Lipidomics update - February 2011

Lipid of the month

Myristic acid
Linkage of this saturated fatty acid to a wide variety of proteins has a key role in processes such as protein membrane localization and ceramide biosynthesis.

Research highlights

• Obesity and diabetes: Probing fatty acid perturbations

  A study in rats examines how the pathway leading to eicosanoid precursors is perturbed in the liver during the establishment of the metabolic syndrome.

• Lipidomics: The pathway to resolvin' inflammation

  Researchers have uncovered biosynthetic pathways for new chiral isomers of E-series resolvins that have subtle differences in bioactivity and can be boosted by aspirin.

• Macrophages: Preventing lipid overload

  Macrophages in the mesenteric lymph nodes can offset the pro-inflammatory effects of overeating saturated fats by expressing angiopoietin-like protein 4, which inhibits the generation of free fatty acids and subsequent lipid uptake by macrophages.

• Anticancer drugs: Blocking phospholipid–protein interactions

  A new way of modulating the PI3K pathway is by blocking a key phospholipid - protein interaction, which suppresses tumour growth in a mouse cancer model.

• Synaptic plasticity: A new partnership

  Activation of central TRPV1 receptors by anandamide mediates long-term depression in the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens.

Events calendar

• Keystone Symposia: Metabolic Responses to Extreme Conditions

  1 - 5 April, 2011

• LIPID MAPS Annual Meeting 2011: Lipidomics Impact on Cell Biology, Cancer, and Metabolic Disease

  2 - 3 May, 2011

more events