Study may also have implications for dieters
Mice with the mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease show improvements in their condition when treated with a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. A report published today in the peer-reviewed, open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism, showed that a brain protein, amyloid-beta, which is an indicator of Alzheimer’s disease, is reduced in mice on the so-called ketogenic diet.
The report, by Samuel Henderson, from Accera
U-M discovery could help make bone marrow transplants more effective and an option for more patients
Researchers at the University of Michigan’s Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered the secret weapon behind the most powerful form of cancer immunotherapy known to medicine.
Scientists call it the graft-versus-leukemia effect, and it occurs when new immune cells from donated bone marrow, called the graft, attack malignant cells in the patient and destroy them.
Scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have successfully demonstrated that a theoretical–and controversial–technique for generating embryonic stem cells is indeed possible, at least in mice.
The theory, called altered nuclear transfer (ANT), proposes that researchers first create genetically altered embryos that are unable to implant in a uterus, and then extract stem cells from these embryos. Because the embryos cannot implant, they are by definition not “
Gene therapy could be used as an agent to protect normal tissues, including the esophagus and lung, from damage during a second administration of radiation therapy for non-small cell lung cancer, according to an animal study presented today by University of Pittsburgh researchers at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Denver.
“A major challenge in treating lung tumors with radiation is the toxicity of radiation to hea
With their long stalks and feathery arms, marine animals known as sea lilies look a lot like their garden-variety namesakes. Perhaps because of that resemblance, scientists had always assumed that sea lilies stayed rooted instead of moving around like their stalkless relatives, the feather stars.
But videos taken from a submersible research vessel at a depth of 430 meters (1410 feet) near Grand Bahama Island reveal that some sea lilies can creep along the ocean floor, apparently
Dr. Terry Orr-Weaver and colleagues (MIT & Nagasaki University School of Medicine) present the first genetic analysis of the recently identified nucleosomal histone kinase, NHK-1. The authors generated NHK-1-mutant Drosophila fruit flies, and through cytological analysis of the resulting sterile female oocytes, determined that this histone kinase is necessary for disassembly of the synaptonemal complex, condensin loading, and the further acetylation of histones H3 and H4.
This work prov
First preclinical report of autologous stem cells harvested and administered the day of heart attack
Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. (Frankfurt: XMP), today presented results demonstrating that adipose stem cells improved cardiac function following a severe heart attack in a porcine study. This is the first preclinical study in which the injected cells were autologous, meaning they came from the animals’ own tissue, were not cultured, so that they did not undergo multiple cell division
A new study suggests that restoring a gene often silenced in lung cancer causes the cells to self-destruct. The findings could lead to a new strategy for treating the disease.
The research focused on a gene known as WWOX, which is lost or silenced in a large majority of lung cancers, and in cancers of the breast, ovary, prostate, bladder, esophagus and pancreas. The work was led by scientists at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hosp
An international team led by a dermatologist at The University of Manchester has found that treatment with the emerging drug infliximab, marketed as Remicade, can quickly and significantly improve psoriasis symptoms.
A Global Press Briefing & Lunch will be held on Friday, 14 October from 11:30 – 13:00 in London. See details under “Notes for Edotors”.
The European Infliximab for Psoriasis Efficacy and Safety Study (EXPRESS) was a placebo-controlled trial on 378 patients wi
Study confirms century-old theory about cancer causation
Abnormal cell division that yields cells with an extra set of chromosomes can initiate the development of tumors in mice, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown, validating a controversial theory about cancer causation put forth by a scientific visionary nearly 100 years ago.
The so-called “double-value” cells are produced by random errors in cell division that occur with unknown frequency. The ge
Researchers have discovered 10 new molecular structures with pharmaceutical potential in a species of red seaweed that lives in the shallow coral reef along the coastline of Fiji in the south Pacific Ocean.
Some of these natural compounds showed the potential to kill cancer cells, bacteria and the HIV virus, according to research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In fact, two of them exhibit anti-bacterial activity towards antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at con
In what may be a major milestone in Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) research, scientists at Yale School of Medicine and their colleagues have identified a gene called SLITRK1 that appears to contribute to some cases of TS, according to a report in the October 14 issue of Science.
“We now have rare mutations, expression and functional data, all supporting a role for this gene in Tourette’s Syndrome,” said senior author Matthew State, M.D., Harris Assistant Professor in t
In a case of basic science detective work, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have solved the puzzle of the “inconsistent biomarker” and, in the process, may have discovered an agent that can suppress cancer development.
In the Oct. 14 issue of Science, researchers report that the biomarker in question – an enzyme known as EZH2 – leads a duplicitous life. In its “native” state, the enzyme acts as a suppressor for cancer cell growth that works to
In studies with mice, treatment with a new monoclonal antibody that targets immune system B cells has shown considerable promise for treating leukemias, autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection, according to immunologists at Duke University Medical Center.
B cells are the immune system’s “arms factories,” producing antibodies that target invading microbes for destruction. Abnormal B cell proliferation causes such leukemias as multiple myeloma and acute lymphoblastic leuk
More than 150 years after the discovery of Hassall’s corpuscles in 1849, the function of these round blobs of cells in the human thymus gland has now been explained. The answer, in turn, ends an intense hunt for the origin of regulatory T cells that has been under way for years.
Reporting in the Aug. 25 issue of Nature, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found that Hassall’s corpuscles produce chemical signals that instruct dendriti
A peptide identified in a fungus found in northern European pine forests possesses as much power as penicillin as well as vancomycin, according to an international team of researchers.
Reporting in the October 13 issue of Nature, a team from Denmark-based biotech company Novozymes, and researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, say they have isolated “plectasin,” the first defensin ever found in fungi. The research wa
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