Cytoplasm News and Research

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An improved gene therapy agent from University of Florida

Replacing one amino acid on the surface of a virus that shepherds corrective genes into cells could be the breakthrough scientists have needed to make gene therapy a more viable option for treating genetic diseases such as hemophilia, University of Florida researchers say.

19 May 2008

Epidermal growth factor receptor protects cancer cells from starving

A growth factor receptor found abundantly on the surface of cancer cells and long known to fuel cancer growth also protects tumor cells from starvation by a newly identified mechanism, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the May 5 issue of Cancer Cell.

5 May 2008

Yeast cells used to screen for potential Lou Gehrig's disease drugs

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are developing a novel approach to screen for drugs to combat neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, using yeast cells.

17 Apr 2008

Nanotechnology advances brain cancer detection and therapy

Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive and lethal of malignancies, made even more difficult to treat by the fact that most anticancer drugs have a hard time even getting to the tumors.

3 Mar 2008

New discovery on programmed cell death

Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered a dance of proteins that protects certain cells from undergoing apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. Understanding the fine points of apoptosis is important to researchers seeking ways to control this process.

1 Mar 2008

New chemical tool kit manipulates mitochondria, reveals insights into drug toxicity

Why do nearly 1 million people taking cholesterol-lowering statins often experience muscle cramps? Why is it that in the rare case when a diabetic takes medication for intestinal worms, his glucose levels improve? Is there any scientific basis for the purported health effects of green tea?

26 Feb 2008

Novel link between excessive nutrient levels and insulin resistance

For quite some time now, scientists suspected the so-called hexosamine pathway - a small side business of the main sugar processing enterprise inside a cell - to be involved in the development of insulin resistance.

22 Feb 2008

Link between excessive food intake and insulin resistance

22 Feb 2008

Discovery of gene expression pathway that influences process of oxidative stress

The same chemical reaction that causes iron to rust plays a similarly corrosive role in our bodies.

21 Feb 2008

RNA-associated introns guide nerve-cell channel production

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an important molecular guide to making nerve-cell electrical channels.

7 Feb 2008

Deafness and seizures result when glutamate protein deleted in mice

Scientists have discovered that mice genetically engineered to lack a particular protein in the brain have profound deafness and seizures.

25 Jan 2008

Polymeric nanoparticles for tumor vaccines

The quest for an effective antitumor vaccine has received a boost from the results of work aimed at developing a nanoparticle that delivers tumor antigens to the immune system cells that trigger antibody production.

16 Jan 2008

Plant constituent with selective effect on cancer cells

The substance wogonin triggers the death program apoptosis in tumor cells, while it has virtually no effect on healthy cells.

18 Dec 2007

Humans not the major target of Shiga toxin

If you've survived Shiga toxin and the after-effects of food poisoning, you may have been the innocent victim of a battle for survival between predator and prey.

4 Dec 2007

Researchers outline structure of largest nonvirus particle ever crystallized

Researchers at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have modeled the structure of the largest cellular particle ever crystallized, suggesting ways to engineer the particles for drug delivery.

27 Nov 2007