G Protein News and Research

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Proteins link cellular aging and response to calorie restriction

In the March 3 issue of Nature, Johns Hopkins researchers report that two proteins best known for very different activities actually come together to turn the liver into a sugar-producing factory when food is scarce.

6 Mar 2005

Chips may cause cancer

Acrylamide, a contaminant shown to cause cancer in animals forms in the high-temperature frying, roasting or baking of foods like potato chips and crisps, coffee, and pastries, sweet biscuits, breads, rolls and toast, and may be a public health concern, according to two UN agencies.

5 Mar 2005

Mutations in newly discovered gene, NPHP5 cause Senior-Loken syndrome

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have discovered a gene called NPHP5 and found mutations in this gene that cause a rare genetic disease called Senior-Loken syndrome. Children with this syndrome develop a type of cystic kidney disease called nephronophthisis, as well as a form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa.

3 Mar 2005

Important player in the development of colon cancer

Cancer growth is a long, complex, multi-stage process involving a variety of different "players." This complexity is part of the difficulty facing cancer researchers. Meanwhile, each discovery or identification of a new "player," or previously unknown stage in the process, offers new opportunities for blocking the disease.

3 Mar 2005

Way to detect early signs of testicular cancer

Danish researchers have discovered a way to detect early signs of testicular cancer before it has started to spread. Their findings are the first step towards developing a simple screening test for men at risk of the disease.

2 Mar 2005

Possible treatment for Fragile X syndrome

The first evidence for a possible treatment for Fragile X syndrome, one of the leading inherited causes of mental retardation, has emerged from experiments with a mutant fruit fly that exhibits characteristics of the disorder.

2 Mar 2005

Gene variant that may increase the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease

Researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders (MIND) have identified a gene variant that may increase the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

2 Mar 2005

Future diabetes drugs may target new protein interaction

2 Mar 2005

How and why people become addicted to alcohol

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified several genetic changes in the brains of mice caused by ethanol, which may help researchers better understand how and why people become addicted to alcohol.

2 Mar 2005

alpha-defensin-1, a protein found in immune cells, can control HIV infection

Theresa Chang and colleagues at Mount Sinai School of Medicine analyzed how alpha-defensin-1 inhibits HIV infection in white blood cells (CD4+ T cells). Defensins have been shown to have anti-HIV activity. The body attempts to protect itself from HIV infection via the innate immune system.

1 Mar 2005

Researchers can now predict who will benefit from cerclage

Doctors treating pregnant women with threatened preterm birth sometimes sew the cervix closed, a procedure known as cerclage. Despite this traditional intervention, many women still lose the pregnancy.

1 Mar 2005

U.S. cancer researchers launch first American-Israeli cancer conference

Leading cancer researchers from Baltimore, Miami and New Jersey have organized the first Joint American-Israeli Conference on Cancer. The meeting, scheduled for March 16 through 18 in Jerusalem, seeks to foster collaboration among physicians and scientists in the two countries.

1 Mar 2005

Nature’s most sophisticated biological weapon

Nature’s most sophisticated biological weapon, snake venom, largely evolved from bits of body parts a Melbourne researcher has found.

1 Mar 2005

Scientists re-produce the human body's own cancer-killing cells through gene therapy

New hope to cancer sufferers comes from research by South Korean scientists who have found a way to re- produce the human body's own cancer-killing cells through gene therapy.

1 Mar 2005

Celebrex provides a two pronged attack against prostate cancer

Celecoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor with promising anti-cancer properties, has now been found to attack prostate cancer cells in a second way that differs from Vioxx (rofecoxib), another anti-inflammatory drug that also inhibits COX-2.

1 Mar 2005

New cancer drug Avastin keeps cancer under control

Data published for the first time today in the leading Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that the unique new cancer drug Avastin keeps cancer under control for a significantly longer duration, even when used in a group of elderly patients with advanced colorectal cancer who are too sick to tolerate traditional aggressive chemotherapy.

1 Mar 2005

VIRxSYS novel HIV gene therapy yields exciting results

VIRxSYS Corporation reports unexpected and unprecedented findings in its ongoing Phase I clinical trial of its VRX496 therapy in patients with HIV.

28 Feb 2005

Scientists gain new insight into DiGeorge syndrome

A collaboration of European scientists has uncovered new insight into the most common chromosomal microdeletion syndrome in humans.

28 Feb 2005

Discovery of a protein JBP2, an important tool for African sleeping sickness research

Sixty million people in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa are threatened daily by a deadly parasitic disease known as African sleeping sickness.

28 Feb 2005

Scientists discover the origin of hydration force

Scientists at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Imperial College London have discovered the origin of hydration force, a phenomenon that causes some complex chemical and biochemical species (including DNA and other electrostatically charged molecules) to repel at short distances when surrounded by water.

28 Feb 2005