Cell Nucleus News and Research

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One-step, off-the-shelf tool can help evaluate genetic cause of mitochondrial diseases

More powerful gene-sequencing tools have increasingly been uncovering disease secrets in DNA within the cell nucleus. Now a research team is expanding those rapid next-generation sequencing tests to analyze a separate source of DNA—within the genes inside mitochondria, cellular power plants that, when abnormal, contribute to complex, multisystem diseases.

29 Jan 2013

Mutated Nesprin4 protein prevents hearing

Because half of all instances of hearing loss are linked to genetic mutations, advanced gene research is an invaluable tool for uncovering causes of deafness - and one of the biggest hopes for the development of new therapies. Now Prof. Karen Avraham of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University has discovered a significant mutation in a LINC family protein - part of the cells of the inner ear - that could lead to new treatments for hearing disorders.

29 Jan 2013

The LINC complex essential for hearing

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Karen Avraham and colleagues at Tel Aviv University identified a genetic mutation in two families with hereditary high frequency hearing loss. The mutated gene, which has not previously been linked to hearing loss, encodes NESP4, a protein that is expressed in the outer nuclear membrane (ONM) of the hair cells of the ear.

28 Jan 2013

Scientists identify consistent epigenetic signatures in men with metastatic prostate cancer

In a genome-wide analysis of 13 metastatic prostate cancers, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center found consistent epigenetic "signatures" across all metastatic tumors in each patient.

23 Jan 2013

Very low levels of BPS can disrupt natural estrogen hormone actions

A few years ago, manufacturers of water bottles, food containers, and baby products had a big problem. A key ingredient of the plastics they used to make their merchandise, an organic compound called bisphenol A, had been linked by scientists to diabetes, asthma and cancer and altered prostate and neurological development.

23 Jan 2013

Neurophysiologic mechanisms of deep-brain stimulation unveiled

The beneficial effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation in patients with Parkinson’s disease are partly down to compensatory activation of nonmotor dopamine pathways during exercise, research suggests.

22 Jan 2013

STN confirmed as preferred stimulation target in Parkinson’s

Subthalamic nucleus stimulation is at worst equivalent and at best superior to globus pallidus pars interna stimulation in patients with Parkinson’s disease, shows a randomized trial.

22 Jan 2013

BRCA1-deficient cancer cells take advantage of DNA repair mechanism

Cancer cells are resourceful survivors with plenty of tricks for staying alive. Researchers have uncovered one of these stratagems, showing how cells lacking the tumor suppressor BRCA1 can resume one form of DNA repair, sparing themselves from stagnation or death. The study appears in the January 21st issue of The Journal of Cell Biology.

22 Jan 2013

Scientists identify new mechanism that turns CD4 helper T lymphocytes into killer cells

A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has discovered the mechanism that enables CD4 helper T cells to assume the more aggressive role of killer T cells in mounting an immune attack against viruses, cancerous tumors and other damaged or infected cells.

21 Jan 2013

Clathrin protein may have a role in suppressing tumors

Newly published research by Indiana University structural biologist Joel Ybe and colleagues identifies a "topology switch" in the protein clathrin, the function of which may shed light on molecular processes involved in tumor suppression.

16 Jan 2013

Cancer researchers solve mystery of how Chd5 protein exerts its beneficial effects

A team of cancer researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has solved the mystery of how one of the most powerful of the body's natural tumor-suppressing proteins, called Chd5, exerts its beneficial effects.

11 Jan 2013

Fingolimod could potentially eliminate or reduce progression of colitis-associated cancer

After uncovering a mechanism that promotes chronic intestinal inflammation and the development of colorectal cancer, scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have found that fingolimod, a drug currently approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, could potentially eliminate or reduce the progression of colitis-associated cancer (CAC).

10 Jan 2013

Chromatin regulation not governed by a uniform histone code

In a novel use of gene knockout technology, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine tested the same gene inserted into 90 different locations in a yeast chromosome - and discovered that while the inserted gene never altered its surrounding chromatin landscape, differences in that immediate landscape measurably affected gene activity.

4 Jan 2013

Study reveals body's food clock on a molecular level

If the sinful excess of holiday eating sends your system into butter-slathered, brandy-soaked overload, you are not alone: People who are jet-lagged, people who work graveyard shifts and plain-old late-night snackers know just how you feel.

25 Dec 2012

New technique may prevent inheritance of mitochondrial diseases in children

A joint team of scientists from The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Laboratory and Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has developed a technique that may prevent the inheritance of mitochondrial diseases in children.

21 Dec 2012

New work on Akt's role in cancer stem cell biology

The protein kinase Akt is a key regulator of cell growth, proliferation, metabolism, survival, and death. New work on Akt's role in cancer stem cell biology from the lab of senior author Honglin Zhou, MD, PhD and Weihua Li, co-first author, both from the Center for Resuscitation Sciences, Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Xiaowei Xu, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, appears in Molecular Cell.

21 Dec 2012

Scientists uncover TDP-43 protein as possible target for treatment of ALS, FTD

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center say they have new evidence that challenges scientific dogma involving two fatal neurodegenerative diseases - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) - and, in the process, have uncovered a possible therapeutic target as a novel strategy to treat both disorders.

20 Dec 2012

Klerokinesis may prevent some cancers from developing

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center have discovered a new form of cell division in human cells.

18 Dec 2012

EZH2 protein enables advanced prostate cancers to spread without stimulation by male hormones

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a molecular switch that enables advanced prostate cancers to spread without stimulation by male hormones, which normally are needed to spur the cancer's growth. They say the finding could lead to a new treatment for prostate cancers that are no longer controlled by hormone-blocking drugs.

14 Dec 2012

LED light instantly triggers or reverses depression-like behavior in rodents

A specific pattern of neuronal firing in a brain reward circuit instantly rendered mice vulnerable to depression-like behavior induced by acute severe stress, a study supported by the National Institutes of Health has found. When researchers used a high-tech method to mimic the pattern, previously resilient mice instantly succumbed to a depression-like syndrome of social withdrawal and reduced pleasure-seeking - they avoided other animals and lost their sweet tooth.

13 Dec 2012