Programmed Cell Death News and Research

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Drug infliximab may help ease ulcerative colitis

In good news for patients with stubborn cases of ulcerative colitis, a serious intestinal disorder, a new research review suggests that the drug infliximab can be a useful alternative if other treatments don't work.

12 Sep 2006

Quantum dot nanodevice that can detect and image apoptosis

Aiming to help researchers get a better handle on how - and if - anticancer agents are triggering cell death, investigators at the University of Twente in The Netherlands have developed a quantum dot nanodevice that can detect and image apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death.

5 Sep 2006

Immunotherapy for heart failure

World Congress of Cardiology Report - Heart failure (HF) is a complex, progressive clinical syndrome that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder, such as coronary artery disease or hypertension (high blood pressure), which impairs the ability of the heart to function properly as a pump.

5 Sep 2006

Scientists identify novel central nervous system proteins affected by chronic alcohol exposure

Researchers at the University at Buffalo studying the effects of alcohol on the brain, using zebrafish as a model, have identified several novel central nervous system proteins that are affected by chronic alcohol exposure.

31 Aug 2006

Interleukin 21 may enhance the effectiveness of Herceptin

Preliminary research suggests that a drug that targets a particular type of breast cancer might be more effective if patients are also given a substance made by the body that stimulates certain immune cells.

6 Aug 2006

Birch bark compound may be potent prostate cancer fighter

A compound found in the bark of the white birch tree - betulonic acid, a derivative of betulinol - may finally have been rendered a water-soluble, bio-available drug, and is already showing the potential to be a possible agent against prostate cancer - in cell culture and in an animal model.

25 Jul 2006

Diblock copolymer micellar nanoparticles decorated with annexin-A5 proteins

One of the banes of modern cancer therapy is that clinicians and patients must often wait months before they can tell if a given treatment is working.

17 Jul 2006

Mechanics of atherosclerosis

Atherosclerotic narrowing and hardening of coronary arteries typically appear first at vessel branches, and a study in the October issue of Cellular Signalling reports that the type of mechanical stretching found at those branches activates a cellular protein known to damage cells.

12 Jul 2006

Scientists discover promising new therapeutic target for heart disease

Scientists at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute identified Puma (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis) as a potential new target for the therapeutic intervention of heart disease.

10 Jul 2006

Calpain protein key to preventing or promoting cell death

A protein called calpain can be the key either preventing or promoting the cell death, a Queen's University study has found.

6 Jun 2006

Hydrophobic statins not associated with increased breast cancer risk

A report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that women who took statins--the widely used cholesterol lowering drugs--do not face an increased breast cancer risk as had been suggested by some previous studies.

6 Jun 2006

Sulforaphane shown to inhibit the occurrence of hereditary colon cancer

Need another reason to eat vegetables? A new study at Rutgers shows that certain vegetables - broccoli and cauliflower, in particular - have natural ingredients that may reduce the risk of developing hereditary cancers.

17 May 2006

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 2 may play role in infection and dry eye

Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 2 (PAI-2), a protein found in various cell types including the skin, has been discovered in the tissue covering the eye and may have future clinical implications in various pathologies of the ocular surface such as eye infection or dry eye.

17 May 2006

Exercise shown to protect against skin and bowel cancer

Two studies have shown that exercise can protect against skin and bowel cancer, and they have identified new mechanisms that could be responsible for this effect.

17 May 2006

Exercise protects against skin cancer

While doctors and scientists have long agreed that physical activity has health benefits, Rutgers cancer researcher Allan Conney and his New Jersey colleagues have found that exercise can even protect against skin cancer.

16 May 2006

German scientists synthesize new compound that reduces stroke damage

A group of German scientists has synthesized a new compound that dramatically decreases the damage to neurons in rats demonstrating stroke symptoms.

16 May 2006

Study sheds light on cancer susceptibility and disease involving bone-marrow failure

Defective protein production can occur in cells even when the genes controlling those proteins are normal, according to a new study to be published May 12 in Science.

12 May 2006

An engineered virus that tracks down and compels cancer cells to eat themselves

An engineered virus tracks down and infects the most common and deadly form of brain cancer and then kills tumor cells by forcing them to devour themselves, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report.

3 May 2006

Caspase-12 antagonists could potentially be useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders

According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders.

26 Apr 2006

New discovery could help improve some forms of chemotherapy

The research looked at XPB helicase from an archaea, a single cell organism similar to bacteria. Helicases are enzymes that unwind or separate the strands of the nucleic acid double helix, an action that is critical to transcription and nucleotide excision repair (NER), as well as other cell processes.

11 Apr 2006