Nucleotides News and Research

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Wyeth and Santaris Pharma to collaborate on RNA-based medicines

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, and Santaris Pharma have announced that the companies have entered into a worldwide strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialize new medicines based on Santaris Pharma's proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) drug platform, which allows specific targeting and regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) as a means to affect gene expression mediated by the targeted RNAs.

12 Jan 2009

Neuropeptide Y gene variation may lead to early coronary artery disease

Researchers from Duke University Medical Center have identified a variation in a particular gene that increases susceptibility to early coronary artery disease.

5 Jan 2009

New understanding of genetic signature associated with Alzheimer's disease

Scientists have new information about the complex genetic signature associated with Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly.

1 Jan 2009

What are protective effects of anti-ricin A-chain aptamer?

Ricin, a lectin from the castor bean plant Ricinus communis is considered one of the most potent plant toxins.

30 Dec 2008

Researchers identify common gene variant linked to high blood pressure

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified a common gene variant that appears to influence people's risk of developing high blood pressure, according to the results of a study being published online Dec. 29, 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

30 Dec 2008

Key survival circuit discovered in Salmonella bacteria

Hundreds of trillions of bacteria make their home in the vertebrate gut. Though many of these microbes perform helpful duties for their host, others - the pathogens - are unwelcome visitors, causing disease.

17 Dec 2008

Single letter in the human genome points to risk for high cholesterol

Write out every letter in the human genome, one A, C, T or G per millimeter, and the text would be 1,800 miles long, roughly the distance from New York to Colorado.

16 Dec 2008

Discovery of gene mutation that appears to help prevent heart disease

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have discovered a novel gene mutation among the Old Order Amish population that significantly reduces the level of triglycerides in the blood and appears to help prevent cardiovascular disease.

12 Dec 2008

Scientists show that HIV's evolution in the body does not occur at a constant rate

HIV is so deadly largely because it evolves so rapidly. With a single virus as the origin of an infection, most patients will quickly come to harbor thousands of different versions of HIV, all a little bit different and all competing with one another to most efficiently infect that person's cells. Its rapid and unique evolution in every patient is what allows HIV to evade the body's defenses and gives the virus great skill at developing resistance to a pantheon of antiviral drugs.

12 Dec 2008

Genetic markers identified for alcohol response

Researchers at the UCSF Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center have identified a region on the human genome that appears to determine how strongly drinkers feel the effects of alcohol and thus how prone they are to alcohol abuse.

10 Dec 2008

Researchers map changing epigenetic modifications that enable transposons to run amok

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Much like cancer cells, plant cells grown for a long time outside of their normal milieu, in culture dishes, have highly unstable genomes.

10 Dec 2008

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals update on Kreutzer-Limmer patent estate

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has ruled in favor of the Appellants in oral proceedings before the Board of Appeals related to the '623 (EP 1144623) patent in its Kreutzer-Limmer patent estate.

10 Dec 2008

Researchers identify key step in maturation pathway of telomerase

The Stowers Institute's Baumann Lab has discovered an important step in the maturation pathway of telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the sequences that are lost at chromosome ends with every cell division.

8 Dec 2008

Breakthrough in understanding the phenomenon of nucleolar dominance

Since the machinery involved in nucleolar dominance is some of the same machinery that can go haywire in diseases such as cancer, Pikaard and his collaborators' research may have important implications for applied medical research.

5 Dec 2008

More evidence on why the Mediterranean diet is good for heart

Researchers have discovered one potential mechanism by which briefly cutting off, then restoring, blood flow to arteries prior to a heart attack lessens the damage caused, according to a study published today in the journal Cardiovascular Research.

2 Dec 2008

Study identifies genetic variants giving rise to differences in metabolism

Common genetic polymorphisms induce major differentiations in the metabolic make-up of the human population, according to a paper published November 28 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

28 Nov 2008

Researchers discover genomic causes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia relapse

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified distinctive genetic changes in the cancer cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that cause relapse.

28 Nov 2008

Researchers urge physicians to test for fragile X gene mutations in patients of all ages

Writing in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association , UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researchers urge physicians to test for mutations of the fragile X gene in patients of all ages.

25 Nov 2008

Genetic variation for persons with diabetes linked to greater risk of coronary artery disease

Patients with type 2 diabetes who have poor glycemic control and a certain genetic variation have an increased risk of coronary artery disease, according to a study in the November 26 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

25 Nov 2008

Discovery of novel drug target for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have discovered what could be a novel drug target for an often difficult-to-treat form of leukemia.

24 Nov 2008