Red Blood Cells News and Research

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Findings may aid in bone marrow transplants, blood diseases

New research sheds light on the biological events by which stem cells in the bone marrow develop into the broad variety of cells that circulate in the blood. The findings may help improve the success of bone marrow transplants and develop better treatments for life-threatening blood diseases.

5 Aug 2008

A new target for malaria drugs

The malaria parasite has waged a successful guerrilla war against the human immune system for eons, but a study in this week's Journal of Biological Chemistry has exposed one of the tricks malaria uses to hide from the immune proteins, which may aid in future drug development.

4 Aug 2008

Commonly used diabetes monitoring test could identify millions of people with undiagnosed diabetes

A blood test currently used as the gold standard for monitoring people already under care for diabetes may have far wider use in identifying millions with undetected diabetes, a team led by a Johns Hopkins physician suggests.

31 Jul 2008

Ultra-miniature bialy-shaped drug delivery particles

Ultra-miniature bialy-shaped particles - called nanobialys because they resemble tiny versions of the flat, onion-topped rolls popular in New York City - could soon be carrying medicinal compounds through patients' bloodstreams to tumors or atherosclerotic plaques.

29 Jul 2008

New technique measures formation of clumps of proteins in protein-based pharmaceuticals

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a technique to measure the formation of clumps of proteins in protein-based pharmaceuticals.

23 Jul 2008

Genetic mechanisms at play in blood cells important in Parkinson’s disease

What does the genetics of blood cells have to do with brain cells related to Parkinson's disease? From an unusual collaboration of neurologists and a pharmacologist comes the surprising answer: Genetic mechanisms at play in blood cells also control a gene and protein that cause Parkinson's disease.

21 Jul 2008

Gene variant increases HIV risk in Africans

A genetic variation which evolved to protect people of African descent against malaria has now been shown to increase their susceptibility to HIV infection by up to 40 per cent, according to new research. Conversely, the same variation also appears to prolong survival of those infected with HIV by approximately two years.

17 Jul 2008

New understanding of fetal hemoglobin regulation in patients with sickle cell disease

Although sickle cell disease is a single-gene disorder, its symptoms are highly variable. In a study published online July 14 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Children's Hospital Boston and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), in collaboration with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, report five gene variants that could potentially be helpful in predicting sickle cell disease severity, perhaps even leading to better treatment approaches in the future.

15 Jul 2008

Scientists reveal key elements in Malaria parasite's "sticky sack" adhesion strategy

Malaria is one of the most devastating diseases afflicting humanity. It infects and debilitates about 600 million people and kills up to three million people every year, mainly in the wet tropical regions of the world. Children and pregnant women are at particularly high risk.

13 Jul 2008

Heat waves when in hospital

Deaths due to high temperatures occur so quickly that patients do not have time to be admitted to hospital. This is why prevention campaigns are necessary to try and reduce the negative effects of the heat on health. This is pointed out in new research undertaken at the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon, Madrid.

10 Jul 2008

Scientists reveal potential new target for anti-malarial drugs

Scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust have identified a key mechanism that enables malaria-infected red blood cells to stick to the walls of blood vessels and avoid being destroyed by the body's immune system. The research, published today in the journal Cell, highlights an important potential new target for anti-malarial drugs.

10 Jul 2008

Nanocantilevers image nanoparticles in cells

Borrowing from a Nobel Prize-winning technique credited with starting the nanotechnology revolution, a team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Northwestern University's Nanomaterials for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics has developed a method for imaging nanoparticles inside of cells.

9 Jul 2008

New understanding of how malaria parasite survives in and totally changes red blood cells

A new study-done on a scale an order of magnitude greater than anything previously attempted in the field of malaria-has uncovered an arsenal of proteins produced by the malaria parasite that allows it to hijack and remodel human red blood cells, leaving the oxygen-carrying cells stiff and sticky.

8 Jul 2008

Neuroscientists pinpoint how neural activity boosts blood flow to the brain

New research from Harvard University neuroscientists has pinpointed exactly how neural activity boosts blood flow to the brain. The finding has important implications for our understanding of common brain imaging techniques such as fMRI, which uses blood flow in the brain as a proxy for neural activity.

26 Jun 2008

Hydroxyurea treatment for sickle cell underused by doctors

Uncertainties about proper use and possible long-term effects of hydroxyurea in the treatment of sickle cell anemia may be wrongly influencing doctors to avoid prescribing it to those in serious need, according to results of a literature review by specialists at Johns Hopkins.

17 Jun 2008

Researchers block the transmission of malaria in animal tests

By disrupting the potassium channel of the malaria parasite, a team of researchers has been able to prevent the malaria parasites from forming in mosquitoes and has thereby broken the cycle of infection during recent animal tests.

10 Jun 2008

Avoiding spleen removal for Cooley's anemia sufferers

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College may have discovered the precise role of a gene in one of the world's most common blood disorders, beta-thalassemia, commonly known as Cooley's anemia. Along with sickle-cell anemia, Cooley's anemia is the most commonly inherited disease in the world, affecting many people of Mediterranean descent, and 20 out of every 100,000 African-Americans. The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000-100,000 children are born with the disease each year.

27 May 2008

High resolution confocal endomicroscopy probe system tells whether colon polyp is benign without removal

A probe so sensitive that it can tell whether or not a cell living within the human body is veering towards cancer development may revolutionize how future colonoscopies are done, say researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.

21 May 2008

Trends of vitamin B6 status in US population sample identified in study

In an epidemiological study, Tufts University researchers identified trends of vitamin B6 status in a sample of the United States population based on measures of plasma pyridoxal 5'- phosphate (PLP) levels in the bloodstream. Plasma PLP is the indicator used by the federal government to set the current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin B6, a nutrient essential for red blood cell function and important for maintaining a healthy immune system and blood glucose levels.

20 May 2008

Erythropoietin gene linked to severe diabetic eye, kidney diseases

Researchers at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah and collaborative institutions have identified a gene called erythropoietin (EPO) that contributes to increased risk of severe diabetic eye and kidney diseases, called retinopathy and nephropathy.

6 May 2008