A study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests two proteins work together in mice to prevent formation of brain plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

The proteins, apolipoprotein E (apoE) and clusterin, appear to act as “chaperones” orchestrating the clearance of potentially hazardous molecules out of the brain. Ironically, these proteins also have been implicated in a key stage of plaque formation. The study appears in the Jan. 22

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today a plan to expand collaboration between national tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS programmes to curb the growing pandemic of TB/HIV co-infection, with a principal focus on Africa where 70% of the world’s 14 million people who are co-infected live.

The new policy guidelines define activities necessary to address the dual epidemic of TB and HIV and gives clear guidance for countries on the circumstances under which these effective activities nee

Three brain areas of panic disorder patients are lacking in a key component of a chemical messenger system that regulates emotion, researchers at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. Brain scans revealed that a type of serotonin receptor is reduced by nearly a third in three structures straddling the center of the brain. The finding is the first in living humans to show that the receptor, which is pivotal to the action of widely prescribed anti-anxiety medication

Although vaccines developed to help the immune system fight tumors appear to have an impact against early-stage tumors, they have little if any success in slowing the growth of tumors in later stages. Now researchers writing in the Feb. 1, 2004 issue of The Journal of Immunology identify abnormalities in the immune system’s T cells, provide insight into their origin, and describe how these defects can be prevented and “repaired” in animal experiments.

“Conventional thinking and previous s

Simple sugars apparently are the biological signals needed to maintain the steel-like strength of plant cell walls, according to Purdue University scientists.

“This is a really fundamental discovery in the mechanics of plant growth that eventually could have several practical applications,” said Nick Carpita, a botany and plant pathology professor. “These could include controlling crop plant size and shape, improving desirable textural properties of fruits and vegetables, and enhancin

MBL researchers provide strong evidence that an ancient microbe thrives and evolves without sex

Biologists at the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have confirmed that a group of microscopic animals has evolved for tens of millions of years without sexual reproduction. Their results demonstrate a radical exception to the biological rule that abandonment of sexual reproduction is an evolutionary dead end.

Our cells are resourceful when it comes to copying DNA, even when the DNA is damaged

Billions of cells divide every day in our bodies to replace those that wear out. To be able to do so, their DNA must be copied. A new Weizmann Institute study shows that the molecules in charge of the task of copying DNA — called DNA polymerases — are able to improvise in order to achieve this crucially important goal. This new insight into DNA replication and repair could assist in the diagnosis an

Weizmann Institute scientists reveal key part of nerve regeneration mechanism

A new study conducted by Weizmann Institute scientists has now uncovered a key process leading to the regeneration of peripheral nerves. Nerves in the peripheral nervous system (any part of the body aside from the brain and spinal cord) are capable of regenerating, though often they do so poorly or slowly. Scientists have been trying to understand how they regenerate in order to better treat damage to the pe

Yeast used as surrogate model

New biochemical studies may hold clues to more powerful malaria and pneumonia treatments that could save more than 2 million lives worldwide. Using baker’s yeast as a surrogate disease model, researchers led by Dartmouth Medical School are exploring why enzymes in organisms that cause pneumonia and malaria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. This work could provide the answer to testing a new generation of drugs to combat these preval

Fat cells, commonly blamed for a number of diseases, also may aid in the body’s defense against illnesses such as diabetes and cancer, according to Purdue University researchers.

Rather than contributing to disease, fat cells, or adipocytes (pronounced ah-dip-poe-sights), normally function as part of the immune system and help control lipid accumulation, so they actually may benefit human health, said Michael Spurlock, animal sciences professor.

“Adipocytes can be funct

The omission of radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery for early-stage breast cancer is associated with higher rates of relapse and a slightly higher mortality rate, according to a study in the January 21 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Many studies have shown that women with early-stage breast cancer who have breast-conserving surgery followed by radiotherapy have similar survival rates as women who have a mastectomy, and those women are also spared the disfigu

Scientists at the Babraham Institute have discovered that a tiny change in a protein involved in cell survival is responsible for abnormal cell activity in the early stages of cancer.

The protein, known as Bcl-xL, normally protects cells from dying; and when the DNA in cells becomes damaged, Bcl-xL is modified so that it no longer keeps the cells alive. Hence, the cells with damaged DNA usually die, so preventing them from becoming cancer cells.

However, in the presence of a parti

The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF), a Saratoga, Calif.-based non-profit research foundation, today announced the formation of a consortium of five of the world’s leading scientists in myelin research. By providing the funding, as well as the business and technology infrastructure to support the collaboration, the Myelin Repair Foundation expects to accelerate the research process and deliver targets for palliative treatments for people living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in five years.

Dr. B

Conventional wisdom says that people deficient in one sense–such as vision or hearing–often acquire heightened acuity in another. These adjustments, of course, take place over the lifetime of an individual. Now it appears, however, that similar adjustments may occur over evolutionary time. Yoav Gilad and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthology in Germany and the Weizmann Institute in Israel have found a correlation between the loss of olfactory receptor (OR) genes, whi

How does the nervous system code, transmit, and process the information that steers our behaviour? Ronald S. Johansson’s research team at Umeå University in Sweden is now publishing its discovery of a new principle for this.

The prevailing view is that information is coded and transmitted by variations in the number of nerve impulses per time unit in the fibres of the nerve cells, that is, as a frequency code.

Johansson’s research team at the Section for Physiology present in the jo

A new anti-inflammatory compound called Lisofylline prevents diabetes from coming back after insulin-manufacturing islet cells are transplanted into diabetic mice, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia Health System. The study is published in the January 20 issue of the journal Transplantation.

Pancreatic islet cell transplantation has become a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes in humans in recent years. But without several powerful immunosuppressive dr