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Combination of pazopanib and paclitaxel shows promise in slowing anaplastic thyroid cancer

A combination of the drugs pazopanib and paclitaxel shows promise in slowing anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), according to a Mayo Clinic-led study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

9 Jan 2013

Key link between stem cell factors that fuel ovarian cancer's growth and patient prognosis

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified a key link between stem cell factors that fuel ovarian cancer's growth and patient prognosis. The study, which paves the way for developing novel targeted ovarian cancer therapies, is published online in the current issue of Cell Cycle.

9 Jan 2013

Scientists wrestle to understand why Huntington's can produce variable symptoms

Scientists have wrestled to understand why Huntington's disease, which is caused by a single gene mutation, can produce such variable symptoms. An authoritative review by a group of leading experts summarizes the progress relating cell loss in the striatum and cerebral cortex to symptom profile in Huntington's disease, suggesting a possible direction for developing targeted therapies.

9 Jan 2013

Scientists define structure of α-catenin protein

Scientists know that cells in all higher organisms cells need to bind to each other for the development, architecture, maintenance and function of tissues. Mysteries have remained, however, about exactly how cells manage this feat.

9 Jan 2013

Insect research yields insights for muscle control and nerve disorders in mammals

Working with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins scientists have decoded the activity of protein signals that let certain nerve cells know when and where to branch so that they reach and connect to their correct muscle targets. The proteins' mammalian counterparts are known to have signaling roles in immunity, nervous system and heart development, and tumor progression, suggesting broad implications for human disease research.

9 Jan 2013

Scientists describe detailed structure and function of the TFIID protein complex

A research team of scientists from EMBL Grenoble and the IGBMC in Strasbourg, France, have, for the first time, described in molecular detail the architecture of the central scaffold of TFIID: the human protein complex essential for transcription from DNA to mRNA. The study, published today in Nature, opens new perspectives in the study of transcription and of the structure and mechanism of other large multi-protein assemblies involved in gene regulation.

9 Jan 2013

Study demonstrates effects of obesity on 'Taupathies'

In France, more than 860,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, making them the largest cause of age-related loss of intellectual function. Cognitive impairments observed in Alzheimer's disease result from the accumulation of abnormal tau proteins in nerve cells undergoing degeneration . We know that obesity, a major risk factor in the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, increases the risk of dementia during the aging process.

9 Jan 2013

Arterial elasticity link to lung function

People with reduced arterial elasticity may have impaired lung function, and vice versa, say US researchers.

8 Jan 2013

Researchers identify protein that helps prevent obesity

University of Florida researchers and colleagues have identified a protein that, when absent, helps the body burn fat and prevents insulin resistance and obesity.

8 Jan 2013

Newly discovered gene predicts HCV interferon response

Researchers have discovered a gene which interferes with the clearance of hepatitis C virus infection.

7 Jan 2013

New insulin associated genetic variants discovered

Exome array genotyping, which allows focus on the protein coding regions of the genome, has enabled researchers to identify three new genes containing low-frequency variants that influence insulin levels.

7 Jan 2013

Study highlights role of Protein S in maintenance of healthy retina

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with researchers at the Salk Institute in California, have found for the first time that a specific protein is essential not only for maintaining a healthy retina in the eye, but also may have implications for understanding and possibly treating other conditions in the immune, reproductive, vascular and nervous systems, as well as in various cancers.

7 Jan 2013

Diabetes drug metformin works in different way than previously understood: Researchers

A team, led by senior author Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Medicine, with the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, found that the diabetes drug metformin works in a different way than previously understood.

7 Jan 2013

Researchers show that protein p62 balances metabolism in fat tissue

In many cases, obesity is caused by more than just overeating and a lack of exercise. Something in the body goes haywire, causing it to store more fat and burn less energy. But what is it? Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have a new theory-a protein called p62.

7 Jan 2013

Researchers identify four new genetic regions associated with Behcet's disease

Researchers have identified four new regions on the human genome associated with Behcet's disease, a painful and potentially dangerous condition found predominantly in people with ancestors along the Silk Road.

7 Jan 2013

Biogen Idec files rFIXFc BLA with FDA for treatment of hemophilia B

Today Biogen Idec announced the company recently submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the marketing approval of recombinant factor IX Fc fusion protein (rFIXFc) for the treatment of hemophilia B.

7 Jan 2013

Researchers discover new pathway to reduce paradoxical pain

For individuals with agonizing pain, it is a cruel blow when the gold-standard medication actually causes more pain. Adults and children whose pain gets worse when treated with morphine may be closer to a solution, based on research published in the January 6 on-line edition of Nature Neuroscience.

7 Jan 2013

Link between Parkinson's and benomyl

For several years, neurologists at UCLA have been building a case that a link exists between pesticides and Parkinson's disease. To date, paraquat, maneb and ziram - common chemicals sprayed in California's Central Valley and elsewhere - have been tied to increases in the disease, not only among farmworkers but in individuals who simply lived or worked near fields and likely inhaled drifting particles.

6 Jan 2013

Brake for skin inflammation discovered

The absence of a protein called Ctip2 in the skin allows increased levels of T-helper 2 cytokines and may have a role in conditions such as atopic dermatitis, research in mice suggests.

4 Jan 2013

Toxin-induced insulin resistance combated in mice

French researchers have found that a protein-bound uremic toxin, p-cresyl sulfate, contributes to the development of insulin resistance in mice, providing a new potential therapeutic target for treating chronic kidney disease, they say.

4 Jan 2013