Impaired autophagic machinery is implicated in a number of diseases such as heart disease, neurodegeneration and cancer. A common denominator in these pathologies is a dysregulation of autophagy that has been linked to a ...

Anna-Mart Engelbrecht is currently professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She was born in Pretoria, grew up in the Western Cape and matriculated from DF Malan High School in ...

Preclinical studies suggest that fasting prior to chemotherapy may be an effective strategy to protect patients against the adverse effects of chemo-toxicity. Fasting may also sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy. It is ...

Background: Cisplatin is the main chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of cervical cancers, however resistance to cisplatin is increasingly common and therefore has limited the efficacy and use of this drug in the ...

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We have previously shown that dietary red palm oil (RPO) supplementation improves functional recovery in hearts subjected to ischaemia/reperfusion-induced injury. Unfortunately, the cellular and molecular mechanisms ...

Excess adipose tissue is a hallmark of an overweight and/or obese state as well as a primary risk factor for breast cancer development and progression. In an overweight/obese state adipose tissue becomes dysfunctional due ...

Breast cancer cells modulate lipid and fatty acid metabolism to sustain proliferation. The role of adipocytes in cancer treatment efficacy remains, however, to be fully elucidated. We investigated whether diet-induced ...

During an infection, expansion of immune cells, assembly of antibodies, and the induction of a febrile response collectively place continual metabolic strain on the host. These considerations also provide a rationale for ...

Background: The characterization of a completely novel adaptive immune system (AIS) in jawless vertebrates (hagfish and lampreys) presents an excellent opportunity for exploring similarities and differences in design principles. ...