PUMA travels from the nucleus to the cytoplasm to free p53 from the grip of Bcl-xL, allowing p53 to trigger signaling on mitochondria that leads to cell death, according to St. Jude

The discovery of how the activities of the protein p53 initiate signals that trigger cell suicide offers critical insights for developing new anti-cancer drugs, according to investigators from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A report on this work appears in the September 9 issue of Science.

Analysis of a key protein in different subtypes of avian flu viruses shows that resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine in H5N1 occurs worldwide, but is especially prevalent in China, according to St. Jude

Resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine is spreading more rapidly among avian influenza viruses of H5N1 subtype in Southeast Asia than in North America, according to the study done by investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The St. Jude tea

The tissue-specific elongation factor eEF1A2 might be an oncoprotein involved in breast cancer. Research published in the open access journal BMC Cancer shows that eEF1A2, which is usually present only in muscle cells and neurons, is abnormally expressed in two thirds of breast tumours. This means it could be used as a new diagnostic marker and, once its role as been identified, as a therapeutic target for the treatment of breast tumours.

Catherine Abbott, Victoria Tomlinson and colleagu

Unexpected findings may lead to new research directions in developmental biology

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, who specialize in studying the genetics of rare eye-movement disorders, have found a rare genetic syndrome whose implications go far beyond the eye, raising intriguing questions about human cardiovascular and brain development.

The syndrome involves a mutation to HOXA1, a gene that has been extensively studied in mice, but about which little is kn

New approach could help fight HIV, herpes, flu and antibiotic-resistant bacteria

FINDINGS: First identified more than 20 years ago at UCLA, defensins are peptides naturally produced by the immune system to ward off viruses. However, it was unclear how defensins worked. Now UCLA and NIH scientists have discovered that a specific defensin called retrocyclin-2 (RC2) binds to carbohydrate-containing proteins in cell membranes. This mechanism erects molecular barricades that

Scientists in Italy have found that a drug that blocks acid buildup inside cells revs up the immune response to vaccines. Reporting in the September 19 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vincenzo Barnaba and his team at the University of Rome show that people receiving booster shots against hepatitis B virus developed more robust immune responses if given a widely used anti-malaria drug called chloroquine.

Many vaccines are made up of soluble proteins derived from dangerous v

Research could lead to future treatment advancements for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases

A major finding by researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) has identified a previously unknown cellular mechanism that acts as an off switch for immune system function. The discovery could lead to the future development of new treatments for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease.

According to professor Thomas Kirkwood of the University of Newcastle, there is no single gene for ageing. Throughout time, Humans have used energy to get food, produce offspring and survive danger – not to repair and maintain cells. So the maintenance system in the body slowly breaks down.

This topic was of great interest at the seminar for ageing at the conference “Functional genomics and disease” taking place in Oslo, Norway. Thomas Kirkwood is the director of the internationa

Here’s a test. Take a crayfish, offer it two meals – one the native plants that it eats everyday, the other a gourmet meal of a similar, but exotic species of plant. Conventional biological wisdom predicts it will stick with the tried and true. But new research at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that plant eaters may be more adventurous than previously thought and prefer to nosh on exotic meals by a ratio of three to one. The findings, which appear in the September issue of Ecol

Metabolic syndrome is a combination of several individual metabolic problems that lead to high risk of atherosclerosis and heart problems. The disease has become a serious global problem in the last two decades with as much as 47 millions of cases in US and 25 million in Europe, and further understanding of its origin and mechanism is urgent. To that aim, in an article just published online in the International Journal of Obesity, a group of Portuguese scientists reports that patients suffering

New research challenges current public debate about teenage obesity on the grounds that it is too simplistic.

The research, which is due to be published in the journal of Social Science & Medicine, claims that BMI definitions of ‘normal’ weight, overweight and obesity do not take the complexity of feelings that teenagers have about their bodies into account.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh and an academic now at the University of

Since 1927, obesity has been thought to be a risk factor for fatal pulmonary embolism (PE). Because of the high proportion of obesity in the general population, previous studies have not determined whether obesity is an independent risk factor for PE or deep venous thrombosis (DVT). In an extensive study published in the September issue of The American Journal of Medicine, researchers from St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital, Pontiac, Michigan; Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; and Oakland

Mayo Clinic study details treatment for bile duct cancer patients

A new treatment for patients with a type of bile duct cancer promises a greater chance at survival by combining radiation, chemotherapy and liver transplantation, Mayo Clinic physicians report in the September issue of the Annals of Surgery.

The five-year survival rate for patients who received a liver transplant after radiation and chemotherapy was 82 percent, significantly higher than for those who ha

Accurate stent positioning does not require use of high-tech device

Once a coronary stent becomes blocked with scar tissue, the likelihood it will become blocked again is 30 percent to 80 percent. Inserting a second coronary stent that slowly releases anti-scarring medication can markedly cut that risk, according to a study in the just-published October 2005 issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions: Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interv

Bleeding stops in just 37 seconds

A metal clip that closes an arterial puncture by drawing the wound edges together like a drawstring stitch is proving an easy and effective way to speed patient recovery after coronary interventions, according to a study in the just-published October 2005 issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions: Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

The study–the first published report in humans–t

Methoxychlor (MXC), a common insect pesticide used on food crops, may interfere with proper development and function of the reproductive tract, leading to reduced fertility in women, researchers at Yale School of Medicine write in the August issue of Endocrinology.

The researchers found that MXC, which was manufactured as a safer replacement for the now-banned DDT, alters the estrogen-regulated gene Hoxa10 in the reproductive tract and reduces the ability of the uterus to supp