Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used genetically modified mice to uncover a potentially important link between diabetes and obesity.
By genetically altering production of a factor found in skeletal muscle, scientists produced mice that can’t get fat but do develop early signs of diabetes. Reversing the alteration produced mice that can become obese but do not develop diabetes. The findings provide important insights for scientists struggling
Yale scientists report in the journal Nature that the “missing” genes for tRNA in an ancient parasite are made up by splicing together sequences in distant parts of the DNA genome.
The research led by Professor Dieter Söll in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale focuses on the most ancient organism with a known genome sequence. Nanoarchaeum equitans, is a member of a new phylogenetic kingdom in the Archaea containing organisms that are primitive, par
Parrots, long a favorite pet animal, are attractive to owners because of their vibrant colors. But those colors may mean more to parrots than what meets the eye.
For more than a century, biochemists have known that parrots use an unusual set of pigments to produce their rainbow of plumage colors, but their biochemical identity has remained elusive. Now, an Arizona State University researcher has uncovered the chemistry behind the colors of parrots, describing on a molecular level
Finnish researchers have discovered an interesting link between lactose malabsorption and the occurrence of bone fracture in elderly people.
It was three years ago that the Finnish researchers first identified a change affecting a single alkali in the human genome related to primary lactose malabsorption. The change is the conversion of cytosine to thymidine (genotype C/T) and it makes a person tolerate lactose for the rest of his/her life. Without this genetic change (genotype C/
Researchers have identified that Dishevelled doesn’t only function in the cytoplasm and at the cell membrane – it must also pass into the nucleus. A study published today in Journal of Biology reveals that Dishevelled, a key player in the Wnt/beta-catenin signalling pathway, has to be localised in the nucleus to perform a key aspect of its function. This discovery should shed light on both normal embryonic development and the development of cancer.
In the paper, Sergei Sokol and
Increasing levels of uric acid, a metabolic breakdown product found in blood and urine, may help cut some of the potentially devastating “secondary” cellular damage that occurs following a spinal cord injury, say researchers at Jefferson Medical College. The finding may lead to new treatments for such injuries.
After a spinal cord injury, the body’s inflammatory response may actually make things worse, releasing a variety of potentially harmful chemicals that can make the injury
Hybrid targeted therapy effective in treating Gleevec-resistant disease
Using rational drug design strategies, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland have created a targeted therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) that may ultimately be more effective than Gleevec®, the current frontline treatment. The researchers report in the February issue of Cancer Cell that the new compound, AMN107, is about 20 times more
A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) has identified the gene responsible for spreading the poisonous (toxic) effects of cadmium–a finding, say the researchers, that may one day lead to the prevention of cadmium toxicity in humans.
Cadmium–a heavy metal suspected of causing human birth defects, lung cancer and testicular cancer–is found in cigarette smoke, some shellfish and seafood, soil and some plants. It is known to damage the human central nervous
Brain overcompensates for mutations
The supersensitivity to dopamine that is characteristic of schizophrenia can be caused by mutations to a wide variety of genes, rather than alterations to just two or three specific genes, says a University of Toronto researcher.
In research published in the Feb. 15 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Toronto pharmacology professor Philip Seeman and his 16 colleagues in eight universities show th
Paradox suggests reasons why COX-2 inhibitors hurt and help.
Laboratory studies at Johns Hopkins have revealed that certain products of the enzymes COX-1 and COX-2 can both protect and damage the brain. The findings, published in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, offer tantalizing clues to why drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, which block COX-2, can ease arthritis but potentially harm the heart and brain.
Katrin Andreasson, M.D., an assistant profess
An analysis of previously uncharted chemical contents, mostly carbohydrates, in U.S.-consumed mushrooms shows that these fruity edible bodies of fungi could be tailored into dietary plans to help fill various nutritional needs.
Using modern analytic tools, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that the six mushroom varieties tested – in raw and cooked forms and at various harvest times and maturity levels – are rich in total dietary fibers, including
To avoid damage from too much oxygen, say researchers, challenging previous theories
A new study investigating the respiratory system of insects may have solved a mystery that has intrigued physiologists for decades: why insects routinely stop breathing for minutes at a time.
Challenging previous theories, researchers at UC Irvine and Humboldt University propose that insects such as grasshoppers, moths, butterflies, some types of fruit flies, beetles and bugs close o
Combinatorial drug therapies, effective for cancer and AIDS, show potential for Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases
UC Irvine researchers have identified several promising drug compounds that when combined show the potential to treat Huntington’s disease.
In tests on fruit flies, Larry Marsh and Leslie Thompson found that combinatorial drug therapies developed from these compounds halted the brain-cell damage caused by the fatal, progressive neurodegener
Leishmaniases and trypanosomiases are parasitic diseases which kill several thousands of people per year, mainly in developing countries. The effectiveness of existing treatments is being called into question owing to their toxicity and the emergence of resistance. A family of alkaloids, the quinolines, could be a worthwhile new therapeutic line to follow. Following on from the discovery of anti-leishmaniasis activity in natural quinolines, a research team of IRD, Pasteur Institute and CNRS sci
A highly sensitive post-mortem test could help scientists more accurately determine if a person died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human neurological disorder caused by the same class of infectious proteins that trigger mad cow disease, according to a new study supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The finding opens the possibility that such testing might be refined in the future so it can be used to detect prion disease in living people and animals before the o
Innovative research restores hand function
Once-paralyzed stroke victims are regaining arm and hand functions thanks to an innovative treatment developed by University of Toronto and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute researchers.
The treatment, outlined in the January Neuromodulation, uses a neuroprosthesis that stimulates muscles with electrical pulses, mimicking the intricate movements along the hand and arm. Simultaneously, the patient concentrates on the movement itsel
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