A Single Protein Controls Aging Signals More Effectively Than In A Team. Scientists have found that the protein CHIP can control life-prolonging signals in the cell better alone than in pairs / Publication in ‘Molecular Cell’. A new study shows that the protein CHIP can regulate the insulin receptor more efficiently alone than in a paired state. In cellular stress situations, CHIP usually appears as a homodimer – an association of two identical proteins – and primarily serves to degrade…

A team of researchers from Helmholtz Munich, the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and Novo Nordisk have developed a new hormone combination for the future treatment of type 2 diabetes. The scientists have combined the blood sugar-reducing effects of the drugs tesaglitazar and GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1) in a new and highly effective drug. The advantage is that, by combining Tesaglitazar with GLP-1, the Tesaglitazar only enters tissue that contains GLP-1 receptors. This reduces the adverse effects of tesaglitazar while…

– new participating cells and supportive drug identified. Regeneration in the CNS is a rare event and strongly limited to the replacement of so-called oligodendroglial cells and their electrically insulating elements of the axons, called myelin sheaths. This is also true for multiple sclerosis (MS). The team of Prof. Patrick Küry, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, describes in Lancet EBioMedicine that the corticosteroid Medrysone is highly effective in promoting the replacement of lost oligodendroglial cells and also the restoration…

Researchers capture the release of dopamine across the entire neuron with unparalleled spatial resolution using new technology developed at Janelia. Astronomers build new telescopes and peer at the night sky to see what they might find. Janelia Group Leader Abraham Beyene takes a similar approach when looking at the cells that make up the human brain. Beyene and his team design and synthesize new types of highly sensitive biosensors they use to peer at neurons to see what they can…

Wax flowers and numerous plant genera related to them evolved about 33 million years ago. Shortly thereafter, they split into three independent evolutionary lineages, according to a new international study led by Bayreuth plant systematist Prof. Dr. Sigrid Liede-Schumann. A total of 37 genera and 740 species emerged, distributed over the tropics and subtropics worldwide. Only the combination of well-established morphological studies with the latest molecular genetic analysis methods ensures a correct taxonomic description and classification. The research results have…

Many tumor cells mist themselves with a protective perfume that disables the immune system. But a drug already approved for other purposes can apparently render this weapon harmless. This is shown in a study by the University of Bonn and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, which has now appeared in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. The researchers now want to further optimize the compound. In the medium term, this could pave the way for new anti-cancer drugs. Many cancer…

During development, lack of sensory experience elicits powerful plasticity mechanisms that alter brain circuitry. Many inhibitory neuron subtypes are known to influence circuit dynamics, however, how they interact with plasticity is not yet fully understood. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt have investigated how synaptic plasticity in rodents, who were deprived of vision in one eye, affects network activity in a circuit model of the sensory cortex. Their findings point to the role of different…

A team headed by Prof. Jörg Kudla at Münster University has discovered that salt stress triggers calcium signals in a special group of cells in plant roots, which form a “sodium-sensing niche”. Also, the researchers identified a calcium sensor switch mechanism as for tolerance to elevated salt stress in which a particular calcium-binding protein (CBL8) specifically conveys salt tolerance under severe salt stress conditions. The results of the study have now been published in the journal “Developmental Cell”. Unfavourable environmental…

New research shows greater separation of molecules in smaller-sized artificial cells. New research shows that cell size and membranes may play a key role in regulating the distribution of molecules inside cells. This discovery offers a new unconventional method for manipulating artificial cells via their size and interfacial properties, or their boundaries, instead of through molecular modification of their chemical structure. This could aid multiple industries, from cosmetics to pharmaceuticals, which want to avoid unexpected changes to the properties of…

Researchers identify a new class of drugs that offer a safer, more targeted treatment for leukemia patients. Chemotherapy sucks. The treatments generally have awful side effects, and it’s no secret that the drugs involved are often toxic to the patient as well as their cancer. The idea is that, since cancers grow so quickly, chemotherapy will kill off the disease before its side effects kill the patient. That’s why scientists and doctors are constantly searching for more effective therapies. A…

Lessons learned from the public health responses to the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics should help guide the response to the current outbreak of monkeypox, National Institutes of Health experts write in an editorial published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and H. Clifford Lane, M.D., NIAID deputy director for clinical research and special projects, discuss a published case series (JP Thornhill et al.)…

Isoprene is used as a precursor to produce terpenes and terpenoids. However, the direct catalytic conversion of isoprene to terpenoids is challenging. Recently, a research team led by Prof. CHEN Qing’an from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) realized nickel-catalysed asymmertric heteroarylative cyclotelomerization of isoprene to access a series of unnatural chiral monoterpenoids bearing quaternary carbon stereocenter. This study was published in Nature Catalysis on August 18. Terpenoids exist in almost all living organisms and function…

Two new approaches could help scientists use existing sequencing technology to better-distinguish RNA changes that affect how their genetic code is read. Kyoto University scientists are getting closer to finding ways to identify changes to RNA sequences that impact protein formation and can cause diseases. Their approach, published in the journal Genomics, utilizes probability algorithms together with an already-available, high-throughput sequencing technology. “Modifications that are found in all types of biological RNA influence gene regulation, which ultimately decides how different…

Could aid efforts to find treatments for Alzheimer’s, other diseases. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a new druggable pathway that potentially could be used to help prevent Alzheimer’s dementia. Amyloid beta accumulation in the brain is the first step in the development of Alzheimer’s dementia. Scientists have poured countless hours and millions of dollars into finding ways to clear amyloid away before cognitive symptoms arise, with largely disappointing results. In this study, published…

Nearly all vital functions in the human body are regulated by so-called G protein-coupled receptors on the cell surface. These receptors thus serve as attractive drug targets to treat various diseases. Researchers led by Prof. Stephan Grzesiek from the Biozentrum, University of Basel, have now discovered that empty spaces inside these receptors are important for their activation and thus for relaying messages to the inner cell. Their approach to locate these voids may help to direct the search for novel…

Our own immune system can become the enemy when mechanisms that are actually protective get out of control. In ANCA-associated vasculitis, excessive inflammatory reactions lead to pulmonary hemorrhages that can be fatal if left untreated. Researchers at the University of Bonn, together with colleagues from Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England, have deciphered a mechanism in mice and patients that leads to the severe disease. The results are now published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. In ANCA-associated vasculitis, there…