Researchers have discovered a key regulatory molecule whose overactivation by the abnormal protein produced in Huntington’s disease (HD) causes the central pathologies of the disease. The abnormal HD protein activates the regulatory protein called p53, which in turn switches on a host of other genes. This abnormal gene activation damages the cells’ power plants, called the mitochondria, and kills brain cells.
The researchers also speculated that disturbances in p53 may also pla
Overcopied pigment-cell gene may serve as target for future drug attacks
A team of researchers led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a genetic abnormality in the cells of some advanced melanoma patients that worsens their chances of survival, but also might be a target of future drug attack against the dangerous skin cancer.
Dana-Farber’s Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, and William Sellers, MD, the paper’s first and senior authors, and their
Discovery could counteract use of deadly virus for bioterrorism
UCLA scientists have discovered how the deadly Nipah virus infiltrates human cells to cause encephalitis. Designated as a potential bioterrorism agent by the National Biodefense Research Agenda, the virus exploits a protein essential to embryonic development to enter cells and launch its attack. The online edition of Nature reports the findings July 6.
“In its natural state, the Nipah virus can be used as a
A better grasp of immune cell lineages may improve outcomes for transplant, other immunosuppressed patients
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have recently clarified the role of the Notch protein in T-cell development. T cells are required for many aspects of immunity, including fighting viral infections, providing cancer surveillance, and regulating multiple aspects of the immune response.
T cells are made in the thymus, a small organ si
A trail of feathers led a team of Purdue University scientists to confirm that eagles from central Asia are quite possibly the most faithful of birds.
By performing DNA analysis on the feathers left behind at nesting sites, the researchers were able to identify individual Eastern imperial eagles in a nature reserve in Kazakhstan. Their analysis showed that not one adult strayed from its mate – a degree of fidelity highly unusual among birds, the vast majority of which mate with an
Orthodontics takes first step toward biological control of tooth movement
In the first study of its kind, University of Florida researchers are testing the power of a natural human hormone to biochemically move teeth faster and less painfully during orthodontic treatment.
“Most of orthodontics has traditionally dealt with physics, the biomechanics of applying a force against a tooth to move it,” said study investigator Timothy Wheeler, D.M.D., Ph.D., a professor and cha
Using newly available biological technology, researchers have developed the first molecular portrait of multiple gene activity in diseased heart tissue taken from dogs near death from a devastating disease. The discovery sheds new light on the heart’s response to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease of large-breed dogs.
New microscopic technology allows researchers to place tens of thousands of genes on 1.5-inch-square slides known as a microarray. In this case, researchers
Findings offer therapeutic potential for human asthma treatment
Disruption of a single gene, Nrf2, plays a critical role in determining the susceptibility to asthma. A research team led by Shyam Biswal, PhD, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found the absence of Nrf2 exacerbated allergen-mediated asthma in mice models. The study’s findings, published in the July 4, 2005, edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, may hold therapeutic potential for the treat
Lab synthesizes ammonia using nitrogen and hydrogen in solution
University of Oregon chemists have produced ammonia from nitrogen at room temperature under normal atmospheric pressure, marking a significant step toward achieving one of chemistry’s coveted goals.
A scientific article describing the method, which uses a simple compound of iron and hydrogen as the electron source in the “fixing” reaction, is available online and will be published in the July 27 issue of
Gastro-Intestinal Stroma Tumor (GIST) is a rare form of cancer of the stomach or small intestine. Up to now, only one effective treatment has existed for GIST: the use of Glivec. However, over time, this remedy becomes ineffective for a large percentage of the patients. Along with colleagues in Leuven, the research group of Peter Marynen of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), connected to the Catholic University of Leuven, has uncovered the process underlying the freq
Doctors have become increasingly concerned by the problem of “super-bugs”—bacteria that have become resistant to standard antibiotics. It is well known that a high rate of antibiotic prescribing in hospitals contributes to the emergence of drug resistant bacteria. But for some antibiotics, an even more important factor contributing to such emergence, argues a team of researchers in the open access international medical journal PLoS Medicine, is the use of antibiotics in agriculture.
“Ev
Obesity and diabetes seen as accelerated aging; research has broad implications in treating disease and new drug discovery
During the last decade researchers have made a number of important discoveries about the molecular mechanisms regulating aging. This research has suggested the exciting prospect that the rate of aging can be manipulated and slowed, leading to longer human lifespan. A major peer-reviewed article in the current issue of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery describes the
How do you study a pathogen that can’t survive outside its host’s cells? In a new study published in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Hiroyuki Ogata and colleagues show that sequencing and analyzing the genome of the bacteria Rickettsia felis provide valuable insights into the biology and behavior of this intracellular pathogen. The researchers discovered that the parasitic bacterium has the standard large circular chromosome plus two unexpected plasmids, small circular pieces of
What do you get when you mix RNA chips and zebrafish? A new two-stage method for studying human gene expression differs in human stem cells and progenitor cells, according to a new article in the open access journal PLoS Biology. In the paper, Catherine Verfaillie and colleagues identify 277 human genes with different gene expression profiles in stem and progenitor cells involved in blood cell development, or hematopoiesis. The paper also suggests that a developmental regulator called fibroblast
Nerves talk to each other using chemicals called neurotransmitters. One of those “communication chemicals,” aptly named GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), shows up in unusually high amounts in some aggressive tumors, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The researchers investigated metastatic neuroendocrine tumors, which include aggressive types of lung, thyroid, and prostate cancers that spread to other parts of the body. Their study
Discovery has implications for future treatments
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified for the first time a group of genes that impact the development and function of blood stem cells, a discovery that brings researchers a step closer to harnessing the power of stem cells for disease treatments.
Every day, blood stem cells divide and differentiate to generate approximately 200 billion new blood cells in the bone marrow of adults. To maintain their num
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