Parkinson's Disease, Fruit Flies and Lipotype

Parkinson’s Disease, Fruit Flies and Lipotype

Henri Deda July 10, 2018

What happened

Do fruit flies suffer from Parkinson’s? Not exactly. But patients who suffer from this neurological disease experience disturbed sleep patterns long before motor dysfunctions. This can be modelled in fruit flies. Researchers from the Netherlands and Germany showed that excessive contacts between mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum in Parkinson’s flies lead to abnormal lipid trafficking. This prevents the release of “sleep” neuropeptides, which affects sleep patterns.

Lipotype performed lipid analysis on fruit fly heads and various organelles. The results clearly supported the researchers’ hypothesis: in Parkinson’s fruit flies the lipid PtdSer is transferred from the endoplasmic reticulum to the mitochondria, and converted to PtdEtn at a higher rate, when compared with healthy flies. This was proven through Lipotype Shotgun Lipidomics technology.

Read the full publication

ER Lipid Defects in Neuropeptidergic Neurons Impair Sleep Patterns in Parkinson’s Disease – Neuron, 2018
Jorge S Valadas, Giovanni Esposito, Dirk Vandekerkhove, Katarzyna Miskiewicz, Liesbeth Deaulmerie, Susanna Raitano, Philip Seibler, Christine Klein, Patrik Verstreken

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on lipids and lipidomics!

Publication, Academia

Lipotype Shotgun Lipidomics technology in Science journal

Henri Deda October 26, 2018

Every scientist dreams of a report in Science. For us, this dream has just come true. The research project of one of our customers has been published by the iconic journal Science.

The research project in 60 seconds
Cell membranes contain a vast range of distinct lipid species. Their chemical differences influence the physical characteristics of membranes, such as viscosity. Thus, the lipid composition affects biological functions.

To identify the lipids involved, the research group used genetic engineering to modulate the lipid composition of bacteria. They correlated bacterial growth rates with lipid composition. From that they concluded that the level of unsaturated lipids influences cellular respiration, the conversion of nutrients into energy (e.g. ATP).

Further biological research and physical modeling confirmed the results. In the end, they could replicate their findings in yeast mitochondria, the organelle responsible for cellular respiration in animals and plants. Thus, further highlighting the importance of lipidomics in fundamental research.

All science is just as good as the research which precedes it
This publication has been added to the Lipidomics Resource Center, an online tool to empower your lipid research. It features scientific publications, white papers and industry insights. The integrated live full-text search and in-depth tag filter system will help you identify information of your interest.

Lipids are essential to life. Make them essential to your research too!

Resources

Viscous control of cellular respiration by membrane lipid composition – Science, 2018
Itay Budin, Tristan de Rond, Yan Chen, Leanne J G Chan, Christopher J Petzold, Jay D Keasling

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on lipids and lipidomics!

Publication, Academia

A good month for public access to research

Henri Deda July 30, 2018

July has been a great month. Three new publications with Lipotype Shotgun Lipidomics technology have been put out, and the Lipidomics Resource Center received its first major update. Read more about this!

One month – three publications

This month, three new publications with Lipotype Shotgun Lipidomics technology were published!

Paper 1: Parkinson’s disease
In Parkinson’s, excessive contacts between mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum lead to abnormal lipid trafficking. This stops the release of “sleep” peptides affecting sleep patterns of patients long before they experience motor dysfunctions…

Paper 2: vacciness
Adjuvants like the well-established AS03 are agents in vaccines that do not provide immunity but stimulate the immune system. However, the molecular mechanism behind AS03’s adjuvant effect had yet to be fully illuminated. These new results could be applied to design novel vaccine adjuvants…

Paper 3: cancer therapeutics
Oncogenic RAS proteins must localize to the plasma membrane to act. The recently described oxanthroquinone G01 disrupts that, affects levels of some lipids and synergizes with other compounds that affect oncogenic RAS proteins. G01 could become a new anti-RAS therapeutic…

As always: access the Lipidomics Resource Center to study more publications!

The first major Lipidomics Resource Center update

We strive for scientific excellence, and therefore must hold on to the fact that all science is just as good as the research which precedes it. Therefore, we created the Lipidomics Resource Center which provides access to lipidomics publications and whitepapers to empower your research. However, that is just not enough. Therefore we added a completely new category: “products”!

There is a whole universe of research which you cannot access through reading scientific publications. And that is most of industry research. However, this type of research is reflected by product development and patents. The new category “products” gives you access to exactly this kind of hidden information.

Lipidomics is no longer a thing of the lab. It is out in the world. Now, you can learn about it!

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on lipids and lipidomics!

Publication, Lipotype, Academia, Drug Discovery

Lipotype performed lipid analysis of bacteria for future antimicrobial strategies

Henri Deda April 16, 2018

What happened

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a multi-drug resistant bacteria, and can cause serious illnesses such as pneumonia or sepsis syndromes. The publication from TU Braunschweig shows that, when grown under unaerobic biofilm conditions, the bacterium produces less of a protein, which binds specifically to the central hub of phospholipid metabolism.

With Lipotype shotgun lipidomics, a diverse response of Pseudomonas aeruginosa at the lipid head group and fatty acid level was demonstrated. This increased the susceptibility to a wide range of antibiotics which is important for the future development of new antimicrobial strategies.

Read the full publication

A phosphatidic acid-binding protein is important for lipid homeostasis and adaptation to anaerobic biofilm conditions in Pseudomonas aeruginosa – Biochemical Journal, 2018
Maike K Gronewald, Marco Massmig, Stefanie Hebecker, Linna Danne, Zofia Magnowska, Manfred Nimtz, Franz Narberhaus, Dieter Jahn, Dirk W Heinz, Lothar Jänsch, Jürgen Moser

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on lipids and lipidomics!

Publication, Academia