Three new studies by researchers at UC Davis Cancer Center provide new pieces to the puzzle of why some prostate cancers become resistant to androgen suppression therapy. The studies were presented Sunday afternoon at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Urological Association.
Of the nearly 190,000 men in the United States who develop prostate cancer every year, a substantial proportion will require androgen suppression therapy to reduce levels of male hormones — a treatment that can sh
A team of researchers headed by Douglas R. Cavener, professor and head of the Department of Biology at Penn State University, has announced important findings about the causes of three human diseases: severe, juvenile-onset diabetes; osteoporosis; and Wolcott-Rallison Syndrome, a rare condition whose sufferers exhibit a combination of diabetes, retarded growth, and skeletal abnormalities. Their work suggests promising lines of research for the therapeutic treatment of these diseases. The work will be
Researchers at EMBL and Harvard gain new insights into hemochromatosis
Like most nutrients, iron is good for people – in the right doses. When the body has enough iron, our cells stop absorbing it from food; if there is too little, they absorb more. This system breaks down in the most common inherited disease in the Western world: hemochromatosis, which affects about one in every 250 people and is often fatal if it is not recognized and treated. Now researchers at the European Molecu
The method that Staphylococcus aureus (staph) infection uses to inactivate the body’s immune response and cause previously healthy B cells to commit suicide, is described for the first time by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine in the May 5, 2003 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The paper was selected for early online publication on April 28.
Normally, B cells mount an early defense against invading bacteria. From this immunol
Insulin resistance, a condition commonly associated with the development of type 2 diabetes, is likely a major cause of heart disease in people with type 1 diabetes, according to study results published by University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) researchers in the May 2003 issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.
“Heart disease is a major complication for people with diabetes, including those with type 1 diabetes, and until now t
Women with breast cancer are five times as likely to have pesticide residues in their blood of organochlorines (DDT), which contain oestrogens, reveals a study of 159 women in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
The possibility of such a link has attracted controversy, admit the authors, but say that their new study adds to the growing body of evidence for an association between environmental oestrogens and the rising incidence of breast cancer.
The authors base their findings
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed an inexpensive, reliable way to make large quantities of targeted immune cells that one day may provide a life-saving defense against cancers and viral infections.
Using artificial antigen presenting cells, or aAPCs, the scientists converted run-of-the-mill immune cells into a horde of specific, targeted invader-fighting machines, they report in the advance online version of Nature Medicine on April 21.
“The ability to make vast quantities
The lack of a special protein crucial to cell growth and development may help cancer cells proliferate, new research suggests.
Cells without this protein – E2F3 – are usually rendered genetically unstable. In most cases, such instability would either kill a cell or keep it from growing. Yet sometimes mutations alter cells in such a way that they are able to thrive and multiply, creating tumors.
“In cancer, the absence or loss of E2F3 may be a double-edged sword,” said Gustav
Vessels are important parts of our body. Their function is critical to our well-being. For years, doctors have tried various tools to take pictures of arteries that would help them in diagnosing or preventing diseases. This has not been an easy task, however, and sometimes they have to use imaging methods that may have some harmful side effects. It has always been a challenge to take clear pictures of vessel without the negative side effects. Here, we suggest a new way that may help us to achieve th
Finding is a significant step toward new insights for designing combination chemotherapy
Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered numerous genes that alter their level of activity in characteristic patterns in response to specific chemotherapy treatments. The genes were identified in the leukemia cells of children undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
The researchers say this finding is a significant step in the emergin
In a serendipitous spin-off of HIV/AIDS research, scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and colleagues have found strong evidence that a genetic variation affecting immune system cells protects against heart disease. Details of the work, which also provides further evidence for the role of inflammation in heart disease, will appear in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
“This work demonstrates how NIAID’s commitment to
Scientists are now one step closer to understanding how HIV hides in cells and rears its ugly head once patients stop taking combination drug therapy, which can suppress viral loads to undetectable levels. The phenomenon reflects the existence of hidden populations of latently infected cells. As a result, patients must remain on therapy for life.
Eradication of these cells could lead to a cure for HIV infection. However, researchers have been hampered by their inability to identify them.
New research led by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist shows for the first time how Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the germ responsible for TB, uses a system for releasing proteins to help it survive the lungs’ immune defenses to spread and cause disease.
The study, published online in the April issue of Molecular Microbiology, also adds crucial new knowledge to the molecular factors that underlie the virulence of M. tuberculosis and may aid development of new, target
Millions of people suffering from diabetes mellitus may be spared the ordeal of pricking their fingers several times a day to test blood sugar levels, thanks to a breakthrough by University of Pittsburgh researchers who have developed a non-invasive method to measure the glucose level in bodily fluids.
Researchers Sanford A. Asher, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in the faculty and College of Arts and Sciences, and David Finegold, M.D., professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, creat
Prolactin, a naturally occurring peptide hormone needed for milk production following pregnancy, has been found to play a major role in the development and spread of breast cancer. More recently, Dr. Charles Clevenger, the same researcher who first demonstrated the scope and mechanism of prolactin’s role in cancer, has discovered that prolactin functions directly inside the cell, not merely by sending signals across the cell membrane as had been assumed for it and all other peptide hormones.
In working to halt the overgrowth of blood vessels that feed cancerous tumors, the antiangiogenic molecules endostatin and tumstatin take two distinct and very different tactics, according to a study in the April 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
These findings, which currently appear on-line, suggest for the first time that these two agents combined may prove more effective in battling cancer than either one used separately.
“Just as aspirin, a
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