An ERK-dependent molecular switch antagonizes fibrosis and promotes regeneration. Injury response after a deep skin wound, myocardial infarction, stroke, spinal cord injury or lung infection mostly yields fibrotic tissue, resulting in permanent scars and organ function failure. It is estimated that around 50% of people die from a disease that involves scarring. Currently, there are no treatments for restoring loss of organ function due to an injury or a pathological condition. Understanding the molecular mechanisms driving fibrosis and regeneration in…
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer. It’s also one of the deadliest. More than 90% of PDAC patients die within five years of diagnosis. Usually, by the time the cancer is identified, it has already spread. “PDAC is often found too late for treatments like chemotherapy and surgery to be very effective,” Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Adrian Krainer says. “But if we can clearly understand the underlying genetic mechanisms of PDAC, this might lead…
Typically T cells of the immune system respond to a specific feature (antigen) of a microbe, thereby generating protective immunity. As reported in the journal Immunity, an international team of scientists have discovered an exception to this rule. Namely, a group of divergent bacterial pathogens, including pneumococci, all share a small highly conserved protein sequence, which is both presented and recognized by human T cells in a conserved population-wide manner. The study set out to understand immune mechanisms that protect…
Graz University of Technology Researchers Produce Pseudouridine through Biocatalytic Synthesis, The new and patented method for the production of the important mRNA vaccine component pseudouridine is more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective than the previously used chemical synthesis. Researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering at TU Graz and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) have developed a novel method for the production of central components of mRNA vaccines and applied for a patent. In an article published…
How gene interactions shape the evolution of cell-to-cell variation. Biological cells, whether free-living or part of a multicellular organism, have to perform hundreds of functions to survive, such as perceiving their environment, uptaking and metabolising nutrients, regenerating decayed parts, reproducing themselves, and many more. The information on how to perform these functions is carried by genes and practically realised through a process called “gene expression”, through which gene products are made. Gene products work together in what is often represented…
– the role of long-chain fatty acids in cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is a complex and highly regulated process that allows cells to draw energy from nutrition. An international team of scientists in Finland, Germany and Poland have investigated the important role of long-chain fatty acids in guiding this process. The findings, published in the Nature Communications journal, will shed light on the understanding of mitochondrial function that involve disruptions in cellular energy metabolism. They are tiny and highly efficient…
… in metabolic stress. Salk scientists find protein FNIP1 links cellular powerhouse damage to repair during metabolic stress, with broad disease implications spanning from diabetes to cancer to neurodegeneration. Scientists often act as detectives, piecing together clues that alone may seem meaningless but together crack the case. Professor Reuben Shaw has spent nearly two decades piecing together such clues to understand the cellular response to metabolic stress, which occurs when cellular energy levels dip. Whether energy levels fall because the…
Pre-clinical study suggests that blocking a molecule while boosting a cell may reduce tumor growth in patients. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated in a preclinical study a potential new therapeutic approach to treating the most common form of lung cancer. The strategy involves inhibiting the immune-system molecule TREM2 while enhancing natural killer cells (the so-called protectors of the immune system). It was described in the April 20 online issue of Nature Immunology [DOI:…
… could lead to new medical interventions. What if amyloid beta plaques aren’t the main cause of Alzheimer’s disease? There is a growing body of evidence that iron in the brain may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. Lending weight to that idea, a new imaging probe has for the first time shown that in the same regions of the brain where the amyloid beta plaques associated with Alzheimer’s occur, there is also an increase in iron redox, meaning the…
Single-celled algae and marine bacteria live in a complex but largely unexplored relationship. Now, a new study shows that the surface of diatoms is a surprisingly diverse habitat for bacteria. A team from the University of Oldenburg was able to demonstrate for the first time that the surface displays distinct microscale biochemical variations. The colonisation by different bacterial species is finely tuned to this structure. Since diatoms bind large amounts of carbon and form the basis of marine food webs,…
Brain releases hormone after short fasting that boosts autophagy. Fasting triggers autophagy in our body. The body switches on the waste disposal system in the cells and gains new energy. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne have now shown in mice that the brain plays a decisive role in this process. Even after a short period of fasting, the brain triggers the release of the hormone corticosterone and thus initiates autophagy in the liver. Until…
The findings may provide new insights into circuit abnormalities in autism. Using a new approach for studying live embryonic mouse brains at single-cell resolution, researchers have identified an active multi-layer circuit that forms in the cortex during an unexpectedly early stage of development. Perturbing the circuit genetically led to changes similar to those seen in the brains of people with autism. The findings are reported today in Cell by a team based at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology…
… tech adaptable for other emerging diseases. The first rapid test for mpox, more commonly known as monkeypox, has been developed by a team of researchers led by Penn State. The selective molecular sensor can detect the virus within minutes, without the use of any high-end instrumental techniques like polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Current tests require health care providers to swab lesions and send the samples to labs to be tested, which can take several days. The technique, which was…
Electron microscopy: Nano-reporter proteins make invisible processes visible. How do the nerve cells in our brain communicate with each other? What processes take place when T cells render cancer cells harmless? Details of the mechanisms at the cellular level remain hidden from view. Now, special reporter proteins developed by a research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) may help unveil these mechanisms. Peering through an electron microscope provides scientists the deepest view into cellular structures – the…
Insights from mouse model could lead to better vaccines. Salmonella infections cause about a million deaths a year worldwide, and there is an urgent need for better vaccines for both typhoid fever and non-typhoidal Salmonella disease. New work from researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine shows how memory T cells, crucial for a vaccine that induces a powerful immune response, can be recruited into the liver in a mouse model of Salmonella. The work was published April…
Chemists from Chemnitz prepared long searched Chemical Compound for the First Time. High-profile publication in the journal Nature Chemistry: Prof. Dr. Johannes Teichert and his team from Chemnitz University of Technology successfully show the existence of the neutral homoaromatic compound. In a recent issue of the renowned and highly cited international journal Nature Chemistry, Prof. Dr. Johannes Teichert, head of the Professorship of Organic Chemistry at Chemnitz University of Technology, his research assistant Trung Tran Ngoc, and other contributors report…
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