G Protein News and Research

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Severity of smoke-inhalation injury may play a role in overall pulmonary inflammatory response

A study of burn patients has found that those who suffered the most severe smoke inhalation also had more inflammation and spent more time on ventilators and in intensive care.

17 Nov 2011

Mediterranean diet can reduce risk of future heart disease

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers has uncovered further evidence of the benefits of a balanced diet that replaces white bread and pasta carbohydrates with unsaturated fat from avocados, olive oil and nuts — foods typical of the so-called "Mediterranean diet."

17 Nov 2011

Mannosides show promise against urinary tract infections

An experimental treatment for urinary tract infections has easily passed its first test in animals, alleviating weeks-long infections in mice in as little as six hours.

17 Nov 2011

Researchers uncover central component of fat metabolism

Obesity-related diseases are an increasing health problem. Researchers at the University of Oslo have now uncovered a central component of fat metabolism.

17 Nov 2011

CF Foundation, Genzyme announce new drug research agreement

Genzyme, a Sanofi company, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc., the nonprofit affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, today announced a research agreement to support the discovery of new drugs to treat people with the most common mutation found in patients with CF, Delta F508.

17 Nov 2011

Potential breakthrough in treating late-stage ovarian cancer

A potential breakthrough in treating late-stage ovarian cancer has come from University of Guelph researchers who have discovered a peptide that shrinks advanced tumours and improves survival rates for this deadly but often undetected disease.

17 Nov 2011

New 2-DG-ABT combination cancer therapy triggers apoptosis

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Kyushu University Medical School say a novel combination of a specific sugar molecule with a pair of cell-killing drugs prompts a wide variety of cancer cell types to kill themselves, a process called apoptosis or programmed cell death.

17 Nov 2011

SHARPIN protein regulates human cell activity

The research teams headed by Prof. Johanna Ivaska (University of Turku and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) and Prof. Marko Salmi (University of Turku and the National Institute for Health and Welfare) have discovered that the SHARPIN protein regulates human cell activity.

17 Nov 2011

Budding yeast helps make useful predictions about the biology of individuals

It now only costs a few thousand Euros to sequence the genome of an individual human. However, for most of us, knowing our genome sequence would not be useful. Each human has more than 20 000 genes, and in each of us several thousand of these genes carry mutations.

16 Nov 2011

Coronary calcium scoring can determine risk of cardiac events

If your doctor says you have a negative stress test, or that your cholesterol or blood pressure are normal, how assured can you be that you're not likely to have a heart attack in the next seven to 10 years?

16 Nov 2011

Human pluripotent stem cells rely heavily on glycolysis to drive their metabolic activities

Human pluripotent stem cells, which can develop into any cell type in the body, rely heavily on glycolysis, or sugar fermentation, to drive their metabolic activities.

16 Nov 2011

Researchers discover human genes that might contribute to ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a universally fatal neurodegenerative disease. Mutations in two related proteins, TDP-43 and FUS, cause some forms of ALS. Specifically, these two proteins are RNA-binding proteins that connect to RNA to regulate the translation of proteins and other cellular functions such as RNA splicing and editing. In a new study, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania discovered additional human genes with properties similar to TDP-43 and FUS that might also contribute to ALS.

16 Nov 2011

AHA honors Gladstone senior investigator with Distinguished Scientist Award

The American Heart Association will today present Gladstone Institutes Senior Investigator and President Emeritus Robert Mahley, MD, PhD, with the 2011 AHA Distinguished Scientist Award, bestowing yet another honor on one of Gladstone's founding cardiovascular scientists.

16 Nov 2011

Scarring prevents precipitous decline in heart function after cardiac injury

After a heart attack, the portions of the heart damaged by a lack of oxygen become scar tissue. Researchers have long sought ways to avoid this scarring, which can harden the walls of the heart, lessen its ability to pump blood throughout the body and eventually lead to heart failure. But new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine shows that interrupting this process can weaken heart function even further.

16 Nov 2011

Researchers to begin drug development projects for rare and neglected diseases

Researchers will begin drug development projects for rare and neglected diseases that include potential treatments for a musculoskeletal disorder, a cognitive dysfunction disorder, a virus that affects the central nervous system of newborns, a parasitic worm infection, a form of muscular dystrophy and a rare lung disease.

16 Nov 2011

International consortium develops first-in-class adiponectin receptor agonist

A compound that mimics the effects of adiponectin, a beneficial protein that is produced by fat tissue in healthy weight individuals and may exhibit protective effects against cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory conditions and insulin resistance has been developed by an international consortium lead by Dr. Eva Surmacz, Associate Professor in Biology (Adjunct) and director of the Obesity and Cancer Program at the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at Temple University's College of Science and Technology.

16 Nov 2011

Evacetrapib drug may increase HDL-C and decrease LDL-C levels

Among patients with sub-optimal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, use of the drug evacetrapib alone or in combination with statin medications was associated with significant increases in HDL-C levels and decreases in LDL-C levels, according to a study appearing in the November 16 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on cardiovascular disease.

16 Nov 2011

EMA grants orphan designation to AMT for hemophilia B gene therapy

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics, a leader in the field of human gene therapy, announced today that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted orphan designation for its gene therapy program for the treatment of hemophilia B. Orphan designation in the European Union provides several benefits including 10 years of market exclusivity from product launch and access to the central authorization procedure.

16 Nov 2011

Researchers identify key processes by which estrogen activates genes in breast-cancer cells

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have discovered key processes by which estrogen, the female sex hormone, activates genes in breast-cancer cells.

16 Nov 2011

New research demonstrates brain's remarkable capacity to repair itself

New research released today demonstrates the brain's remarkable capacity to repair itself. The animal studies, which propose ways to prevent or limit damage after blood and oxygen deprivation and blood clots, were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

16 Nov 2011