Membrane News and Research

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Hypertension, insulin resistance and immune suppression links

Many of the 75 million Americans with essential hypertension also develop diabetes and other complications in addition to their high blood pressure, and researchers have discovered a common molecular mechanism in a strain of rat that explains why such metabolic disorders arise together in mammals.

30 Jun 2008

Dividing cells find their middle by following a protein contour map

Self-organization keeps schools of fish, flocks of birds and colonies of termites in sync. It's also, according to new research, the way cells regulate the final stage of cell division. Scientists at Rockefeller University have shown that a protein-chemistry-based contour map, which helps individual proteins locate the center of their cell without direction from a 'master organizer,' is key to ensuring accurate division during mitosis.

30 Jun 2008

Oregano helps against Inflammations

Oregano doesn't only give a Pizza its typical taste. Researchers at Bonn University and the ETH Zurich have discovered that this spice also contains a substance which, amongst other qualities, appears to help cure inflammations.

25 Jun 2008

tRNA import occurs in humans - could lead to targeted therapies

Scientists have determined that human cells are able to shift important gene products into their own mitochondria, considered the power plants of cells. The finding could eventually lead to therapies for dozens of diseases.

24 Jun 2008

New way to limit gene transfer and expression

Researchers from Northwestern University and Texas A & M University have discovered a new way to limit gene transfer and expression to specific tissues in animals.

23 Jun 2008

MIT finds alternative to common colorectal cancer drug oxaliplatin

A compound that accumulates in cells more readily than a commonly used colorectal cancer drug may be just as useful in treating colorectal tumors, but with fewer side effects, MIT researchers have found.

17 Jun 2008

Discovery of mechanisms that direct cholinergic synapse assembly between neurons in vivo

Rapid information processing in the nervous system requires synapses, specialized contact sites between nerve cells and their targets. One particular synapse type, cholinergic, uses the chemical transmitter acetylcholine to communicate between nerve cells. Cholinergic synapses are essential for normal learning and memory, arousal, attention, and all autonomic (involuntary) nervous system functions.

16 Jun 2008

Nanoparticles trigger built-in cell-death signal to overcome drug resistance

One of the most vexing problems in treating cancer is the propensity of tumors to develop resistance to a wide range of anticancer drugs. Over 70 percent of ovarian cancer patients, for example, have drug-resistant tumors at the time of their initial diagnosis, and virtually all patients who relapse have drug-resistant tumors.

15 Jun 2008

High-content screening as a universal tool for fingerprinting of vytotoxicity of nanoparticles

As researchers develop an ever-expanding toolkit of nanoparticles for use as drug and imaging agent delivery vehicles, there is a growing need to understand how a given nanoparticle's physical and chemical properties affect biological activity and toxicity.

15 Jun 2008

Human tumor nanoparticles induce apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells

Using nanoparticles made from pieces of tumor cells, investigators from Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France, have developed a new type of anticancer agent that appears to stop tumor cell growth and proliferation.

15 Jun 2008

New technique provides greater understanding of how drugs get in and out of cells in our bodies

A team led by female scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge has developed an exciting new technique which may lead to a greater understanding of how drugs get in and out of the cells in our bodies. The method identifies the structures that guard the entrance and exits to cells.

15 Jun 2008

Researchers find gamma-secretase modulators being tested for Alzheimer’s work in unexpected and beneficial ways

Researchers at Mayo Clinic, with their national and international collaborators, have discovered how a class of agents now in testing to treat Alzheimer's disease work, and say they may open up an avenue of drug discovery for this disease and others.

11 Jun 2008

Compugen announces discovery of novel drug targets for cancer antibody therapeutics

Compugen Ltd. announced today the discovery of more than ten novel targets of antibody therapy for various types of solid and hematopoietic cancer.

11 Jun 2008

Coated gold nanoparticles for drug delivery

In work that could at the same time impact the delivery of drugs and explain a biological mystery, MIT engineers have created the first synthetic nanoparticles that can penetrate a cell without poking a hole in its protective membrane and killing it.

11 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

Arsenic and new rice

Amid recent reports of dangerous levels of arsenic being found in some baby rice products, scientists have found a protein in plants that could help to reduce the toxic content of crops grown in environments with high levels of this poisonous metal.

10 Jun 2008

How the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe (Zetia) works

A new study in the June issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, sheds light on the action of the drug ezetimibe (trade name Zetia), which is used to treat high cholesterol. Ezetimibe is unique among cholesterol-lowering drugs in that it works by cutting the amount of cholesterol taken in from the diet rather than by blocking cholesterol's manufacture in the body.

3 Jun 2008

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals updates on Bavituximab breast cancer study

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that results from a Phase I clinical trial of its lead anti-phosphatidylserine (anti-PS) antibody bavituximab in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancer were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

2 Jun 2008

Discovery on how an Helicobacter pylori toxin gets into cells

Helicobacter pylori is one tough bug. It can survive in the human stomach, a zone with a pH somewhere between that of lemon juice and battery acid. Now researchers have discovered how an H. pylori toxin gets into cells, a feat that helps the bacterium live in one of the most inhospitable environments in the body

26 May 2008

Scientists image a single HIV particle being born

A mapmaker and a mathematician may seem like an unlikely duo, but together they worked out a way to measure longitude - and kept millions of sailors from getting lost at sea. Now, another unlikely duo, a virologist and a biophysicist at Rockefeller University, is making history of its own.

25 May 2008