Cell Membrane News and Research

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First case of treating cystic fibrosis and Crohn's disease with infliximab

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-threatening autosomal recessive disease in Caucasian children; it has an incidence of 1 case in every 2500 children born alive. CF involves an anomalous function of the exocrine glands, caused by a mutation of a gene (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, CFTR) located on chromosome 7, which codes for a protein involved in ion transport through the cell membrane.

20 Apr 2010

Study suggests new ways to improve anti-cancer chemotherapies

A study released this week suggests that anti-cancer chemotherapies which use nanoparticles to deliver drugs deep inside tumor tissue will be more effective if the particles are positively electrically charged because they are taken up to a greater extent by proliferating cells, according to a team of chemists and chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

12 Apr 2010

Researchers document the beneficial health effects of omega-3 fatty acids

The health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids are widely proven. But how can these nutrients be absorbed most effectively into the body? And do they have any potentially negative effects? Norwegian researchers are seeking answers to these questions.

8 Apr 2010

Phase II clinical trial of Avastin and Tarceva in patients with glioblastoma multiforme

Patients suffering from recently diagnosed malignant brain tumors called glioblastoma multiforme or a rare variant called gliosarcoma may be eligible to participate in a Phase II clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that combines two innovative drugs.

8 Apr 2010

Nanotechnology for eavesdropping on inner electrical activity of individual cells

A nanometer-scale probe designed to slip into a cell wall and fuse with it could offer researchers a portal for extended eavesdropping on the inner electrical activity of individual cells.

2 Apr 2010

Ascent Therapeutics is now Anchor Therapeutics

Ascent Therapeutics announced today that it has adopted a new name — Anchor Therapeutics. Anchor Therapeutics reflects the Company's core technology and its commitment to building solid, dependable value for patients, partners and investors via its proprietary platform technology.

30 Mar 2010

Insight into scorpion venom may help understand diseases like pancreatitis

A Brazilian scorpion has provided researchers at North Carolina State University and East Carolina University insight into venom's effects on the ability of certain cells to release critical components. The findings may prove useful in understanding diseases like pancreatitis or in targeted drug delivery.

30 Mar 2010

Compugen announces validation of IDD discovery platform for identification of cell penetrating peptides

Compugen Ltd. announced today the development and validation of its Intracellular Drug Delivery (IDD) discovery platform for identification of cell penetrating peptides. Compugen also announced that as part of the validation process for the new platform, more than twenty novel peptides, predicted and selected in silico, demonstrated the predicted cell penetrating properties in initial experimental validation studies.

17 Mar 2010

Dual role of Notch signalling pathway

Scientists headed by ICREA researcher Marco Mil-n, at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), reveal a surprising new function of Notch protein that contrasts with the one known to date. Found in the cell membrane, this protein activates a signalling pathway that regulates the expression of genes that make the cell divide, grow, migrate, specialise or die.

16 Mar 2010

Study offers new possibilities for breast and other cancer therapies

Conventional biological wisdom holds that living cells interact with their environment through an elaborate network of chemical signals. As a result many therapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases in which cell behavior goes awry focus on drugs that block or disrupt harmful chemical signals.

16 Mar 2010

PolyMedix presents data from PMX-30063 defensin-mimetic antibiotic compound Phase 1B study at 8th TSIS

PolyMedix, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing new therapeutic drugs to treat acute cardiovascular disorders and infectious diseases, has presented for the first time to the medical community data from its Phase 1B clinical study with its defensin-mimetic antibiotic compound, PMX-30063.

12 Mar 2010

AB SCIEX launches mass-spectrometry-based software application to advance lipid biomarker research

AB SCIEX, a global leader in life science analytical technologies, today announced the launch of the first mass-spectrometry-based software application specifically designed to advance the study of lipidomics.

3 Mar 2010

Librede to develop technologies for improving ion channel drug discovery and screening at CNSI incubator

Librede Inc. has joined the UCLA on-campus technology incubator space at the California NanoSystems Institute, where the startup company will work on developing technologies to improve ion channel drug discovery and screening.

26 Feb 2010

Mechanosensitive ion channels play a key role in pain sensation

Humans and animals are able to perceive even the slightest vibration and touch of the skin. Mechanosensitive ion channels play a crucial role in the mediation of these sensations. Ion channels are pores in the cell membrane which are highly responsive to external signals.

19 Feb 2010

Poor prescription practices among doctors may increase antibiotic resistance

A new paper in the February 17th edition of the journal Molecular Cell describes how exposure to low levels of antibiotics increases mutations in E. coli and Staphylococcus bacteria hundreds of times more than normal, making the creation of drug-resistant strains more likely.

19 Feb 2010

CNRS-Institut researchers identify 'virulence factor' that inhibits host immune response

Oncogenic retroviruses are a particular family of viruses that can cause some types of cancer. Thierry Heidmann and his colleagues in the CNRS-Institut Gustave Roussy-Université Paris Sud 11 "Rétrovirus endogènes et éléments rétroïdes des eucaryotes supérieurs" Laboratory have studied these viruses. They have identified a "virulence factor" that inhibits the host immune response and allows the virus to spread throughout the body.

16 Feb 2010

SRC-3 gene sends signal to cell membrane to promote cell motility

The master gene called SRC-3 (steroid receptor coactivator 3) not only enhances estrogen-dependent growth of cancer cells by activating and encouraging the transcription of a genetic message into a protein, it also sends a signal to the cell membrane to promote cell motility or movement - a key element of cancer spread or metastasis, said Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) researchers and collaborators in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

15 Feb 2010

Neurotoxin study may help find new therapies to block hyperactive ion channels

There are approximately 500 species of cone snails, each producing 50 - 200 different conotoxins. A similar number of peptide toxins are produced by snakes, spiders, sea anemones, scorpions and other venomous animals. The animals use the neurotoxins to paralyze their prey.

11 Feb 2010

Study may pave way for more refined treatments for brain tumors

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown once again that "ready, fire, aim," nonsensical though it may sound, can be an essential approach to research.

10 Feb 2010

Study shows antiviral drugs could offer protection against HIV, Ebola, herpes and hepatitis C

The development of antibiotics gave physicians seemingly miraculous weapons against infectious disease. Effective cures for terrible afflictions like pneumonia, syphilis and tuberculosis were suddenly at hand. Moreover, many of the drugs that made them possible were versatile enough to knock out a wide range of deadly bacterial threats.

2 Feb 2010