Medical Research News

RSS

Probing proteins can lead to better understanding of anti-tumor agents

There are a number of naturally occurring chemicals that are used in phototherapy of skin diseases. Hypocrellin A (HA), which can be extracted from a parasitic fungus, has been taken orally as a folk medicine for several centuries in China.

29 Jan 2007

Scientists tackle huntingtin protein

McMaster scientists are very close to defining small molecule drugs that should be able to redirect the huntingtin protein from accumulating in the wrong place within brain cells, which could potentially translate to a therapy for Huntington's Disease (HD).

29 Jan 2007

Gene produces springy protein keeping nerve cells flexible

If you bend a knee or an elbow, the nerves in your limbs stretch but do not break. A University of Utah study suggests why: A gene produces a springy protein that keeps nerve cells flexible. When the gene was disabled in tiny nematode worms, their nerve cells literally broke.

29 Jan 2007

Dll4 signalling through Notchi regulates formation of tip cells during angiogenesis

All tissues, sick and healthy alike, need a blood supply to survive and grow. The key to many medical problems, like preventing tumour development, is therefore to obstruct the spread of the blood vessels. Research scientists at Karolinska Institutet have now discovered a heretofore unknown mechanism for how the body links together its blood vessels.

29 Jan 2007

New understanding of cholera pathogen

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered new details about how bacteria generate energy to live. In two recently published papers, the scientists add key specifics to the molecular mechanism behind the pathogen that causes cholera.

29 Jan 2007

New drug to treat kidney failure during septic shock

Research from Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute and the Austin Hospital has resulted in a drug to treat kidney failure during septic shock, which will be trialled at the Austin Hospital from mid-2007.

29 Jan 2007

FoxOs shown to be potential new targets for cancer drugs

In an elegant, multiple-gene knockout experiment, a team of Boston scientists has discovered that a trio of molecules, called FoxOs, are fundamentally critical in preventing some cancers, maintaining blood vessel stability, and in keeping blood-forming stem cells healthy.

29 Jan 2007

Antibiotic doses could be reduced by up to 50 times using new approach

Steven Hagens, previously at the University of Vienna, told Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI, that certain bacteriophages, a type of virus that infects bacteria, can boost the effectiveness of antibiotics gentamicin, gramacidin or tetracycline.

29 Jan 2007

SH2B1 protein plays a key role in controlling body weight, response to insulin and leptin

A single protein in brain cells may act as a linchpin in the body's weight-regulating system, playing a key role in the flurry of signals that govern fat storage, sugar use, energy balance and weight, University of Michigan Medical School researchers report.

29 Jan 2007

A plasminogen-activating protease specifically controls the development of primary pneumonic plague

The deadly attack of the bacterium that causes pneumonic plague is significantly slowed when it can't make use of a key protein, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report in Science.

28 Jan 2007

Molecular mechanism behind aggregation of amyloid beta peptide due to anesthetics

Inhaled anesthetics commonly used in surgery are more likely to cause the aggregation of Alzheimer's disease-related plaques in the brain than intravenous anesthetics say University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in a journal article published in Biochemistry.

28 Jan 2007

New tool to detect depression in cancer patients

A tool to detect depression in cancer patients launched by the University of Liverpool will vastly improve patients' ability to come to terms with their disease.

28 Jan 2007

Alternative to artery-clogging trans fats

Alejandro's research group found a way to mix oil, water, monoglycerides and fatty acids to form a gel substance that provides the same structural and functional benefits as trans and saturated fats.

28 Jan 2007

Linemen more than twice as likely as other players to have metabolic syndrome

After retirement, National Football League (NFL) linemen - generally the heaviest players - are more than twice as likely as other players to have a syndrome that puts them at risk for heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases

28 Jan 2007

Small molecule targets weak mRNA

A new strategy for fighting cancer aims to make its genes get lost in translation, according to a report in the January 26, 2007, issue of the journal Cell.

28 Jan 2007

Link between MRI contrast agent and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis

New research has shown a possible association between a popular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent and the incidence of a rare disease called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients with kidney disease, according to an editorial appearing in the March issue of Radiology.

28 Jan 2007

Minor mistake in protein production at the cellular level may lead to serious neurological diseases

But exactly how the cell avoids such mistakes has remained unclear until now. Researchers at Ohio State University found the mechanism that prevents such errors, and explain their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

28 Jan 2007

Brown seaweed may provide protective ingredient against skin cancers

Substances extracted from a marine seaweed may protect against skin cancer caused by too much sun, new research suggests.

28 Jan 2007

Manipulation of proliferation and differentiation of human bone marrow derived neural stem cells in vitro and in vivo

Stem cells taken from adult human bone marrow have been manipulated by scientists at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to generate aggregates of cells called spheres that are similar to those derived from neural stem cells of the brain.

28 Jan 2007

Disorderly protein brings order to cell division

The secret to the ability of a molecule critical for cell division to throw off the protein yoke that restrains its activity is the yoke itself a disorderly molecule that seems to have a mind of its own, say investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Innsbruck Medical University and Max Planck Institute.

28 Jan 2007