Study suggests host environment is the critical factor in aneurysm formation
When it comes to abdominal aortic aneurysms – life-threatening bulges or weak areas in the main artery feeding blood to the lower half of the body – new research shows that it is definitely better to be female. During 2000, about 11,000 people in the United States died from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Eighty percent of these aneurysms, which doctors call AAAs for short, occur in men. Scienti
New findings explaining the complicated process by which the “energy substations” of human cells split apart and recombine may lay the groundwork for new treatment approaches to a wide range of diseases, including some cancers and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Researchers from The Johns Hopkins University’s Integrated Imaging Center; the University of California, Davis; and the California Institute of Technology collaborated on
New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reveals why red blood cells from people with sickle cell disease are stickier than healthy red cells, pointing the way to potential new treatments for sickle cell disease. The study shows that a protein found on the surface of immature red blood cells, or reticulocytes, is responsible for those cells’ adhesion to blood vessel walls.
Reticulocytes are found at considerably higher levels in the blood of sickle
Understanding how the body’s immune system recognises and responds to microorganisms can be a major step in the development of new therapies against infectious diseases. Towards this aim, a paper just released in the October issue of Embo reports1 discusses the process used by mammals to respond to bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori, Listeria monocytogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae which are responsible for ulcers, Listeriosis and pneumonia, respectively.
In order to protect aga
Combination of computer science and biology could aid cancer research
In a boost to cancer research, Princeton scientists have invented a fast and reliable method for identifying alterations to chromosomes that occur when cells become malignant. The technique helps to show how cells modify their own genetic makeup and may allow cancer treatments to be tailored more precisely to a patient’s disease. Cancer cells are known among biologists for their remarkable ability to disable s
Soap bubbles delight children and the young at heart, but they also have been objects of scientific study for centuries. Operating under the laws of physics, bubbles always try to minimize their surface area, even when many bubbles are aggregated together.
Now two Northwestern University scientists have demonstrated that the tendency to minimize surface area is not limited to soap bubbles but extends to living things as well. In a paper published Oct. 7 in the journal Nature, t
A team of University of Florida researchers has created tiny hybrid particles that can speedily root out even one isolated E. coli bacterium lurking in ground beef or provide a crucial early warning alarm for bacteria used as agents of bioterrorism and for early disease diagnosis. The study will appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Our focus is the development of a bionanotechnology that combines the strengths of nanotechnology and biochemist
Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) type VII (also known as Sly syndrome) is a lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) characterized by a deficiency of the lysomal enzyme beta-glucuronidase. MPS VII leads to bone and joint abnormalities, enlargement of the visceral organs, cardiovascular disease and neurologic impairment. Using a MPS VII adult animal model, researchers in the Center for Gene Therapy at Columbus Children’s Research Institute (CCRI) on the campus of Columbus Children’s Hospital have demonstrat
Milestone in maize genomics
Rutgers researchers, with the support of the National Science Foundation, have pushed back the frontiers on the genetic nature and history one of the world’s most important crops – corn. This crop dominates agriculture in the United States, where approximately 9 billion bushels are produced annually at a value of $30 billion. Maize (or corn) is also an important dietary staple in much of the third world. Rutgers’ Joachim Messing and his colle
New technology makes visualization possible
Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have found a way to see proteins in cells that have been tagged by a molecular “sticky note” called ubiquitin. “This technology allows us to see, under a microscope, proteins modified by ubiquitin inside the cell,” says Tom K. Kerppola, Ph.D., an associate professor of biological chemistry in the Medical School and an HHMI associate investigator.
Research in monkeys found that low-dose estrogen therapy significantly reduced the progression of fatty buildup in the arteries leading to the heart, according to research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, reported today at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve shown that you can get the same reduction in coronary artery atherosclerosis with standard-dose or low-dose estrogen,” said Thomas B. Clarkson, D.V.M., o
A team led by Mayo Clinic researchers has determined that over-reactive immune responses to airborne fungi could cause the stuffy noses and airway inflammation among sufferers of chronic rhinosinusitis. These findings could one day lead to a new, longer-lasting treatment.
“It’s time to recognize there is a greater sensitivity to airborne fungi in some patients, and therefore we need to remove or reduce the fungal exposure,” says lead investigator Hirohito Kita, M.D.
Drug may help prevent learning, memory deficits caused by treatment for brain tumors
Patients who undergo radiation for treatment of brain tumors may survive their cancer only to have lasting memory and learning deficiencies, the impact of which can be particularly devastating for children. Now, researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have discovered that lithium, a drug commonly used to treat bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses, can protect the brain cells inv
Chemists at Emory University have made an important advance in harnessing the ability of bacteria to make new molecules, and their discovery could eventually lead to the creation of naturally decaffeinated coffee plants. The research, by Emory chemist Justin Gallivan and graduate student Shawn Desai, is scheduled to appear in the Oct. 27 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Bacteria are terrific chemists, but they normally synthesize only molecules they need
Conventional wisdom holds that cancer cells contain so many mutations that there’s no way to return them to the straight and narrow path of their normal neighbors. This has led to cancer treatments that focus on destroying or removing the cancerous cells.
But new research by Dean Felsher, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (oncology) and of pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, suggests that cancer cells can be reformed. His work, published in the Oc
Aston University in Birmingham, UK has just signed a long-term agreement with pharmaceutical manufacturing giant, Mayne Pharma Plc , to run the first dedicated medical manufacturing clean room in the region.
The room will be used to produce specialist cancer and other drugs and make them available across the Midlands. This will address the particular need in the region for aseptic facilities to support the preparation of pharmaceuticals with a short shelf life – particularly in
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