Protein C News and Research

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Sleep may serve as a marker of Alzheimer’s disease risk and progression

What would you do if you knew how long you had until Alzheimer's disease set in? Don't despair. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests one defense against this virulent form of dementia -- for which no treatment currently exists -- is deep, restorative sleep, and plenty of it.

3 Sep 2020

Two MDC scientists win ERC Starting Grants for pioneering research

Dr. Kathrin de la Rosa and Dr. Ilaria Piazza, who are both junior group leaders at the Max DelbruÌ-ck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, have each won European Research Council Starting Grants.

3 Sep 2020

Study shows what happens in the fetal brain affected by congenital Zika syndrome

Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause severe abnormalities in the fetus, including malformations such as microcephaly.

3 Sep 2020

New technology predicts allosteric sites in proteins

A new technology that uses a protein's structure to predict the inner wiring that controls the protein's function and dynamics is now available for scientists to utilize. The tool, developed by researchers at Penn State, may be useful for protein engineering and drug design.

3 Sep 2020

Tiny hydrogel capsule delivers anti-rejection drug to area surrounding a grafted heart

For patients who receive a heart transplant in the near future, the old adage, "Good things come in small packages," may become words to live by.

3 Sep 2020

New Gyrolab AAVX Titer Kit launched to support the development cell and gene therapies

Gyros Protein Technologies AB, a pioneer in automated nanoliter-scale immunoassays and a leading provider of peptide synthesizers and reagents, today announced the introduction of Gyrolab® AAVX Titer Kit for adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector titer determination in AAV vector manufacturing.

From Gyros Protein Technologies AB 3 Sep 2020

Study shows how general anesthetic drugs act on the brain receptors

As you drift into unconsciousness before a surgery, general anesthetic drugs flowing through your blood are putting you to sleep by binding mainly to a protein in the brain called the ɣ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptor.

3 Sep 2020

Bioengineering technique that boosts protein production could lead to effective COVID-19 vaccine

A bioengineering technique to boost production of specific proteins could be the basis of an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, new research suggests.

3 Sep 2020

Study shows why coronavirus is more dangerous in people with comorbidities

Why is the COVID-19 virus more dangerous in people with comorbidities?. Sadis Matalon, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and colleagues in Texas and San Francisco asked that question in a hypothesis paper published online in Physiological Reviews on March 27.

3 Sep 2020

Combined point-of-care nucleic acid and antibody testing increases COVID-19 detection

A Cambridge hospital has piloted the use of combined rapid point-of-care nucleic acid and antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection after researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that this approach was superior to virus detection alone for diagnosing COVID-19 disease.

2 Sep 2020

Scientists aim to find cortisone alternatives with fewer side effects

Many people use cortisone of a regular basis. It is used for treating rheumatism, asthma, multiple sclerosis, or even COVID-19.

2 Sep 2020

Researchers create new and quicker method of diagnosing diseases

A new and quicker method of diagnosing diseases in patients has been created by researchers at the University of Leeds.

2 Sep 2020

Study provides direct link between inflammation and Alzheimer’s plaque development

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative condition that is characterized by the buildup of clumps of beta-amyloid protein in the brain.

2 Sep 2020

Scientists identify potential blood-clotting mechanism in COVID-19

Why so many COVID-19 patients get blood clots (thrombosis) remains uncertain. But scientists at Uppsala University and the University Hospital have now identified a mechanism they believe to be implicated.

2 Sep 2020

Study offers a possible explanation for prevalence of autism spectrum disorder

Recent estimates indicate a prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States of 1 in 59 children with a well-established 4:1 male predominance.

2 Sep 2020

Study: BIRC2 overexpression could be a key marker for immunotherapy resistance

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have added to evidence that a gene responsible for turning off a cell's natural "suicide" signals may also be the culprit in making breast cancer and melanoma cells resistant to therapies that use the immune system to fight cancer.

2 Sep 2020

ACE2/TMPRSS2 not expressed in pancreatic islet endocrine cells

A new study by researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in August 2020 reports that both key enzymes that are required for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) entry into the human host cell are lacking in the beta cells of the pancreatic islet. This rules out the direct injury hypothesis for impaired glucose control in patients with COVID-19 disease.

1 Sep 2020

High-pressure preconcentration devices for detecting small amounts of virus in early infections

Diagnostic devices that are used at home or in doctors' offices are often not sensitive enough to detect small amounts of a virus that might be present in samples from asymptomatic patients, which can occur in early stage COVID-19.

1 Sep 2020

SARS-CoV-2-RNA viremia is a robust marker of critical illness in COVID-19

A new study by a large team of Spanish researchers and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in August 2020 reports that the presence of viral RNA in the blood is a useful marker of impending acute disease and can help triage COVID-19 disease patients who will require hospital care.

1 Sep 2020

Negligible ACE2 expression in human beta-cells

Now, a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv reports that even though the fatality rate is significantly higher in diabetics, there is no evidence that this is due to direct viral infection of pancreatic beta cells, which produce the key hormone in glucose homeostasis, namely insulin.

1 Sep 2020