G Protein News and Research

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Mirror-microRNAs control multiple aspects of brain function

Our genes control many aspects of who we are - from the colour of our hair to our vulnerability to certain diseases - but how are the genes, and consequently the proteins they make themselves controlled? Researchers have discovered a new group of molecules which control some of the fundamental processes behind memory function and may hold the key to developing new therapies for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

30 Apr 2012

Researchers discover gene for new form of intellectual disability

Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) led a study discovering a gene for a new form of intellectual disability, as well as how it likely affects cognitive development by disrupting neuron functioning.

27 Apr 2012

Gas NO plays a fundamental regulatory role in controlling bacterial function

Bacteria provide a well-known playground for scientists and the evolution of these earliest life forms has shed important perspective on potential therapies for some of the most common, deadly diseases. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have now discovered that, the gas nitric oxide (NO), produced in all cells of the human body for natural purposes, plays a fundamental regulatory role in controlling bacterial function, via a signaling mechanism called S-nitrosylation (SNO), which binds NO to protein molecules.

27 Apr 2012

Researchers discover small molecules that kill HPV-infected cancer cells

Researchers at The Wistar Institute announce the discovery of small molecules that kill cancer cells caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). Their results, in both cell and mouse models, demonstrate that the small molecule inhibitors protect a tumor-suppressing protein targeted by viral proteins, thus killing the infected tumor cells.

27 Apr 2012

Study explores resilin-like materials for vocal fold disorders

A one-inch long grasshopper can leap a distance of about 20 inches. Cicadas can produce sound at about the same frequency as radio waves. Fleas measuring only millimeters can jump an astonishing 100 times their height in microseconds. How do they do it? They make use of a naturally occurring protein called resilin.

27 Apr 2012

Combination of Velcade and Fasudil could treat NSCLC

A common cancer drug and a drug used for a rare condition affecting the heart could together treat an aggressive form of lung cancer called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study published in Cell today.

27 Apr 2012

Mitotic spindle may be more complex than previously thought

The mitotic spindle, an apparatus that segregates chromosomes during cell division, may be more complex than the standard textbook picture suggests, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

27 Apr 2012

University of Kentucky researchers make major breakthrough in GA

University of Kentucky researchers, led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, have made a major breakthrough in the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration known as geographic atrophy.

27 Apr 2012

FDA approves Novartis’ Afinitor for treatment of renal angiomyolipomas and TSC

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Afinitor (everolimus) tablets for the treatment of adult patients with kidney tumors known as renal angiomyolipomas and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), who do not require immediate surgery.

27 Apr 2012

Novartis receives FDA approval for Afinitor to treat renal angiomyolipomas caused by TSC

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Afinitor (everolimus), the first drug approved specifically to treat non-cancerous kidney tumors (renal angiomyolipomas) not requiring immediate surgery in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex.

27 Apr 2012

A melanoma cloaking protein

Johns Hopkins and Yale scientists have found that melanoma cells use a cloaking protein to hide from immune cells poised to attack the cancer. Nearly 40 percent of their sampling of melanoma tissues contained the B7-H1 protein, also called PD-L1, and scientists say it could be used as a target for new therapies.

26 Apr 2012

Allied Healthcare increases stake in Coridon to over 44%

Allied Healthcare Group (ASX: AHZ) announced today that post the recent capital raising it has invested a further $1 million into Coridon, increasing its holding in the company to 44.4%. Allied has increased its investment in Coridon as the Company progresses towards its Phase I study for a herpes vaccine and makes further progress on its HPV therapeutic vaccine program.

26 Apr 2012

Mad cow disease raises concern but safety nets are in place says USDA

Four sick cows ever discovered in the U.S., the one announced Tuesday being the first since 2006, and no human version of the illness linked to eating U.S. beef, is not enough to worry about. “From simply a public health issue, I put it very, very low,” Cornell University food safety expert Martin Wiedmann said of the level of concern about mad cow disease. Maintaining confidence in exports fuels the nation's monitoring of the beef supply as much as continuing safety concerns, he said.

26 Apr 2012

CytRx commences INNO-206 Phase 2 clinical trial for pancreatic cancer

CytRx Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in oncology, today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the preliminary efficacy and safety of INNO-206 in patients with advanced pancreatic ductual adenocarcinomas (PDA) who have progressed after receiving two prior therapies.

26 Apr 2012

Helpful roles of rank, toxic substances

Usually, we think of mold, feces, nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide and rat poison as rank, toxic or both. But scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health are learning more about the helpful roles these substances can play.

26 Apr 2012

IMPAKT 2012 breast cancer conference to focus on four major areas

"Basic science and clinical medicine move at different pace because they follow different paths. Both however aim at improving strategies to manage cancer patients. We need to efficiently translate the good things from basic science and efficiently implement them in the clinic."

26 Apr 2012

Melanomas express B7-H1 protein to hide from T-cells

26 Apr 2012

Fragile-X gene linked with disrupting de novo mutations in children with autism

A team led by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) publishes research today indicating a striking association between genes found disrupted in children with autism and genes that are targets of FMRP, the protein generated by the gene FMR1, whose dysfunction causes Fragile-X syndrome.

26 Apr 2012

White potato consumption does not cause diabetes, obesity

Preliminary Research presented today at The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Conference in San Diego demonstrates that habitual consumption of white potatoes (baked, boiled and mashed) is not associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes or levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of systemic inflammation once potential confounding factors are controlled for (e.g., age, gender, and education).

26 Apr 2012

Researchers identify new components of genetic pathway that controls neural stem cells

Can one feel too attached? Does one need to let go to mature? Neural stem cells have this problem, too. As immature cells, neural stem cells must stick together in a protected environment called a niche in order to divide so they can make all of the cells that populate the nervous system. But when it's time to mature, or differentiate, the neural stem cells must stop dividing, detach from their neighbors and migrate to where they are needed to form the circuits necessary for humans to think, feel and interact with the world.

26 Apr 2012