Nose cells provide a window into the brain
In the first study to examine living nerve cells from patients with psychiatric disease, scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and collaborating institutions report altered nerve cell function in olfactory receptor neurons from patients with bipolar disorder. Like other psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, bipolar disorder affects nerve cells in the brain, making it difficult to study
An anti-inflammatory therapy utilizing proteins called type 1 interferon IFN-alpha and IFN-beta (IFN-á/â) has been shown by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and their colleagues in Japan and Israel to offer relief in mouse models of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the two major forms of the painful, chronic condition called inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects nearly 1 million Americans.
Published in the March
In efforts to educate the body to fight off cancer, researchers have found that some immune cells are “smarter” than others. Working with collections of human cells, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists tested kill-rates of two kinds of T-cells “primed” to home in on myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Those that live in the bone marrow outperformed their counterparts circulating in the blood by more than 90 percent.
“It is very difficult to design cancer therapies that
Lung cancer patients who have never smoked are more likely than smokers to harbor one of two genetic mutations that researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have now linked to the disease.
“This study describes the first known mutation to occur in lung cancer patients who have never smoked,” said Dr. Adi Gazdar, professor of pathology in the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research and senior author of the study in today’s issue of the Journal
Celecoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor with promising anti-cancer properties, has now been found to attack prostate cancer cells in a second way that differs from Vioxx (rofecoxib), another anti-inflammatory drug that also inhibits COX-2.
In studies published in the March 1 issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research, scientists at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University revealed that celecoxib, marketed under the name Celebrex, not only targets COX-2, but also reduces
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may have identified the genetic basis underlying essential tremor disease, the most common human movement disorder.
The discovery comes from studies involving a strain of genetically altered mice that show the same types of tremor and similar lack of coordination as people affected by essential tremor. This animal model of the disease might prove useful for screening potential treatments, said Dr. A. Leslie Morrow, asso
As the microbial world comes to light through DNA sequencing, the new Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) will deliver valuable information for the benefit of the global research community.
“The IMG system is an essential enhancement to the computational toolkit supported by DOE,” said Dr. Aristides A. Patrinos, Associate Director for Environmental and Biological Research of the DOE Office of
Monarch butterflies in eastern North America have one of the longest migrations of any species, with a survival-of-the-fittest trek that can take them thousands of miles from Canada to Central Mexico. A new Emory University study has found that these journeys may be the key to maintaining healthy monarch populations at a time when habitat loss and other environmental issues could curb the ability of the butterflies to make the trip.
Emory researchers discovered that monarch butte
Strategic mix includes marmoset, skate and the vector of Chagas’ disease
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that the Large-Scale Sequencing Research Network will begin sequencing 12 more strategically selected organisms, including the marmoset, a skate and several important insects, as part of its ongoing effort to expand understanding of the human genome.
The National Advisory Counci
Researchers at Purdue University have attached magnetic “nanoparticles” to DNA and then cut these “DNA wires” into pieces, offering the promise of creating low-cost, self-assembling devices for future computers.
Findings are detailed in a paper published online in February in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper was written by Purdue graduate student Joseph M. Kinsella and Albena Ivanisevic, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Purd
A family of proteins that help build the cytoskeleton, or the bones of the cell, also play an important role in learning and memory, according to a study published this month in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Marina Picciotto, associate professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine, and the senior author of the study, studied mice missing one of these proteins–â-adducin–and found the cytoskeleton developed normally. However, the mice were impai
Protein found in cells may be the answer
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found alpha-defensin-1, a protein found in immune cells, can control HIV infection by at least two mechanisms. Earlier studies have primarily looked at the role of defensins in bacterial diseases. A study published the March 1 print edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) examines their role as natural antiviral substances.
Theresa Chang and colleagues at Mount Sinai
Identifying protein biomarkers predicts success for cervical stitching
Doctors treating pregnant women with threatened preterm birth sometimes sew the cervix closed, a procedure known as cerclage. Despite this traditional intervention, many women still lose the pregnancy. While the causes of preterm labor are not well understood, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Yale University report that they can now predict who will benefit from cerclage by ra
The first synthesis of QS-21A, a medicinally important molecule that helps the body battle disease, has been achieved by chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In clinical trials, QS-21A has been shown to significantly improve the body’s immune response in vaccine therapies against aggressive diseases such as melanoma, breast cancer, small-cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, HIV-1 and malaria. An extract from the bark of the South American tree Quillaja
A working group of virologists headed by Professor Hans-Georg Kräusslich at Heidelberg University Hospitals, jointly with Professor Hanswalter Zentgraf, Division of Applied Tumor Virology of the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (German Cancer Research Center, DKFZ), have been the first to label Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) for visual investigations without inhibiting the functional characteristics of the virus. The labeling permits scientists to observe the behavior of the virus when it
UCL scientists have found a protein that could unlock the secret to quicker, more effective treatment of TB by waking TB bacteria in the body. Once the TB bacteria are active again, the disease becomes treatable using common drugs like antibiotics. Scientists believe that uncovering the molecular structure of this protein will lead the way to designing drugs which enable treatment of dormant and multidrug resistant TB.
In England and Wales around 400 people die each year from the
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