A protein that plays an important regulatory role in heart failure in the heart also exerts powerful effects on the adrenal gland, Jefferson Medical College researchers have found. The protein, GRK2, is a potential drug target for heart failure.
Walter Koch, Ph.D., director of the Center for Translational Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his co-workers had showed previously that GRK2, or G-pro
New Saint Louis University study of twins examines quality of life issues
You can blame your parents for your hair that frizzes in high humidity and for your short stature. And now researchers at Saint Louis University School of Public Health say your genetic makeup partly dictates how physically and mentally healthy you feel.
Their study, which was funded by the National Institute of Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, found that genetics are about
Nesting preferences important to accidentally imported ants
Many insects enter the United States accidentally, as hitchhikers on various plants imported in commerce, but how many really stay?
Conventional thinking says the answer is in the numbers of both insects and times they enter, but new findings to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggest that opportunity alone is no guarantee of a successful invasion.
Of 232 species of a
Breast cancer associated gene 2 is key
Researchers at Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre have found a new protein marker linked to positive outcome in patients with breast cancer.
The research published today in Cancer Research is the first to show that patients with high levels of the protein BCA2 are less likely to experience breast cancer re-occurrence than patients with low levels of BCA2.
“For the first time we have been able to sh
A University of Navarre research team, made up of Irene Esparza, José María Fernández, Carolina Santamaría, María Isabel Calvo and José Mª García-Mina, have studied the influence of a number of metals in giving wine its colour. The work concluded that a slight change in these elements substantially modifies certain aspects of the quality of the ferments.
Scientists know that colour is one of the main parameters that enable the excellence of the product to be measured, providin
Kills blood cancer cells with low toxicity in preclinical studies
An anti-cancer compound derived from bacteria dwelling in ocean-bottom sediments appears in laboratory tests to be a potent killer of drug-resistant multiple myeloma cells, and potentially with less toxicity than current treatments, report Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers in the November issue of Cancer Cell.
The experimental compound, NPI-0052, has been found to block or inhibit cancer cells’
Research showing how genes affect group loyalty and patriotism was published in the October 2005 issue of Nations and Nationalism, an academic journal of the London School of Economics.
Entitled “Ethnic nationalism, evolutionary psychology, and genetic similarity theory,” it shows how genetic similarity provides “social glue” in groups as small as two spouses and best friends or in those as large as nations and alliances.
The evidence comes from studies of identical an
A gene thought to influence perception and susceptibility to drug dependence is expressed more readily in human beings than in other primates, and this difference coincides with the evolution of our species, say scientists at Indiana University Bloomington and three other academic institutions. Their report appears in the December issue of Public Library of Science Biology.
The gene encodes prodynorphin, an opium-like protein implicated in the anticipation and experience of pain, s
VCU Massey Cancer Center to develop human study
Two new drugs, when combined, killed up to 75 percent of breast cancer tumor cells in mice and suppressed the regrowth of tumors, according to researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center.
The findings, published online Nov. 14 in the journal Cancer Biology and Therapy, may also have implications for prostate cancer, lymphoma, myeloma and other hematologic cancers.
Paul Dent, Ph.D., assoc
Results show neural reorganization occurs during short-term memory
An international team of scientists for the first time has detected a memory trace in a living animal after it has encountered a single, new stimulus. The research, done with honeybees sensing new odors, allows neuroscientists to peer within the living brain and explore short-term memory as never before, according to scientist Roberto Fernández Galán, a leading author on the report who is currently a postdoctoral
Researchers here have discovered a new marker that might identify a serious form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in people who lack the signs that normally alert doctors that the patient needs intense therapy.
The study was led by researchers with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. It focused on AML patients whose cancer cells show none of the chromosome alterations that help doctors deter
New research shows that a wasting condition responsible for nearly a third of all cancer deaths involves the loss of an essential muscle protein that is also lost in people with muscular dystrophy.
The findings provide a better understanding of cancer wasting, also known as cancer cachexia, a condition first described more than 100 years ago that still lacks effective therapy. The findings also might lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the condition.
The study, led
Northwestern University researchers have developed a novel, three-dimensional model that allows scientists to observe how interacting with the microenvironment of metastatic melanoma cells induces normal skin cells to become similar to aggressive cancer cells that migrate and spread throughout the body.
The model, developed by Mary J. C. Hendrix and colleagues at Children’s Memorial Research Center, consists of a three-dimensional collagen matrix preconditioned by malignan
Planaria worms demonstrate how cells communicate and grow new tissues
Forsyth Institute research with the flatworm, planaria, offers new clues for understanding restoration of body structures. Researchers at The Forsyth Institute have discovered how the worm’s cells communicate to correctly repair and regenerate tissue. Forsyth scientists have found that gap-junction (microscopic tunnels directly linking neighboring cells) communication contributes to this signaling. This re
Faster reaction rates, a substantially higher yield and a cleaner production process than is currently possible in the chemical industry. That is the result of a new sustainable chemical process that researchers from Universiteit van Amsterdam and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen have developed with support from NWO ACTS (Advanced Chemical Technologies for Sustainability). A patent has recently been requested for this discovery.
Faster reaction rates, a substantially higher yield an
A leading neuroscientist at MIT and one from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) report in the Nov. 4 special issue of Science dedicated to the brain that the controversy is over: The “protomap” and “protocortex” theories of brain development are dead.
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of around 10 billion neurons divided into distinctly separate areas that process particular aspects of sensation, movement and cognition. To what extent are these areas predetermin
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