Unexpected cell shape change raises possibility of novel therapeutic approach; Further animal study urged before human testing
Not only is low thyroid function very common in congestive heart failure, it also indicates a reduced likelihood of recovery, and an increased chance of death.
But based on earlier work showing that whatever leads to heart failure it is always preceded by changes in the heart cells, a new study demonstrates that a moderate dose of thyroid hormones
The ability of an experimental drug known as GW5638 to change the shape of the estrogen receptor is helping researchers understand why drugs like tamoxifen and raloxifene behave the way they do, simulating the effects of estrogen in some tissues and blocking it in others. The finding indicates that this little-known drug may play an important role in preventing, as well as treating, breast cancer and suggests ways to design new drugs with even more specific effects.
In the May 1
New research explores just how regular San Andreas fault ruptures may be
The San Andreas fault is one of the most dangerous seismically active faults in the world, due to its proximity to densely populated regions of California. But how often does this fault rupture and cause a large earthquake? About every 200 years, which is coming up soon, according to an article to be published in the May 13 issue of the journal, Science.
Glenn Biasi, research assistant professor wit
Intricate details about a cellular protein, worked out by Vanderbilt University Medical Center scientists, may aid in the design of drugs that cells find ’irresistible.’
Resistance to antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents is a growing medical concern. Multidrug resistance (MDR), in which cells are resistant to a number of unrelated drugs, is a particular problem in cancer chemotherapy. One mechanism that underlies MDR results from a normally beneficial cellular process.
Young canaries can learn atypical songs but recast them into adult canary syntax as they mature
For some kinds of birds, learning to sing is as much a part of growing up as learning to talk is for human children. They listen to their parents and other adults, memorize, imitate, practice, and in time are able to chirp a tune characteristic of their species that will help attract a mate.
Now Rockefeller University scientists have found that young canaries can learn to a
An international research team has identified a new group of enzymes that may help uncover how cells direct internal traffic. The discovery has future implications for conditions — such as polycystic kidney disease, male infertility, behavioral disorders and cancer — that involve defects in protein fibers called microtubules. The findings will be published in the online journal Science Express on May 12, 2005.
The team was co-led by Jacek Gaertig, associate professor of cellular
Is there an evolutionary relationship to land-based lichens?
Researchers from China and the United States have found evidence of lichen-like symbiosis in 600-million-year-old fossils from South China. The previous earliest evidence of lichen was 400 million years old, discovered in Scotland. The discovery also adds to the scarce fossil record of fungi and raises new questions about lichen evolution.
Xunlai Yuan, a paleontologist with the Nanjing Institute of Geology and P
A crucial step in a procedure that could enable future quantum computers to break today’s most commonly used encryption codes has been demonstrated by physicists at the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
As reported in the May 13 issue of the journal Science,* the NIST team showed that it is possible to identify repeating patterns in quantum information stored in ions (charged atoms). The NIST work used three ions as quantum bits
Turns out building cars and building life have a lot in common – it all comes down to quality control.
Scientists at Michigan State University have made a major discovery on the inner workings of genetic coding, mapping out mechanisms of one of life’s most elemental functions: RNA synthesis. Their work has crucial implications for how a normal cell forms a tumor and how a virus runs amok. The work is published in the May 13 edition of the scientific journal Molecular Cell.
Cardiovascular risk factors appear to indicate deteriorating renal function in all adults. Researchers discovered various indicators of heart or vascular disease can signal that kidney function is on the decline in the general population, as just published in the May issue of Kidney International.
While generalized atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries and blood vessels) has been increasingly recognized as a cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), a recent study of over 8,50
The lure of a seafood diet may explain why early humans came out of Africa, according to research by the universities of Leeds and Glasgow published in Science this week.
Early modern humans in East Africa survived on an inland diet based on big game but by 70,000 years ago their diet had changed to a coastal one consisting largely of shellfish. However, dramatic climate change seems likely to have reduced the Red Sea’s shellfish stocks. New DNA evidence suggests their taste
Scientists in Dundee have embarked on a major research programme funded by the charity DebRA which it is hoped will ultimately lead to a successful treatment for a previously incurable genetic skin condition.
DebRA has awarded a grant of £1.6 million to Professor Irwin McLean and Professor Birgitte Lane for a five-year research project into the condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa.
Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is a rare genetic condition in which the skin and body linings blist
An article in The Journal of Physiology presents important research showing that events before birth can permanently change patterns of appetite and fat deposition in child and adult life.
A collaborative effort headed by Prof I. C. McMillen, of the Centre for the Early Origins of Adult Health at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and Dr C. L. Adam of The Energy Balance and Obesity Division of the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, is shedding new light on potential cause
CORAL reefs damaged in the Asian tsunami tragedy should be allowed to recover naturally before countries launch into expensive restoration plans, according to some of the world’s leading scientists.
The scientists, led by a researcher from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and who set out their views in an advisory brief for the World Bank, point to historical records of major coral reef devastation by cyclones and typhoons, which show that reefs recovered without human int
A natural component of rice bran oil lowers cholesterol in rats, and ongoing research also shows it may have potential as an anti-cancer and anti-infection agent in humans, according to a University of Rochester scientist who has studied the antioxidant since 1996.
The latest findings from Mohammad Minhajuddin, Ph.D., and colleagues, are reported in the May 2005 Food and Chemical Toxicology journal. They show that total cholesterol levels in animals dropped by 42 percent, an
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is beginning a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and feasibility of a potential treatment for congestive heart failure that involves injecting a patient’s own bone marrow-derived stem cells directly into the heart muscle. The procedure is expected to be performed in five to 10 patients who are scheduled to receive a heart assist device as a bridge to organ transplantation.
The stem cell trial is one of only a handful tha
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