YouTube — The Guy Foundation: Mitochondria and space

[SNT Gatchaman]

I haven't had the chance to watch this yet, but the speakers are the two senior authors of Core mitochondrial genes are down-regulated during SARS-CoV-2 infection of rodent and human hosts (2023)

 

[SNT Gatchaman]

Well this is fascinating. However presentation is dense and rapid, with abbreviations galore. Audio is suboptimal for one of the speakers too. Only to be attempted if cognitive and sensory performance is up to it! I'll have to do this in a couple of goes and probably would require repeat viewing before attempting any sort of summary.

In the meantime they mention a very recent National Academies publication: Thriving in Space: Ensuring the Future of Biological and Physical Sciences Research: A Decadal Survey for 2023-2032. That has a lot to say on the importance of mitochondrial dysfunction in long-term spaceflight and is promoted as a major research focus.

A couple of quotes relevant to us —

Given the pivotal role mitochondria play in cell functions, it is essential to understand how the metabolic production of ATP using oxygen (along with the by-product of ROS) in the space environment is altered and how this impacts on the organism’s health.

The mitochondrial response to galactic radiation is less described, but recent evidence using simulated galactic radiation (dosing with heavy ions) has demonstrated that levels of key proteins involved in mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism are decreased