Processed fats found in margarines unlikely to affect heart health

King's College London

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Two types of industrially processed hard fats, widely used in everyday foods such as bakery products, margarines and spreads, are unlikely to affect heart health when consumed in levels achievable in most people’s diets.

The study, led by researchers at King’s College London and Maastricht University and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, investigated the health effects of interesterified (IE) fats which are rich in either palmitic acid (from palm oil) or stearic acid (from other plant fats).

These fats are often used by the food industry as alternatives to other hard fats, including trans fats and animal fats, which have known risks to heart health.

In the trial, forty-seven healthy adults took part in a double-blind randomised crossover trial, meaning neither the participants nor the researchers knew which type of fat was being tested during the study period. Each person followed two different diets for six weeks each, which included muffins and spreads made with either palmitic acid-rich fats or stearic acid-rich fats, providing around 10% of their daily energy intake.

Researchers assessed a comprehensive set of cardiometabolic health markers, including cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin sensitivity, liver fat, inflammation, and blood vessel function.

The findings showed no significant differences between the two fats in blood cholesterol or triglyceride profiles, including the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol, a key indicator of cardiovascular risk.

The study also found no adverse effects on inflammation, insulin resistance, liver fat or vascular function.

Professor Sarah Berry, senior author and Professor of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London, said: “With the current demonisation of everything processed, this research highlights that not all food processing is bad for us! The process of interesterification allows the generation of hard fats in place of harmful trans fats, whilst also enabling manufacturers to reduce the saturated fat content of spreads and foods. Given the widespread use of the process of interesterification of fats and the fearmongering around food processing, this research is timely”.

The results suggest that both palmitic acid and stearic acid-rich interesterified fats, when consumed in feasible amounts, do not increase short-term risk factors for heart disease.

Professor Wendy Hall, lead author and Professor of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London, said: “Our findings provide reassuring evidence that industrially processed fats currently used in everyday foods, whether rich in palmitic or stearic acid, are unlikely to have harmful effects on cardiovascular health when consumed in amounts that people could achieve in their everyday diets. This is important given the widespread use of these fats in processed foods such as margarines, pastries, and confectionery.”

 

While the trial lasted six weeks, which is sufficient to detect meaningful changes in cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors, further studies are needed to evaluate longer-term effects.

The study was a collaboration between King’s College London and Maastricht University and was funded by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

ENDS

Notes to editor: 

• If you would like to speak to the researchers involved in this study, please email Jo Dungate at the King’s College London press office at joanna.dungate@kcl.ac.uk.

 

About King’s College London 

King’s College London is amongst the top 40 universities in the world and 5th best in the UK (QS World University Rankings 2026), and one of England’s oldest and most prestigious universities.  With an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research, King’s maintained its sixth position for ‘research power’ in the UK (2021 Research Excellence Framework).     

King's has more than 33,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and 8,500 staff.   

For nearly 200 years, King’s students and staff have used their knowledge and insight to make a positive impact on people, society and the planet. Focused on delivering positive change at home in London, across the UK and around the world, King’s is building on its history of addressing the world’s most urgent challenges head on to accelerate progress, make discoveries and pioneer innovation. Visit the website to find out more about Vision 2029, which sets out bold ambitions for the future of King’s as we look towards our 200th anniversary.  

World-changing ideas. Life-changing impact: kcl.ac.uk/new

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Journal

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

 

Scientists discover how leukemia cells evade treatment

Rutgers University

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Researchers from Rutgers Health and other institutions have discovered why a powerful leukemia drug eventually fails in most patients – and found a potential way to overcome that resistance.

Team members identified a protein that lets cancer cells reshape their energy-producing mitochondria in ways that protect them from venetoclax (brand name, Venclexta), a standard treatment for acute myeloid leukemia that often loses effectiveness after prolonged use.

Blocking that protein with experimental compounds in mice with human acute myeloid leukemia restored the drug's effectiveness and prolonged survival.

The findings, published in Science Advances, reveal an unexpected mechanism of drug resistance and suggest a new approach for one of the deadliest blood cancers in adults.

"We found that mitochondria change their shape to prevent apoptosis, a type of cell suicide induced by these drugs," said senior study author Christina Glytsou, an assistant professor at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute’s Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Research Center of Excellence (NJPHORCE).

Although venetoclax induces remission in many acute myeloid leukemia patients by triggering cancer cell death, resistance develops in nearly all cases. The five-year survival rate remains at 30% and the disease kills about 11,000 Americans each year.

Using electron microscopy and genetic screens, members of Glytsou's team discovered that treatment-resistant leukemia cells produce high levels of a protein called OPA1, which controls the internal structure of mitochondria. Cells with these elevated OPA1 levels develop tighter, more numerous folds in their mitochondrial membranes — compartments called cristae – that trap cytochrome c, a molecule that normally triggers cell death when released.

The researchers confirmed the finding by examining cells from leukemia patients. Those who had relapsed after treatment showed sharply narrower cristae than newly diagnosed patients, with the most pronounced changes in patients who had been treated with venetoclax.

To test whether they restore drug efficacy by blocking this structural change, team members used two experimental OPA1 inhibitors. In mice transplanted with human leukemia cells, combining the OPA1 inhibitors with venetoclax at least doubled survival time compared with venetoclax alone.

The combination worked across diverse leukemia subtypes, including cells with mutations in the p53 gene, which are strongly associated with treatment resistance and poor outcomes.

The OPA1 inhibitors also appear to work through additional mechanisms beyond restoring cell death pathways. The experiments revealed that cells lacking OPA1 become heavily dependent on the nutrient glutamine and vulnerable to ferroptosis, a different form of cell death driven by iron and lipid damage.

Tests in mice showed the compounds didn’t harm normal blood cell production, a critical safety consideration for any potential leukemia treatment in humans.

The research is in early stages. The OPA1 inhibitors, developed by collaborators at the University of Padua in Italy, are lead compounds that require further refinement before human testing can begin.

“There is still some time to go through,” Glytsou said, adding that a third generation of compounds may be needed to improve the drugs' solubility and other properties.

Still, the work offers a promising direction for treating resistant leukemia and potentially other cancers, said Glytsou, who is also a member of the cancer institute’s cancer pharmacology and cancer metabolism and immunology research programs. 

OPA1 is overexpressed in multiple cancer types and associated with poor prognosis and therapy resistance in breast cancer, lung cancer and other malignancies.

Rutgers Cancer Institute, together with RWJBarnabas Health, is New Jersey’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adx8662 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Small-molecule OPA1 inhibitors reverse mitochondrial adaptations to overcome therapy resistance in acute myeloid leukemia

Article Publication Date

15-Oct-2025

COI Statement

L.S. and A.P. disclose that they are inventors of a submitted patent application by the University of Padova and Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine covering MYLS22 and its derivatives as Opa1 inhibitors (WIPO|PCT WO2021/008669). I.A. and C.G. disclose that they are inventors of a patent application by the New York University, “Methods and compositions for sensitizing leukemia cells to drug-induced apoptosis” (PCT/US20/30975). K.G. has pending intellectual property patent protection on TTLL4 as a target of chemical perturbation in AML. K.G. has received research funding from iOnctura, S.A., unrelated to this work. A.V. has received research funding from BMS, Jannsen, MedPacto, Curis, Prelude, Halia, and Ryvu Eli Lilly and Company. A.V. has received compensation as a scientific advisor to Stelexis Therapeutics, Calico, and Aurigene and has equity ownership in Roshon, Stelexis, and ClinStreet. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

 D.E.I. 

Native American stereotypes, as seen by Native Americans

Cornell University

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ITHACA, N.Y. — Asked to list stereotypes they had heard about themselves or other Native Americans, more than 200 middle school-age citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a federally recognized nation located in rural North Carolina, most often cited cultural activities, financial privilege and substance abuse.

The Cornell-led study, among the first to explore Native Americans’ perceptions, rather than those of a white majority or other ethnic groups, showed the early adolescents gaining awareness of stereotypes as they moved from sixth through eighth grade, and how context influenced that awareness. Cherokee students attending a pair of more diverse public schools in which they were a minority identified more stereotypes than counterparts at a tribal school.

Understanding prevalent stereotypes – whether they are positive or negative, believed or not – could help schools and parents counter them to support students’ development, said Adam Hoffman, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and College of Human Ecology.

“Research has shown that stereotypes, even positive ones, are detrimental and can impact teens’ academic motivation and achievement, mental health and well-being,” Hoffman said. “Knowing what kinds of things these kids are hearing and thinking about themselves and Native Americans is important to start working on dismantling those stereotypes.”

Hoffman is the first author of “Early Adolescent Cherokees’ Reports of Stereotypes About Native Americans,” published Sept. 25 in the journal Youth & Society. Co-authors are Beth Kurtz-Costes, professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Ash Moomaw, doctoral student at Ball State University; and Bette Fitzgerald and Angela Gunter, teachers at two of the middle schools from which the youth were recruited to be part of the study.

Research to date on Native American stereotypes has primarily featured samples of white adults, using quantitative assessments designed by scholars. The new study sought to center the Cherokee students’ perspectives.

“There’s been so much erasure of Native American people historically that we don’t often get to hear their stories and their voices, especially compared to other racial and ethnic minority groups,” Hoffman said. “This research brings Native voices to the table, literally, by asking them about these issues.”

After defining stereotypes – ideas about a group that may or may not be true for all people or things in that group – the researchers asked an open-ended question: “Please list the stereotypes that you have heard about Cherokee or Native American people.”

The 212 students offered more than 300 responses, which the researchers grouped into 19 categories. More than 13% of the responses referenced positive cultural traditions, from dancing and basket-making to wearing traditional clothes. Substance abuse was cited third most often, in 10% of responses, and was among those that echoed negative stereotypes identified in prior research, such as being “savage,” unintelligent or violent. Some stereotypes were categorized as historical distortions likely influenced by media, referencing scalping, buffalo and smallpox. Some were neutral (“we braid our hair”).

Tied for the most frequently cited stereotype – not identified in prior research – was what the students called “per cap.” That’s a reference to the Eastern Band of Cherokees receiving per capita shares of casino revenue, which the teens framed as an entitlement or privilege: “we are rich because we get per cap,” “big money,” “Cherokees get paid to do nothing.” That finding would not be generalizable to all Native Americans – more than half of recognized tribal nations do not have casinos – but highlights the importance of local context in studying stereotypes, the researchers said.

Additional findings showed differences in school context, with public school students where Cherokees were the largest ethnic minority reporting more stereotypes, including a majority of the “per cap” references. Most sixth-graders did not list any stereotypes, indicating a more limited understanding of the concept. The numbers increased in seventh grade and were highest in eighth grade, suggesting that interventions might be effective in that age range, because that is when stereotype awareness emerges. No significant differences were found in how boys or girls reported stereotypes.

“This study provides one of the first accounts of adolescents’ spontaneous generation of stereotypes about Native Americans,” the researchers wrote, “and shows that early adolescence is a formative time.”

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

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Journal

Youth & Society

DOI

10.1177/0044118X2513746 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Early Adolescent Cherokees’ Reports of Stereotypes About Native Americans

 

Health and economic air quality co-benefits of stringent climate policies

CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change

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Key Messages

• Avoiding temperature overshoot through stringent climate policies such as net-zero could prevent 207,000 premature deaths by 2030.

• Such policies could also avoid $2,269 billion USD in economic damages, roughly 2% of 2020 global GDP.

• Benefits are particularly large in China and India, where air pollution and population density are high, and substantial emission reductions are predicted.

Air pollution is one of the world’s leading health risks, contributing to nearly 1 in 8 deaths globally. A new study published in Science Advances by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) shows that stringent climate policies designed to avoid temporarily exceeding 1.5°C warming could prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths while avoiding trillions of dollars in economic damages.

The researchers used a global source-receptor air pollution model to estimate the impacts of net-zero pathways on air quality, health, and economic costs. They found that avoiding temperature overshoot could prevent 207,000 premature deaths and reduce $2,269 billion USD in damages by 2030, equivalent to roughly 2% of 2020’s global GDP. The benefits are particularly notable in regions with high population density and pollution, such as China and India.

“This work shows, in a comprehensive and robust way, that pursuing short-term temperature stabilization is worthwhile,” says CMCC scientist Lara Aleluia Reis. “Not only does it reduce climate risks, it also brings significant health benefits by improving air quality.”

The study is the first to quantify the air pollution co-benefits of limiting short-term temperature overshoot. By considering multiple scenarios, uncertainties, and regional variations, the research provides robust evidence that climate mitigation policies offer substantial dual benefits: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving lives through cleaner air.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adu7590