University of Iowa researchers have shown for the first time that gene therapy delivered to the brains of living mice can prevent the physical symptoms and neurological damage caused by an inherited neurodegenerative disease that is similar to Huntington’s disease (HD).
If the therapeutic approach can be extended to humans, it may provide a treatment for a group of incurable, progressive neurological diseases called polyglutamine-repeat diseases, which include HD and several spinocerebe
About half of the 700,000 annual cases of suspected appendicitis in the United States lack the usual symptoms – pain in the lower right abdomen, fever and a rising white blood cell count – making the decision to operate somewhat problematic. Now, thanks to a new imaging agent based on technology developed by nuclear medicine researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, doctors may finally have a way to rapidly and accurately detect those hard-to-diagnose cases.
The U.S. Food
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly identifying the functions of genes.
The “high throughput” technique can be used in both cell culture and in animal models to screen thousands of genes for a particular biological function. It provides a method for the rapid development of a cDNA library, which would contain protein-encoding sequences of DNA. Researchers then can use the library to analyze a specific gene function.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have determined that a particular type of cellular stress called osmotic stress is of critical importance to cell growth and the body’s immune response against infection. The findings may have implications for autoimmune disorders, transplant rejections, and potential cancer therapies.
Published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of July 5, 2004, the res
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a gene responsible for the onset of aging, including age-related disorders such as infertility, reproductive problems and cataracts. This research, conducted in genetically modified mice, is promising in helping physicians understand and treat the same disorders in humans. The findings appear in the July issue of the journal Nature Genetics. [Baker, D.J. et al. (2004). Nat. Genet. 36, 744-749.
The discoveries came as the result of general investigati
Taken to its ultimate outcome, the research that biology professor Dr. Steve Howard is working on could help disarm deadly retroviruses such as HIV or SARS.
Howard, associate professor of biology at Middle Tennessee State University, would be the first to advise against making that kind of quantum-leap claim. It’s much too early. But assuming that the research that led to the polio vaccine first crawled, then walked, then charted a new course for civilization itself, Howard’s disco
Treatment with a new dual cell cycle and angiogenesis pathway inhibitor blocks VEGF-induced vascular permeability, inhibits tumour angiogenesis and induces apoptosis in human tumour models said Dr Gerhard Siemeister of Schering AG, Corporate Research, Berlin speaking at the 18th meeting of the European Association of Cancer Research today (Tuesday 6 July, 2004).
Loss of cell cycle control (runaway growth) and tumour-induced angiogenesis (development of new blood vessels to supply the growin
A successful, and novel, technique to kill metastatic breast cancer cells by circumventing their chemo- and radioresistant mechanisms was by presented by Dr John Giannios, Head of Radiotherapeutic Cancer Research at the IASO Hospital, Athens, Greece at the 18th Meeting of the European Association for Cancer Research today (Tuesday 6 July 2004).
Advanced breast cancer, with metastases to lung and bone, has a very poor prognosis and current treatment protocols for this stage of disease gener
Cancer incidence rates in the developed world are increasing each year and developing countries are also now showing an increased incidence of the disease. But how much were our ancestors affected by the disease? Dr Mario Slaus of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb presented archaeological findings at the 18th Meeting of the European Association of Cancer Research (EACR-18) in Innsbruck today (6 July 2004), suggesting that the disease was very uncommon even in our recent ancestors, r
Many long-established skin products, such as shampoos and soaps, contain harmful or ineffective ingredients because effective testing methods were unavailable when they were developed.
The first ever model of live skin with a full ecosystem of micro-organisms – created at the University of Leeds – has the potential to help develop dozens of new products and change the ingredients of many household names.
Skin Research Centre director Dr Richard Bojar said the new tests would unloc
Piercing the layer of smog enshrouding Titan, these images from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reveal an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials in the southern hemisphere.
Using near-infrared light, these images taken by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer reveal the surface with unusual clarity. This colour image shows a false-colour combination of three previous images taken with different colour filters.
The yellow areas correspond to the hydro
Robert Hoffmann and Alfonso Valencia of the Spanish National Centre of Biotechnology (CNB/CSIC) in Madrid have developed a new web-based tool called iHOP (Information Hyperlinked over Proteins) to help researchers explore scientific literature and integrate information in a more controlled and targeted manner.
Reporting in the Nature Genetics journal (Nature Genetics 36, 664, 01 Jul 2004), the two scientists describe how iHOP, which was developed as part of the EU-funded ORIEL and TEMBLOR
A complete characterization of monoclonal antibodies also includes the determination of epitope specificity for a given set of monoclonal antibodies. Epitope mapping is a powerful tool in analysing the surface topography of an antigen. The binding of an antibody to the antigen defines a specific binding site or epitope which sterically interferes with the binding of another antibody which has the same or a closely located binding site. The specificity of pairs of antibodies can easily be determined
A protein responsible for regulating acid levels within cells – and pumping out acid accumulated in cardiac cells after a heart attack – activates in direct response to changes in a cell’s volume, according to a new study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Their findings show that the protein NHE1, which is found in the membranes of nearly all cells and is especially active in cancer cells, is regulated by the stretch and pull of the membrane as a cell changes volum
A new study by scientists at the University of Southampton suggests that MRSA contamination can be reduced by using copper alloys for surfaces in healthcare facilities.
Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a virulent organism, essentially resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics (for example: penicillins, ampicillins, cephalosporins). It can cause skin, bone and life-threatening blood infections, as well as pneumonia.
In a study co-funded by the International Copp
A new protocol for bone marrow transplants, which does not require the destruction of the recipient’s immune system before transfer of the new bone marrow, is described by a group of Oxford scientists in the 6th of July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Furthermore, Luis Graça, Alain Le Moine, Herman Waldmann and colleagues from the University of Oxford, UK also found that following bone marrow transplant it is possible to succes
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