“It's extremely rare for one research group to do both natural products discovery and mechanistic enzymology,” said Leah Bushin, a member of the Seyedsayamdost…
Asthma is a highly prevalent airway disease, affecting an estimated 300 million people worldwide. Asthmatics suffer not only from the disease itself, but also…
The American Cancer Society estimated that 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2015. Approximately 27,540 men will…
“The effects of the various chemical components of e-cigarette vapor on lung tissue are largely unknown,” said lead author Temperance Rowell, a graduate…
To make the nanosponge-hydrogel, the team mixed nanosponges, which are nanoparticles that absorb dangerous toxins produced by MRSA, E. coli and other…
Crystalline semiconductor components form the core of many modern communication technologies such as computers and mobile phones. They are produced during a…
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric cancer. This disease includes two subtypes, B-cell and T-cell leukemia, depending upon the type…
A new work based on 3-D supercomputer simulations of earthquake data has found hidden rock structures deep under East Asia. Researchers from China, Canada, and…
Graphene, a material stronger and stiffer than carbon fiber, has enormous commercial potential but has been impractical to employ on a large scale, with…
In the study, scientists from Europe, Asia and the Americas compared the genomes of ten species of bees that exhibit different degrees of social behaviour….
Since the pioneer work published by Takahashi & Yamanaka, the technique of reprogramming cells from a differentiated to an embryonic-like status has experienced an exploding development in regard to both techniques and applications. The most obvious application is the use in tissue regeneration. However, two key obstacles need to be overcome for clinical realization, i.e. risk of reprogrammed cells to develop neoplasiae as well as cumbersome and costly cell culture procedures. Therefore, it is imperative to develop cost-efficient methods with a lower the risk of cancer. The present invention has solved this problem by using a modification of the originally described method. Here, the transcription factors Sox2, cMyc and Klf4 are exogenously and stably expressed, whereas Oct4 is introduced with an exogenous transient expression system. This method is qualified to produce autologous neural stem cells that proliferate indefinitely and are able to re-differentiate into functional neural cells. The technology therefore applies to the tissue regeneration of neural tissue and disease modelling, especially in the central nervous system.
Chronic viral infections are characterized by a reduced responsiveness of T lymphocytes; a process also termed T cell exhaustion. The tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) has been shown to be critically involved in this exhaustion process. Consequently, our invention suggests the use of anti-TNFalpha strategies, i.e. either blockade of the TNF-receptor (TNFR) binding side or its enzymatic activity by existing drugs (e.g. Infliximab, Etanercept) for the general treatment of persisting viral infections with the aim to restore T cell function. Proof for the success of this approach has been delivered by the LCMV mouse model and the treatment of HIV patients, and is in addition supported by results from studies in systems biology. There is still an unmet need for improved treatment strategies for patients suffering from persisting viral infection. As mentioned above, the effectiveness of an anti-TNF-alpha strategy has been demonstrated on the example of the LCMV model and HIV patients. It is most likely that this new therapeutic approach also applies to the broad market of persisting viral infections in general, including herpes and Hepatitis.
The development of new drugs in oncology has shifted from unspecific cytotoxic drugs to highly specific substances with known targets and modes of action. A prominent group of these target specific cancer drugs are the kinase inhibitors. The invented substances are inhibitors of the kinase AKT which is involved in several pathways regulating cell functions in cancer, e.g. survival and proliferation.
The particular novelty of the invented compounds is based on their combined covalent-allosteric binding mode. These are first-in-class modulators of AKT with a novel mode of inhibition. Covalent-allosteric inhibitors show extended drug-target residence times.
AKT is a serine/threonine kinase and oncogene that has already been identified and addressed as a target in cancer therapy by several pharma companies. The invented substances are of high interest for any pharma company with an oncology pipeline and are of special advantage for those who seek to improve, broaden or supplement their kinase inhibitor portfolio.
Using state of the art equipment including UV cameras and electron microscopes, researchers from Plymouth University led a project to analyse the eruptive…
A part of the performance degradation mechanism of the advanced, electrodeless, helicon plasma thruster with a magnetic nozzle, has been revealed by the…
New research by the Nanoparticles by Design Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in collaboration with the Materials Center Leoben Austria…
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