GIST·전남대, 천연물질로 난치성 심부전 완화 원리 규명
Urolithin A Eases Hard-to-Treat Heart Failure in Mice, GIST-Chonnam Team Finds
Part of the August 5, 2026 daily edition
광주과학기술원(GIST)과 전남대학교 공동 연구진은 장내미생물이 만드는 천연 대사물질 ’유로리틴 A’가 난치성 심장질환을 완화하는 작용 원리를 규명했다고 8월 3일 밝혔습니다. ’박출률 보존 심부전’은 심장 근육이 두꺼워지거나 딱딱해져 혈액을 충분히 받아들이지 못하는 질환으로, 전체 심부전 환자의 절반가량을 차지합니다. 연구진에 따르면 심부전 모델 생쥐에게 유로리틴 A를 투여한 결과 약해졌던 심장의 이완 기능이 약 32% 개선됐습니다. 심장 근육이 딱딱하게 굳는 심근 섬유화는 약물을 투여하지 않은 심부전군보다 약 42% 감소했습니다. 유로리틴 A는 손상된 미토콘드리아를 분해하는 ’미토파지’를 활성화하는 것으로 나타났으며, 이 과정에서 미토콘드리아의 에너지 생산 능력이 회복됐습니다.
Translation
A joint research team from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) and Chonnam National University announced on August 3 that it had established how urolithin A, a natural metabolite produced by gut bacteria, eases an intractable heart disease. "Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction" is a condition in which the heart muscle becomes thick or stiff and cannot take in enough blood, and it accounts for about half of all heart failure patients. According to the researchers, when urolithin A was administered to mice with a heart failure model, the heart's weakened relaxation function improved by about 32 percent. Myocardial fibrosis, in which the heart muscle hardens, fell by about 42 percent compared with heart failure mice that were given no drug. Urolithin A was found to activate "mitophagy," which breaks down damaged mitochondria, and in the course of this the mitochondria's energy-producing capacity was restored.
Vocabulary
- 대사물질명사 (noun)metabolite (a substance produced by metabolism)
- 난치성명사 (noun)intractable, hard to treat
- 심부전명사 (noun)heart failure
- 박출률명사 (noun)ejection fraction (share of blood the heart pumps out)
- 이완명사 (noun)relaxation (of a muscle)
- 섬유화명사 (noun)fibrosis (tissue hardening)
- 투여하다동사 (verb)to administer (a drug)
- 규명하다동사 (verb)to clarify, to establish (a cause or mechanism)
Grammar points
N에 따르면according to N
Attaches to a noun that is the source of information — a person, an organisation, a report — and marks the whole sentence as secondhand. Standard in news writing, where the source is named first and the reported fact follows. The sentence that follows usually stays neutral, without the writer's own judgement.
Example: 기상청에 따르면 이번 주말에는 비가 내립니다.
According to the weather agency, it will rain this weekend.
-았/었다고 밝히다announce that (something happened)
The quotative -다고 attached to a past-tense clause, followed by 밝히다 ('to make known'). This is the fixed news formula for attributing an announcement to an institution: the clause before -다고 is what was announced, and 밝혔습니다 says who announced it. Use 밝히다 rather than 말하다 when the speaker is an organisation making something official.
Example: 회사는 새 제품을 개발했다고 밝혔습니다.
The company announced that it had developed a new product.
-(으)며and (also); written-style clause link
A written-style connector that joins two clauses describing the same subject or topic. In this use it means simply 'and', and it is the formal counterpart of -고: newspapers and reports prefer -(으)며, while speech prefers -고. Attach -으며 after a consonant and -며 after a vowel.
Example: 서울은 인구가 많으며 교통도 편리합니다.
Seoul has a large population, and its transport is convenient as well.
-되다 (개선되다, 회복되다)to be -ed, to become (passive)
Attached to a Sino-Korean noun, -되다 makes a passive or change-of-state verb: 개선 (improvement) becomes 개선되다 (to be improved), 회복 (recovery) becomes 회복되다 (to be restored). News Korean uses this constantly because it lets the writer report a result without naming who caused it. In the past tense, 되었습니다 is normally contracted to 됐습니다.
Example: 지하철 공사가 끝나서 교통이 크게 개선됐습니다.
Now that the subway construction is finished, traffic has improved greatly.
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