Points way to development of more efficient treatment
The mechanism in anti-Alzheimer’s disease drugs that inhibits the production of a destructive, inflammation-causing protein in the brain has been revealed by researchers at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem.
Their work, described in a recent issue of the American journal, Annals of Neurology, is likely to lead to the development of more efficient drugs than are currently in use for treating Alzheimer’s D
The human opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, has broken the immune system’s code, report researchers from the University of Chicago, enabling the bacteria to recognize when its host is most vulnerable and to launch an attack before the weakened host can muster its defenses.
In the 29 July 2005 issue of Science, the researchers show how this lethal organism detects interferon-gamma, a chemical messenger the immune system uses to coordinate its efforts to get rid
Heme is key to protein’s work
University of Toronto researchers have gained new insight into how a specific protein may control circadian rhythms and metabolic processes, which has implications for treating cholesterol-related diseases.
U of T professor Henry Krause and his colleagues have identified heme, an iron compound, best known for its oxygen carrying capabilities in hemoglobin, as the molecule that allows the protein E75 to regulate a number of key developm
Molecular ’handshake’ of key parasite protein seen as target for drug design and vaccine development
By determining the molecular structure of a protein that enables malaria parasites to invade red blood cells, researchers have uncovered valuable clues for rational antimalarial drug design and vaccine development. The findings are reported in the July 29 issue of the journal Cell.
Malaria causes approximately 400 million clinical cases and 2 million deaths annually
In the courtship dance of a male South American bird, the Club-winged Manakin, Machaeropterus deliciosus, rubbing and vibrating specialized wing feathers together creates a courting melody to attract their mates, according to a report in Science.
Since Darwin proposed his theories of selection and evolution, it has been posed that sounds made by the feathers of some birds evolved by sexual selection. Richard O. Prum, the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ecology and Evolutiona
Pore protein plays active role in toxins’ entry into cells
Scientists at Harvard Medical School (HMS) have revealed details of a key step in the entry of anthrax toxin into human cells. The work, which grew out of an ongoing effort to produce a better anthrax therapeutic, shows that the protective antigen component of the bacterial toxin plays an active role in transferring the other two components of the toxin through the cell membrane. The research, led by R. John Collier
Finding advances hope for potential new target for antidepressants
Researchers from Harvard Medical School have found a molecule that is unexpectedly involved in dopamine signaling, and in a manner that supports the potential of dopamine as an alternative target for treating depression. The results provide evidence that there is a molecular link between impaired dopamine signaling and depression, which affects 16 percent of the adult population in the United States. The research
Random fluctuations in gene expression can influence the fates of cells infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) far more than previously thought, according to new research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. By combining experimental and computational studies of HIV’s replication cycle, the researchers found evidence that the virus may become latent in some cells by harnessing the random molecular behavior of the cell.
Discovery sheds light on how a low-calorie diet extends lifespan
Mice, rats, worms, flies, and yeast all live longer on a low-calorie diet, which also seems to protect mammals against cancer and other aging-related diseases. A gene called SIR2 is thought to control this process. Now, researchers at Harvard Medical School and UC Davis have discovered four cousins of the SIR2 gene that also extend lifespan, suggesting that the whole family of SIR2 genes is involved in controlling life
Studies shed light on role of melanin in preventing macular degeneration
Two studies from an unusual research partnership at the University of Chicago appear to have resolved a long-standing dispute about the role of melanin in the eye. The studies, one published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and one early online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), also suggest a new way to prevent a common cause of blindness.
Chemist
When we think of organisms actively searching for resources (foraging) we generally think of things like wolves stalking elk or butterflies finding flowers. Why don’t we also think about plants growing roots through the soil? Although they cannot run or fly, plants forage too, for soil nutrients by growing more roots in response to locally high nutrient levels.
One of the most widely accepted explanations of why plants differ in their ability to place roots selectively i
Follow-up to landmark 2004 paper expands new understanding of female reproductive biology
Last year a group of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers announced surprising findings that female mice – contrary to longstanding theories of mammalian reproductive physiology – retained the ability to make new egg cells or oocytes into adulthood. Now the same investigators report new data supporting the earlier research and identifying a potential source for the production of
Previously unrecognized stem cells found in the bone marrow and blood of mice can “restock” a depleted ovary with new egg cells within weeks, according to new research published in this week’s issue of the journal Cell.
This finding provides direct evidence to overturn a long-held dogma in reproductive biology, that female mice generate egg cells only during fetal development and thus are born with a finite stock of eggs that declines throughout life. The new report signifi
Search for a special ’genetic endowment’ snares new cancer candidates
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a telltale set of genes that causes breast cancer to spread and grow in the lungs, where cancer cells often flourish with lethal consequences.
The researchers said that the genes are more than markers that identify the presence of metastatic cancer. These genes are mediators that enable fragments of breast cancer tumors to take root
The animal family tree may not be filled just with forks, but may also contain knots: hybrid species with two different ancestors rather than one, according to a team of Penn State researchers.
“We are looking for the origin of species,” says Dr. Dietmar Schwarz, post-doctoral researcher in entomology. “In animals, people envision the formation of a new species by a split of one ancestral species to two derived species or a branching of one species from another.”
However,
Imagine a cancer drug that can burrow into a tumor, seal the exits and detonate a lethal dose of anti-cancer toxins, all while leaving healthy cells unscathed. MIT researchers have designed a nanoparticle to do just that.
The dual-chamber, double-acting, drug-packing “nanocell” proved effective and safe, with prolonged survival, against two distinct forms of cancers–melanoma and Lewis lung cancer–in mice.
The work will be reported in the July 28 issue of Nature, wit
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