Molecular beacons, gene silencing, and reporter genes studied to better predict response to chemotherapy
Researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania are applying a host of imaging techniques to develop better ways to look noninvasively at the molecular characteristics of tumors. The experiments, now in human cell cultures and mouse models, are aimed at better forecasting early response to chemotherapy so that treatment choices can be adjusted.
Special section in journal details new studies
Five articles published in a Special Section in the December 2004 issue of BioScience, the monthly journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), provide new global assessments of how well protected areas such as parks can safeguard the numerous animal and plant species at risk of becoming extinct. The new analyses lead to the conclusion that although nominally protected areas now approach 12 per cent of the Earth&#
A new Tofu-based biomaterial that can help mend broken bones and damaged tissues is being developed thanks to an investment of £149,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the organization that champions UK creativity and innovation.
The idea is the brainchild of Dr Matteo Santin – a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton’s School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Studies – who has worked in the field of biomaterials since 1991.
Orange juice and cancer don’t mix. In fact, the popular citrus drink could become a cocktail to prevent or stop the deadly disease in humans.
Research by Texas Agriculture Experiment Station scientists has shown that citrus compounds called limonoids targeted and stopped neuroblastoma cells in the lab. They now hope to learn the reasons for the stop-action behavior and eventually try the citrus concoction in humans.
Neuroblastomas account for about 10 percent of a
Biologist says public’s scientific illiteracy has frightening repercussions
The rising popularity of shark cartilage extract as an anti-cancer treatment is a triumph of marketing and pseudoscience over reason, with a tragic fallout for both sharks and humans, according to a Johns Hopkins biologist writing in the Dec. 1 issue of Cancer Research. “Since shark cartilage has been promoted as a cancer cure, not only has there has been a measurable decline in shark populations,
The polyphenols present in green tea help prevent the spread of prostate cancer by targeting molecular pathways that shut down the proliferation and spread of tumor cells, as well as inhibiting the growth of tumor nurturing blood vessels, according to research published in the December 1 issue of Cancer Research.
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, documented the role of green tea polyphenols (
University of Pittsburgh study focuses on genes regulating the inflammatory response
Specific variants in genes that encode proteins regulating inflammation may hold a key to explaining a host of disease processes known to cause increased risk of illness and death among African Americans, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). The study, “Differential Distribution of Allelic Variants in Cytokine Genes Among African Amer
T cells activated in the gut during inflammatory bowel disease can be re-routed to the liver and cause chronic liver disease, according to Eksteen and colleagues in the December 1 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
A chronic liver disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) has been linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the past. But the connection between the two disorders has been unclear, especially as the liver condition often develops years afte
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have shown that rifampicin, an antibiotic used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis, can prevent the formation of protein fibrils associated with the death of brain cells in people with Parkinson’s disease. The drug also dissolved existing fibrils in laboratory tests.
The researchers studied the effects of rifampicin in test tube experiments and are currently doing studies with cell cultures and mice to see if the sa
A drug withdrawn from pharmacy shelves over 20 years ago may point the way to a new treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, a muscle-wasting and often life-threatening childhood disease.
A new study suggests that the drug, called indoprofen, increases the production of a protein that is key to the survival of the nerve cells affected by the disease. Indoprofen was taken off the market in the early 1980s due to reports of serious gastrointestinal reactions as well as report
Austrian researchers are successfully treating incontinent women with the patient’s own muscle-derived stem cells. The findings of the first clinical study of its kind were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“Urinary incontinence is a major problem for women, and for an increasing number of men,” said Ferdinand Frauscher, M.D., associate professor of radiology at the Medical University of Innsbruck and the head of urorad
A recent discovery unveils the chemical secret that gives old bees the authority to keep young bees home babysitting instead of going out on the town.
A hard-to-detect pheromone explains a phenomenon Michigan State University entomologist Zachary Huang published 12 years ago – that somehow older forager bees exert influence over the younger nurse bees in a hive, keeping them grounded until they are more mature, and thus more ready to handle the demands of buzzing about.
A protein found on the surface of nerve cells makes fruit flies tolerant to a drug after just a single, brief exposure, which may reveal ways to address this early step toward addiction in humans.
Neuroscientist Nigel Atkinson at The University of Texas at Austin and his laboratory determined this by studying the response of fruit flies (Drosophila) to a 15-minute exposure to benzyl alcohol coated on the inner walls of test tubes. Flies that had had one previous exposure to the or
Four years ago in Science, Stuart Kim, a Stanford University developmental biologist, made the case for describing the broad strokes of a complex physiological process before defining its mechanisms. “A powerful, top-down, holistic approach,” he wrote, “is to identify all of the components of a particular cellular process, so that one can define the global picture first and then use it as a framework to understand how the individual components of the process fit together.” To get a broad view of
Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, have conducted novel experiments that might one day lead to gene therapy treatment options for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
In research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team, led by EPFL President Patrick Aebischer, found that viral delivery of a gene associated with Parkinson’s disease protected neurons from degeneration.
’Device’ made of fused protein partners is shown to be reversible and highly sensitive
Improving significantly on an early prototype, Johns Hopkins University researchers have found a new way to join two unrelated proteins to create a molecular switch, a nanoscale “device” in which one biochemical partner controls the activity of the other. Lab experiments have demonstrated that the new switch performs 10 times more effectively than the early model and that its “on-off
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