Varied gene signatures in multiple myeloma cells predict different outcomes, provide treatment targets

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.

A new computational tool based on an algorithm designed to recognize human faces plucked the fou

A bacterium that lives in rivers, streams and human aqueducts uses nature’s strongest glue to stay in one place, according to new research by Indiana University Bloomington and Brown University scientists reported in next week’s (April 11) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists found they had to apply a force of about 1 micronewton to remove a single Caulobacter crescentus from a glass pipette. Because C. crescentus is so small, the pulling f

First scientific analysis of Chinese outbreak of S.suis, spread from pigs to humans

Last year, there was major press coverage of an alarmingly large and deadly outbreak of Streptococcus suis disease in Sichuan province in China (see http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_08_03/en/).

Now George Gao, Yu Wang, Jiaqi Tang, Xiaoning Wang and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other Chinese institutions publish

New findings shed light on cancer behavior

Scientists have made significant progress toward elucidating key genetic events associated with the development and progression of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable malignancy that is the second most common cancer of the blood. The results, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, provide new genetic and biological insights that open innovative directions for the discovery of effective therapeutics that can be targeted to specific

Mayo Clinic researchers are sounding an alert about side effects of shock wave lithotripsy: in a research study, they found this common treatment for kidney stones to significantly increase the risk for diabetes and hypertension later in life. Risk for diabetes was related to the intensity of the treatment and quantity of the shock waves administered; hypertension was related to treatment of stones in both kidneys.

Shock wave lithotripsy uses shock waves to break up an impassable kidne

The same signal responsible for promoting the type of immune responses that cause asthma and allergy can also limit the type of inflammation associated with debilitating diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and multiple sclerosis, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The researchers discovered how IL-25, a signaling protein known as a cytokine, both prevents destructive inflammation and promotes immune responses associated with

Older men who drink as few as two drinks twice a week and also have diseases that could be worsened by alcohol or cause problems with medications taken while drinking alcohol have higher death rates, as compared to men who either drink less or may drink more but don’t have such comorbidities.

Examining data from a 1971–74 health survey and a follow-up survey in 1992, the researchers found that older men who drank moderately or heavily and had accompanying comorbiditi

Hot fudge sundaes and french fries aside, new research suggests obesity is due at least in part to an attraction between leptin, the hormone that signals the brain when to stop eating, and a protein more recently associated with heart disease. Reporting in Nature Medicine, University of Pittsburgh researchers provide evidence that C-reactive protein (CRP) not only binds to leptin but its hold impairs leptin’s role in controlling appetite. The results may help explain why obese people have so m

Researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, report today their initial success using a customized optical device that allows dentists to visualize in a completely new way whether a patient might have a developing oral cancer.

Called a Visually Enhanced Lesion Scope (VELScope), this simple, hand-held device emits a cone of blue light into the mouth that excites various molecules within our cells

MIT chemical engineers have devised an elegant new method for creating complex polymeric microparticles that could have applications in a variety of fields, from drug delivery in medicine to the creation of building blocks for the photonic materials that carry light. The particles can also add texture to skin creams and color to inks.

The new synthesis method gives researchers an extraordinary degree of control over the shape and chemical properties of the microparticles, which range in

Each year, over 300,000 people die of African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the Free University of Brussels are making strides in the battle against this disease. They have coupled the human protein ApoL-1 with a nanobody in order to very specifically eliminate the infection caused by the pathogenic parasites, against which our defense mechanism is powerless. Tests on mice are already promising. The r

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have added a gene in the bacterium Salmonella to the short list of genes regulated by a new mechanism known as the riboswitch.

The Salmonella riboswitch is the first to sense and respond to a metal ion, substantially expanding the types of molecules that riboswitches can detect to help cells assess and react to their environment.

First identified in 2002, riboswitches sense when a protein is needed an

Researchers at the Institute of Biotechnology of the University of Helsinki have for the first time identified an internal electron transfer reaction that initiates the proton pump mechanism of the respiratory enzyme. These new results are published in the Thursday (April 6th) issue of Nature.

The functions of the lungs, the blood circulation, and the red blood cells in respiration are only an overture to the physicochemical reaction in the cells where oxygen is reduced to w

Biochemists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have made a surprising discovery about the inner workings of a powerful virus – a discovery that they hope could one day lead to better vaccines or anti-virus medications.

Reporting in the April issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers have identified a protein that plays an important role in the ability of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) to invade healthy cells and reproduce itself. The finding could play a

Dr. David Bentley (University of Colorado School of Medicine) and colleagues have developed a new, unified model for transcription termination by RNA Poymerase II. Over the years, research into the mechanism of poly(A) site-dependent transcription termination has generated two different models: the allosteric and the torpedo models.

The allosteric, or antiterminator, model proposes that transcription of the poly(A) site triggers conformational changes that destabilize the elongating RN

New discovery could help improve some forms of chemotherapy

The study is being published in an advance online version of the journal Molecular Cell.
The research looked at XPB helicase from an archaea, a single cell organism similar to bacteria. Helicases are enzymes that unwind or separate the strands of the nucleic acid double helix, an action that is critical to transcription and nucleotide excision repair (NER), as well as other cell processes.

“XPB was initial