lab then created an immunotoxin that selectively depletes these cells. Continue reading → A New Strategy for Treating Autoimmune Disease While Maintaining Immune Function