Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01321-x
Mukesh Kumar, Yumei Wu, Justin Knapp, Catherine L. Pontius, Daehun Park, Rose E. Witte, Rachel McAllister, Kallol Gupta, Kartik N. Rajagopalan, Pietro De Camilli, Timothy A. Ryan
{"title":"Triglycerides are an important fuel reserve for synapse function in the brain","authors":"Mukesh Kumar, Yumei Wu, Justin Knapp, Catherine L. Pontius, Daehun Park, Rose E. Witte, Rachel McAllister, Kallol Gupta, Kartik N. Rajagopalan, Pietro De Camilli, Timothy A. Ryan","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01321-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01321-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Proper fuelling of the brain is critical to sustain cognitive function, but the role of fatty acid (FA) combustion in this process has been elusive. Here we show that acute block of a neuron-specific triglyceride lipase, DDHD2 (a genetic driver of complex hereditary spastic paraplegia), or of the mitochondrial lipid transporter CPT1 leads to rapid onset of torpor in adult male mice. These data indicate that in vivo neurons are probably constantly fluxing FAs derived from lipid droplets (LDs) through β-oxidation to support neuronal bioenergetics. We show that in dissociated neurons, electrical silencing or blocking of DDHD2 leads to accumulation of neuronal LDs, including at nerve terminals, and that FAs derived from axonal LDs enter mitochondria in an activity-dependent fashion to drive local mitochondrial ATP production. These data demonstrate that nerve terminals can make use of LDs during electrical activity to provide metabolic support and probably have a critical role in supporting neuron function in vivo.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144521051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01312-y
{"title":"A derivative of the ancient drug salicylate for obesity treatment","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01312-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01312-y","url":null,"abstract":"Salicylic acid nitroalkene (SANA) is a derivative of the aspirin precursor, salicylate. We discovered that SANA effectively reduces body weight in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity by stimulating creatine-dependent thermogenesis. In preliminary human trials, SANA was found to be safe, well-tolerated and demonstrated promising results in promoting weight loss.","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"63 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144516092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01314-w
Sudipta Bar, Kenneth A. Wilson, Tyler A. U. Hilsabeck, Sydney Alderfer, Eric B. Dammer, Jordan B. Burton, Samah Shah, Anja Holtz, Enrique M. Carrera, Jennifer N. Beck, Jackson H. Chen, Grant Kauwe, Fatemeh Seifar, Ananth Shantaraman, Tara E. Tracy, Nicholas T. Seyfried, Birgit Schilling, Lisa M. Ellerby, Pankaj Kapahi
{"title":"Neuronal glycogen breakdown mitigates tauopathy via pentose-phosphate-pathway-mediated oxidative stress reduction","authors":"Sudipta Bar, Kenneth A. Wilson, Tyler A. U. Hilsabeck, Sydney Alderfer, Eric B. Dammer, Jordan B. Burton, Samah Shah, Anja Holtz, Enrique M. Carrera, Jennifer N. Beck, Jackson H. Chen, Grant Kauwe, Fatemeh Seifar, Ananth Shantaraman, Tara E. Tracy, Nicholas T. Seyfried, Birgit Schilling, Lisa M. Ellerby, Pankaj Kapahi","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01314-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01314-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Tauopathies encompass a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau inclusions (FTLD-tau), for which there are currently no successful treatments. Here, we show impaired glycogen metabolism in the brain of a tauopathy <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> model and people with AD, indicating a link between tauopathies and glycogen metabolism. We demonstrate that the breakdown of neuronal glycogen ameliorates the tauopathy phenotypes in flies and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons from people with FTLD-tau. Glycogen breakdown redirects glucose flux to the pentose phosphate pathway and alleviates oxidative stress. Our findings uncover a critical role for the neuroprotective effects of dietary restriction (DR) by increasing glycogen breakdown. Mechanistically, we show a potential interaction between tau protein and glycogen, suggesting a vicious cycle in which tau binding promotes glycogen accumulation in neurons, which in turn exacerbates tau accumulation which further disrupts cellular homeostasis. Our studies identify impaired glycogen metabolism as a key hallmark for tauopathies and offer a promising therapeutic target in tauopathy and other neurodegenerative diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-27DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01320-y
Marcus J. Tol, Yuta Shimanaka, Alexander H. Bedard, Jennifer Sapia, Liujuan Cui, Mariana Colaço-Gaspar, Peter Hofer, Alessandra Ferrari, Kevin Qian, John P. Kennelly, Stephen D. Lee, Yajing Gao, Xu Xiao, Jie Gao, Julia J. Mack, Thomas A. Weston, Kevin J. Williams, Baolong Su, Calvin Pan, Aldons J. Lusis, Daniel P. Pike, Alex Reed, Natalia Milosevich, Benjamin F. Cravatt, Makoto Arita, Stephen G. Young, David A. Ford, Rudolf Zechner, Stefano Vanni, Peter Tontonoz
{"title":"Dietary control of peripheral adipose storage capacity through membrane lipid remodelling","authors":"Marcus J. Tol, Yuta Shimanaka, Alexander H. Bedard, Jennifer Sapia, Liujuan Cui, Mariana Colaço-Gaspar, Peter Hofer, Alessandra Ferrari, Kevin Qian, John P. Kennelly, Stephen D. Lee, Yajing Gao, Xu Xiao, Jie Gao, Julia J. Mack, Thomas A. Weston, Kevin J. Williams, Baolong Su, Calvin Pan, Aldons J. Lusis, Daniel P. Pike, Alex Reed, Natalia Milosevich, Benjamin F. Cravatt, Makoto Arita, Stephen G. Young, David A. Ford, Rudolf Zechner, Stefano Vanni, Peter Tontonoz","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01320-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01320-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Genetic and dietary cues are known drivers of obesity, yet how they converge at the molecular level is incompletely understood. Here we show that PPARγ supports hypertrophic expansion of adipose tissue via transcriptional control of LPCAT3, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident <i>O</i>-acyltransferase that selectively enriches diet-derived omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (<i>n</i>-6 PUFAs) in the membrane lipidome. In mice fed a high-fat diet, lowering membrane <i>n</i>-6 PUFA levels through genetic or dietary interventions results in aberrant adipose triglyceride (TG) turnover, ectopic fat deposition and insulin resistance. Additionally, we detail a non-canonical adaptive response in ‘lipodystrophic’ <i>Lpcat3</i><sup>–/–</sup> adipose tissues that engages a futile lipid cycle to increase metabolic rate and offset lipid overflow to ectopic sites. Live<i>-</i>cell imaging, lipidomics and molecular dynamics simulations reveal that adipocyte LPCAT3 activity enriches <i>n</i>-6 arachidonate in the phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)-dense ER–lipid droplet interface. Functionally, this localized PE remodelling optimizes TG storage by driving the formation of large droplets that exhibit greater resistance to adipose TG lipase activity. These findings highlight the PPARγ–LPCAT3 axis as a mechanistic link between dietary <i>n</i>-6 PUFA intake, adipose expandability and systemic energy balance.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01313-x
Wesley Huang, Yuezhong Zhang, Nupur K. Das, Sumeet Solanki, Chesta Jain, Marwa O. El-Derany, Imhoi Koo, Hannah N. Bell, Noora Aabed, Rashi Singhal, Cristina Castillo, Kathryn Buscher, Yinzhi Ying, James Dimitroff, Ankit Sharma, Jiaqi Shi, Simon P. Hogan, Michael K. Dame, Peter D. R. Higgins, Justin A. Colacino, Tae Gyu Oh, Jason R. Spence, Andrew D. Patterson, Andrew S. Greenberg, Joel K. Greenson, Asma Nusrat, Yatrik M. Shah
{"title":"Fibroblast lipid metabolism through ACSL4 regulates epithelial sensitivity to ferroptosis in IBD","authors":"Wesley Huang, Yuezhong Zhang, Nupur K. Das, Sumeet Solanki, Chesta Jain, Marwa O. El-Derany, Imhoi Koo, Hannah N. Bell, Noora Aabed, Rashi Singhal, Cristina Castillo, Kathryn Buscher, Yinzhi Ying, James Dimitroff, Ankit Sharma, Jiaqi Shi, Simon P. Hogan, Michael K. Dame, Peter D. R. Higgins, Justin A. Colacino, Tae Gyu Oh, Jason R. Spence, Andrew D. Patterson, Andrew S. Greenberg, Joel K. Greenson, Asma Nusrat, Yatrik M. Shah","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01313-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01313-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels are a hallmark of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and constitute a major mechanism of epithelial cell death. Approaches to broadly inhibit ROS have had limited efficacy in treating IBD. Here we show that lipid peroxidation contributes to the pathophysiology of IBD by promoting ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of programmed cell death. Mechanistically, we provide evidence of heterocellular crosstalk between intestinal fibroblasts and epithelial cells. In IBD tissues and mouse models of chronic colitis, acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family 4 (ACSL4) is overexpressed in fibroblasts. ACSL4 in fibroblasts reprograms lipid metabolism and mediates intestinal epithelial cell sensitivity to ferroptosis. In mouse models, overexpressing ACSL4 in fibroblasts results in increased intestinal epithelial ferroptosis and worsened colitis, while pharmacological inhibition or deletion of fibroblast ACSL4 ameliorates colitis. Our work provides a targeted approach to therapeutic antioxidant treatments for IBD.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"648 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01315-9
Jong Woo Kim, Byeong Jun Jeong, Eun-Woo Lee
{"title":"When gut fibroblasts feed epithelial cells to death","authors":"Jong Woo Kim, Byeong Jun Jeong, Eun-Woo Lee","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01315-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01315-9","url":null,"abstract":"Epithelial cell death driven by oxidative stress is a hallmark of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the upstream triggers are unclear. A new study reveals that fibroblast-derived lipids enriched with polyunsaturated fatty acids induce epithelial ferroptosis. Genetic or pharmacological inhibition of fibroblast ACSL4 alleviates intestinal inflammation and injury in IBD models.","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"148 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-24DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01317-7
Andrea L. Hevener, Stephanie M. Correa
{"title":"Metabolic Messengers: oestradiol","authors":"Andrea L. Hevener, Stephanie M. Correa","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01317-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01317-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Oestradiol (E2), a steroid hormone derived from cholesterol, has long been recognized for its central role in female reproduction and pathobiology of menopause. However, accumulating evidence underscores a critical role for E2 in the regulation of systemic metabolism in both women and men. The metabolic actions of E2 are predominantly mediated by oestrogen receptor α (encoded by <i>ESR1</i>), a nuclear receptor with heritable expression patterns and tissue-specific transcript levels highly correlated with indices of metabolic health in both sexes. Here we provide an overview of the cell-specific actions of E2 and its receptors (α and β) in modulating key metabolic pathways. We contextualize these mechanistic preclinical studies with epidemiological data linking the menopausal transition to a marked rise of metabolic disease risk and provide evidence that E2 replacement mitigates this risk by preserving metabolic health.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144370461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-24DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01316-8
Stefan Loipfinger, Matthias Grosholz, Santhosh Kumar, Helin Erbilir, Kenneth Allen Dyar, Timo Dirk Müller, Stephan Grein, Jan Rozman, Martin Klingenspor, Carola Meyer, Dominik Lutter
{"title":"Calopy — an advanced framework for the integration and analysis of indirect calorimetry data","authors":"Stefan Loipfinger, Matthias Grosholz, Santhosh Kumar, Helin Erbilir, Kenneth Allen Dyar, Timo Dirk Müller, Stephan Grein, Jan Rozman, Martin Klingenspor, Carola Meyer, Dominik Lutter","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01316-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01316-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Here we introduce Calopy, an innovative software suite for the intuitive and comprehensive analysis of indirect calorimetry data. Calopy is an open-source, web-based Shiny for Python application that is accessible online or locally; it is platform-independent and available via any web browser at https://www.calopy.app.</p><p>Indirect calorimetry is a widely used technique for measuring energy metabolism in both humans and animals<sup>1</sup>. At its core, indirect calorimetry tracks oxygen consumption <span>((dot{V}{mathrm{O}}_{2}))</span> and carbon dioxide production <span>((dot{V}{mathrm{CO}}_{2}))</span> to analyse energy metabolism through parameters such as energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate (RMR)<sup>2</sup> or respiratory exchange ratio (RER), a key indicator of substrate utilization<sup>3</sup>. In comprehensive indirect calorimetry systems for animals, additional relevant metabolic parameters such as locomotor activity, food and water intake, and body temperature can also be measured at high temporal resolution, along with environmental factors such as cage temperature, lighting and humidity. Continuous or categorical phenotypic variables, such as body weight, genotype and treatments, are also recorded. Noteworthy indirect calorimetry data may further be affected through factors that entail mutual dependencies such as circadian rhythms, food intake, environmental conditions and data noise, which adds further complexity<sup>4</sup>. Together, these data form a complex set of time-resolved, continuous and categorical variables, which require sophisticated statistics and methods for their analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144370460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature metabolismPub Date : 2025-06-20DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01309-7
Mingzhu Cai, Shilpa Tejpal, Martina Tashkova, Peter Ryden, Natalia Perez-Moral, Shikha Saha, Isabel Garcia-Perez, Jose Ivan Serrano Contreras, Julien Wist, Elaine Holmes, Andres Bernal, Bowen Dou, Georgia Franco Becker, Gary Frost, Cathrina Edwards
{"title":"Upper-gastrointestinal tract metabolite profile regulates glycaemic and satiety responses to meals with contrasting structure: a pilot study","authors":"Mingzhu Cai, Shilpa Tejpal, Martina Tashkova, Peter Ryden, Natalia Perez-Moral, Shikha Saha, Isabel Garcia-Perez, Jose Ivan Serrano Contreras, Julien Wist, Elaine Holmes, Andres Bernal, Bowen Dou, Georgia Franco Becker, Gary Frost, Cathrina Edwards","doi":"10.1038/s42255-025-01309-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01309-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dietary interventions to combat non-communicable diseases focus on optimizing food intake but overlook the influence of food structure. Here, we investigate how food structure influences digestion. In a randomized crossover study, ten healthy participants were fitted with nasoenteric tubes that allow simultaneous gastric and duodenal sampling, before consuming iso-nutrient chickpea meals with contrasting cellular structures. The primary outcome is gut hormone response. Secondary outcomes are intestinal content analysis, blood glucose and insulin response, subjective appetite changes and ad libitum energy intake. We show that the ‘Broken’ and ‘Intact’ cell structures of meals result in different digestive and metabolomic profiles, leading to distinct postprandial gut hormones, glycaemia and satiety responses. ‘Broken’ meal structure elicits higher glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide, glucagon-like peptide-1 and blood glycaemia, driven by high starch digestibility and a sharp rise in gastric maltose within 30 min. ‘Intact’ meal structure produces a prolonged release of glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide-YY, elevated duodenal amino acids and undigested starch at 120 min. This work highlights how food structure alters upper gastrointestinal nutrient-sensing hormones, providing insights into the adverse effects of modern diets on obesity and type 2 diabetes. ISRCTN registration: ISRCTN18097249.</p>","PeriodicalId":19038,"journal":{"name":"Nature metabolism","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144329041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}