Scientists at Bristol University have found that a protein present in normal body tissues can prevent tumour growth.
A team led by Dr Dave Bates, British Heart Foundation Lecturer, and Dr Steve Harper, Senior Research Fellow in the Microvascular Research Laboratories, in the Department of Physiology at Bristol University, have discovered that a type of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) found in normal tissue, including blood, can prevent cancers from growing. The re
Discovery means angiogenesis may one day be stopped, started for therapeutic use
A protein important to nerve development serves the dual purpose of stimulating the growth of blood vessels, researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine and Stanford University have discovered. The discovery opens the possibility that blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) one day may be induced, or stymied, for therapeutic use against heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses, according to
Overturning a scientific stereotype, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a new role for a key protein involved in muscle contraction and shown it is present not just in the cytoplasm of cells but in the nucleus as well.
Actin has been pigeonholed as a molecular motor, explains Primal de Lanerolle, professor of physiology and biophysics at UIC. “Whenever cells move or divide, actin is involved, like its partner myosin.” “But in the nucleus,” de
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute are one step closer to understanding how blood cells develop through the use of human embryonic stem cells. The research better defines the conditions under which blood cell development occurs, making the process easier to replicate. The findings are published in the October issue of Experimental Hematology.
“These findings do more than give us a basic understanding of blood cell replacement–they allow us to consi
An errant enzyme linked to bipolar disorder, in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, impairs cognition under stress, an animal study shows. The disturbed thinking, impaired judgment, impulsivity, and distractibility seen in mania, a destructive phase of bipolar disorder, may be traceable to overactivity of protein kinase C (PKC), suggests the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the
Scientists have discovered that a cellular enzyme helps ferry HIV genetic instructions out of the cell nucleus where they can then be translated into proteins to begin their most destructive work. The cellular enzyme represents a potential new target for developing improved HIV drugs, say the researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the McGill University AIDS Center.
Kuan-Teh Jeang, M.D., Ph
Ever since the approval of Gleevec in 2001, a cancer-cell-specific drug used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), the field of cancer therapeutics has been rushing full speed into the era of so-called “targeted” medicines. The challenge of developing these medicines, which spare normal cells because they are designed to kill only cancer cells, has been complicated by the recognition that resistance to even targeted therapies can develop. In the case of Gleevec, for example, which disable
Inhibiting Apolipoprotein E possible means of therapeutic intervention for Alzheimer’s disease
A research team led by University of South Florida neuroscientist Huntington Potter, PhD, CEO of the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer’s Center & Research Institute, for the first time has defined how the protein Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) contributes to both the formation of amyloid brain lesions and the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The research, conduct
Genetic testing for disorders, especially in large families, can save the public health care system thousands of dollars in the long term, according to new research at the University of Alberta.
“Government is looking for cost-effectiveness in all forms of medicine, and we want to show that this form of testing is worthwhile,” said Dr. Dawna Gilchrist, a specialist in adult medical genetics at the University of Alberta. A one-year clinical case study conducted by Gilchrist, a
Russian researchers have recorded the sounds audible only inside the right part of the dolphin’s nasal passage. Animals produce them during echolocation. This research can shed light on how the cetacea produce ultrasonic signals.
Researchers of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, have obtained the confirmation of the hypothesis that the cetacea, dolphins in particular, produce sounds with the help of some pneumatic mechanism, i.e
When Darwin’s skeptics attack his theory of evolution, they often focus on the eye. Darwin himself confessed that it was “absurd” to propose that the human eye evolved through spontaneous mutation and natural selection. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have now tackled Darwin’s major challenge in an evolutionary study published this week in the journal Science. They have elucidated the evolutionary origin of the human eye.
Researchers in the labora
Insect-borne parasites usually like to “stick” around inside their hosts while they mature and prepare to infect again. Now, Jesus Valenzuela and colleagues have identified the molecular receptor inside the midgut of the sand fly Phlebotomus papatasi that provides the “flypaper” for the parasite that causes the major form of leishmaniasis, a tropical disease with both mild and fatal forms. PpGalec is the receptor protein that the parasite uses to bind to the fly’s midgut and avoid being excreted a
Did that lobster on your dinner plate inherit its big crusher claw…or did it evolve through need, without the help of genes?
Genetics aren’t the only triggers for the traits a species develops, according to findings from a University of Alberta professor. The research challenges the classical Darwinian theory of evolution as being the sole explanation for how new life forms arise.
In a paper published October 29 in the journal Science, Dr. Richard Palmer, a U of A profess
A potential new therapeutic approach to Alzheimer’s disease protects brain cells in culture by drastically reducing the neurotoxic amyloid protein aggregates that are critical to the development of the disease. The treatment involves dispatching a small molecule into the cell to enlist the aid of a larger “chaperone” protein to block the accumulation of the brain-clogging protein.
The new “Trojan horse” technique overcomes a major challenge in drug design – namely, the lim
Researchers at the University of Chicago have found genetic evidence to support the sodium-retention hypothesis, a controversial 30-year-old theory that the high rate of hypertension in certain ethnic groups is caused, in part, by an inherited tendency to retain salt.
In the December issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, (available now on-line) the researchers show that the frequency of one version of a gene that plays a crucial role in salt retention correlates with
In a finding that may one day help researchers better understand age-related memory and hearing loss, scientists have shown that two key nervous system proteins interact in a manner that helps regulate the transmission of signals in the nervous system.
Researchers report online in Nature Neuroscience that they’ve connected neuregulin-1 (Nrg-1), a protein linked to schizophrenia, and postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95), a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
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