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Research shows how tubercle bacterium manages to survive inside body's macrophage cells

Tuberculosis kills two million people each year and is once again gaining ground also in Sweden and other Western countries. Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden are now presenting new findings that show how the tubercle bacterium manages to survive inside the body's macrophage cells in order eventually to blow them up and spread their infection.

9 Mar 2011

Variation in exposure to sunlight may affect sensitivity of individuals to drugs

A study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has shown that the body's ability to break down medicines may be closely related to exposure to sunlight, and thus may vary with the seasons.

9 Mar 2011

'Cross-talk' between two major biological pathways may hold a clue for chronic pain treatment

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have discovered a "cross-talk" between two major biological pathways that involve pain-research that may pave the way to new approaches to understanding and controlling chronic pain.

9 Mar 2011

Sanfilippo syndrome compromises blood-brain barrier, leads to brain damage

A study into the effects of Sanfilippo Syndrome type B (MPS III B) has found that the barrier responsible for protecting the brain from the entry of harmful blood-borne substances is structurally and functionally damaged by the devastating disease. University of South Florida researchers identified damage in specific brain structures involved in the pathology of MPS III B, one of four Sanfilippo syndromes, all of which are inherited diseases of metabolism.

9 Mar 2011

FDA removes clinical hold for Amicus' AT2220 IND for treatment of Pompe disease

Amicus Therapeutics today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has removed the clinical hold for the AT2220 (1-deoxynojirimycin HCI) Investigational New Drug Application (IND). AT2220 is a pharmacological chaperone in development as a treatment for Pompe disease.

9 Mar 2011

Chemotherapy drugs also kill malaria parasite

A group of researchers from EPFL's Global Health Institute (GHI) and Inserm (Institut National de la Sant- et de la Recherche M-dicale, the French government agency for biomedical research) has discovered that a class of chemotherapy drugs originally designed to inhibit key signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria. The discovery could quickly open up a whole new strategy for combating this deadly disease.

9 Mar 2011

Study analyzes role of PARP enzyme in eukaryotes

An Ohio State University molecular biologist leveraged a supercomputer to help better define the family tree of a group of enzymes that have been implicated in a wide range of human diseases and are important targets for anti-cancer therapies.

8 Mar 2011

New insight into malaria

A group of researchers from EPFL's Global Health Institute and Inserm has discovered that a class of chemotherapy drugs originally designed to inhibit key signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria.

8 Mar 2011

New discovery in childhood respiratory disease

Researchers have identified a critical part of the process by which one of the world's most common and dangerous early childhood infections, respiratory syncytial virus, causes disease.

8 Mar 2011

Discovery of potent class of anti-cancer compounds by Scripps Research and MIT scientists

Working as part of a public program to screen compounds to find potential medicines and other biologically useful molecules, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered an extremely potent class of potential anti-cancer and anti-neurodegenerative disorder compounds.

8 Mar 2011

Study: Moderate drinking can reduce risk of dementia even among older adults

3202 German individuals attending general practitioners , who were free of dementia were studied at baseline, were followed up 1.5 years and 3 years later by means of structured clinical interviews including detailed assessment of current alcohol consumption and DSM-IV dementia diagnoses.

8 Mar 2011

Two studies show how laminin plays a central role in breast cancer development

Laminin, long thought to be only a structural support protein in the microenvironment of breast and other epithelial tissues, is "famous" for its cross-like shape.

8 Mar 2011

Monthly liver enzyme tests not required for PAH patients taking Letairis tablets: FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that monthly liver enzyme tests are no longer required for those taking Letairis tablets (ambrisentan), used to treat high blood pressure in the vessels that carry blood to the lungs (pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH).

5 Mar 2011

Brain enzyme can restore even old, fading memories, say researchers

Even long after it is formed, a memory in rats can be enhanced or erased by increasing or decreasing the activity of a brain enzyme, say researchers supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.

4 Mar 2011

New study finds liver instead of the brain as source of Alzheimer’s plaques

Unexpected results from a Scripps Research Institute and ModGene, LLC study could completely alter scientists' ideas about Alzheimer's disease—pointing to the liver instead of the brain as the source of the "amyloid" that deposits as brain plaques associated with this devastating condition. The findings could offer a relatively simple approach for Alzheimer's prevention and treatment.

4 Mar 2011

Triptolide isolated from Chinese medicinal plant blocks gene control machinery in cells

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered that a natural product isolated from a traditional Chinese medicinal plant commonly known as thunder god vine, or lei gong teng, and used for hundreds of years to treat many conditions including rheumatoid arthritis works by blocking gene control machinery in the cell. The report, published as a cover story of the March issue of Nature Chemical Biology, suggests that the natural product could be a starting point for developing new anticancer drugs.

4 Mar 2011

Executioner enzyme may short circuit second form of cell death

An enzyme viewed as an executioner, because it can push cells to commit suicide, may actually short circuit a second form of cell death, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered.

4 Mar 2011

DNA methylation patterns can accurately detect early bowel cancer

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered for the first time that DNA methylation patterns - a key process in cell development - could accurately detect early bowel cancer, according to research published in Gut, today.

3 Mar 2011

New insight: p53 protein controls molecular crossroads in glucose metabolic pathway

The gene for the protein p53 is the most frequently mutated in human cancer. It encodes a tumor suppressor, and traditionally researchers have assumed that it acts primarily as a regulator of how genes are made into proteins.

3 Mar 2011

New discovery in glioma-associated metabolic changes

Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics, biomarker discovery and analysis, announces the publication of "Profiling the effects of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 mutations on the cellular metabolome", in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

3 Mar 2011