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New therapy to treat rare form of cystic fibrosis works in unconventional way, scientists say

Scientists at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto have established that a drug recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat a rare form of cystic fibrosis works in an unconventional way.

29 Oct 2012

Researchers use baker's yeast to identify new therapies for Lou Gehrig's disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a devastatingly cruel neurodegenerative disorder that robs sufferers of the ability to move, speak and, finally, breathe.

29 Oct 2012

Chemists' innovation may be a better model for disease diagnostic kits

When someone develops liver cancer, the disease introduces a very subtle difference to their bloodstream, increasing the concentration of a particular molecule by just 10 parts per billion.

29 Oct 2012

Researchers figure out 3D shape of promising TB drug target

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have figured out the three-dimensional shape of the protein responsible for creating unique bonds within the cell wall of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The bonds make the bacteria resistant to currently available drug therapies, contributing to the alarming rise of these super-bacteria throughout the world.

26 Oct 2012

mTor molecule plays a significant role in myeloid differentiation

University of Illinois cell and developmental Biology professor Fei Wang and colleagues have created a new technique to study how myeloids, a type of blood stem cell, become the white blood cells important for immune system defense against infections and tissue damage.

26 Oct 2012

Researchers identify new means to eradicate malaria infections

Researchers have identified a new means to eradicate malaria infections by rapidly killing the blood-borne Plasmodium parasites that cause the disease.

26 Oct 2012

CTCtrap can capture circulating tumour cells in cancer patients

The 7.5 millilitres of blood contained in a standard sample tube is not nearly enough to detect circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the blood of patients with metastatic breast cancer, prostate cancer, or colorectal cancer with a high enough degree of reliability. These CTCs are the cause of metastases in cancer patients. If they can be effectively characterized, it is possible to arrive at a prognosis and to determine the most effective course of treatment.

26 Oct 2012

Study identifies essential mechanism that regulates calcium flow into mitochondria

Most healthy cells rely on a complicated process to produce the fuel ATP. Knowing how ATP is produced by the cell's energy storehouse - the mitochondria -- is important for understanding a cell's normal state, as well as what happens when things go wrong, for example in cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and many rare disorders of the mitochondria.

26 Oct 2012

UWCCC enrolls first patient in Phase 1-2 PET imaging trial of LIGHT for solid tumors

Novelos Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing novel drugs for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer, today announced that the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, a leading oncology research institution, has enrolled the first patient in a Phase 1-2 positron emission tomography (PET) imaging trial of I-124-CLR1404, a cancer-targeted PET imaging agent, in patients with nine solid tumor types, including triple negative breast, soft tissue sarcoma, colorectal, gastric, esophageal, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and head & neck cancer.

26 Oct 2012

New study finds bacteria cue single-celled choanoflagellates to form colonies

Bacteria have a bad rap as agents of disease, but scientists are increasingly discovering their many benefits, such as maintaining a healthy gut.

25 Oct 2012

Study confirms Elf5 protein as tumor suppressor of breast cancer

A protein that is necessary for lactation in mammals inhibits the critical cellular transition that is an early indicator of breast cancer and metastasis, according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo and Princeton University and highlighted as the cover paper in November issue of Nature Cell Biology.

25 Oct 2012

New findings on how OX40 activation affects T helper cells that target melanoma

Cancers arise in the body all the time. Most are nipped in the bud by the immune response, not least by its T cells, which detect telltale molecular markers-or antigens-on cancer cells and destroy them before they grow into tumors. Cancer cells, for their part, evolve constantly to evade such assassination. Those that succeed become full-blown malignancies. Yet, given the right sort of help, the immune system can destroy even these entrenched tumors.

25 Oct 2012

Vascular endothelial cells play a larger role in pulmonary hypertension

It turns out the muscle cells on the outside of blood vessels have been wrongly accused for instigating lung disease. New research shows that while these muscle cells are responsible for constricting or dilating the blood vessels, they are not responsible for sensing the amount of oxygen that gets to the lungs. That message comes from the endothelial cells - special cells that line the blood vessels - along a "signalling pathway."

25 Oct 2012

WSU researcher examines use of carbon fiber microelectrodes in neurochemical measurements

A Wayne State University researcher's take on the current state of brain chemical analysis is the cover story in a recent professional journal, accompanied by a podcast.

25 Oct 2012

Scientists create new compounds that could slow progression of Parkinson's

In an early-stage breakthrough, a team of Northwestern University scientists has developed a new family of compounds that could slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.

25 Oct 2012

UNM Cancer Center scientist to continue histone modification study

While every one of our cells contains all of our genetic information, each type of cell uses only specific parts of that information to make its proteins. Uncovering more about the mechanism that directs which particular pieces of genetic information the cell uses is the research focus of Mary Ann Osley, PhD, University of New Mexico Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Co-Leader of the Cancer Biology and Biotechnology Program at the UNM Cancer Center.

24 Oct 2012

TSRI scientists to study structural rules that govern nuclear receptors

A consortium of scientists from both campuses of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been awarded $2.7 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to study the structural rules that govern a large superfamily of proteins that help regulate critical functions such as reproduction, development and metabolism.

24 Oct 2012

Study still implicates amyloid beta in causing Alzheimer's dementia

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a key difference in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and those who are cognitively normal but still have brain plaques that characterize this type of dementia.

23 Oct 2012

Sickle cell disease treatments: An interview with Dr Niihara, CEO of Emmaus Medical

Sickle cell disease is a devastating hereditary condition that affects millions of people, particularly those in West and Central Africa as well as people of African descent in the United States, Europe and South America.

23 Oct 2012

PLoS ONE publishes review of AntiViral-HyperActivation Limiting Therapeutics clinical trial

ViroStatics, a private Italian/American biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for viral and other chronic diseases, announced that a review of the first human clinical trial to test a new class of anti-HIV medications known as AntiViral-HyperActivation Limiting Therapeutics (AV-HALTs) has been published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.

22 Oct 2012