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Chemotherapy plus immunotherapy can enhance anti-tumor effects in patients with advanced cancer

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital in China have discovered that combining chemotherapy drugs and immunotherapy cancer vaccines results in an enhanced anti-tumor effect.

10 Oct 2012

New screening method may lead to more efficient RNA drug development

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a new method of screening more than three million combinations of interactions between RNA and small molecules to identify the best targets on RNA as well as the most promising potential drug compounds.

10 Oct 2012

Modifying factors may be responsible for non-diabetic kidney disease in African-Americans

The high rate of non-diabetic kidney disease in African-Americans is strongly associated with variations in a particular gene. Yet, not everyone who inherits these variations develops the disease.

10 Oct 2012

Recovering Treg cells in pancreatic lymph nodes may restore insulin production in type I diabetics

The key to restoring production of insulin in type I diabetic patients, previously known as juvenile diabetes, may be in recovering the population of protective cells known T regulatory cells in the lymph nodes at the "gates" of the pancreas, a new preclinical study published online October 8 in Cellular & Molecular Immunology by researchers in the Department of Bioscience Technologies at Thomas Jefferson University suggests.

10 Oct 2012

Researchers discover mechanism by which magnesium reduces cytokine production

Magnesium sulfate is given to many pregnant women to treat preterm labor and preeclampsia and was recently shown to prevent cerebral palsy; however little is known about how it works. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine recently discovered the mechanism by which magnesium reduces the production of cytokines.

10 Oct 2012

Salivary-biomarker approach can identify individuals at future risk of PTSD, depression

Each year, more than a million Americans are at-risk of developing serious mental health problems after experiencing a terrifying event or serious physical injury. Once manifested, these psychiatric illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, can be extremely crippling and difficult to treat and are a leading cause of disability in civilian, military and minority populations.

10 Oct 2012

Chronic kidney disease changes the composition of intestinal bacterial microbes

Chronic kidney disease changes the composition of intestinal bacterial microbes that normally play a crucial role in staving off disease-causing pathogens and maintaining micronutrient balance, according to UC Irvine researchers.

10 Oct 2012

Anesthetic-loaded liposomes can delay onset of neuropathic pain

Using tiny spheres filled with an anesthetic derived from a shellfish toxin, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a way to delay the rise of neuropathic pain, a chronic form of pain that arises from flawed signals transmitted by damaged nerves.

10 Oct 2012

ProteoWizard Toolkit interprets multi-platform mass spectrometry data

The world's leading mass spectrometer manufacturers have agreed to license technology that enabled University of Southern California (USC) researchers to develop software that, for the first time, allows scientists to easily use and share research data collected across proprietary platforms.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 10 Oct 2012

Vitamin C actively protects against osteoporosis

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have shown for the first time in an animal model that vitamin C actively protects against osteoporosis, a disease affecting large numbers of elderly women and men in which bones become brittle and can fracture. The findings are published in the October 8 online edition of PLoS ONE.

10 Oct 2012

Study compares gene expression levels in two key hippocampal regions affected by Alzheimer's

Researchers from the Computational Intelligence Group based at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's Facultad de Informática have used machine learning and data mining techniques to compare gene expresssion levels in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients in two key regions of the hippocampus: the dentate gyrus, where the disease appears to have little or no effect, and the entorhinal cortex, where Alzheimer's disease produces major neuronal damage.

10 Oct 2012

IspH protein accepts two completely different classes of molecules as partners

The iron-sulfur protein IspH plays a central role in the terpene metabolism of several pathogens. The mechanism of the reaction provides an approach for developing new antibiotics, particularly against malaria and tuberculosis. While researching this enzyme, biochemists at the Technische Universitat Munchen discovered a previously unknown reaction: IspH accepts two completely different classes of molecules as partners.

10 Oct 2012

Study identifies cellular adhesion molecules key to cancer metastasis

Although tumor metastasis causes about 90 percent of cancer deaths, the exact mechanism that allows cancer cells to spread from one part of the body to another is not well understood. One key question is how tumor cells detach from the structural elements that normally hold tissues in place, then reattach themselves in a new site.

10 Oct 2012

Grp94 chaperone protein can interfere with clearance of myocilin from cells

The chaperone protein Grp94 can interfere with the clearance of another protein known to cause the glaucoma when mutated, a new study led by researchers at the University of South Florida has found. Using a cell model, the researchers also demonstrated that a new specific inhibitor of Grp94 facilitates clearance of the genetically-defective protein, called myocilin, from cells.

10 Oct 2012

RMND1 gene mutations responsible for severe neurodegenerative disorders

Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, McGill University working with a team at Oxford University have uncovered the genetic defect underlying a group of rare genetic disorders.

10 Oct 2012

Pieris achieves milestone in Anticalin discovery and development collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo

Pieris AG announced today the achievement of the first financial milestone in its discovery and development collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited.

9 Oct 2012

Soluble Therapeutics to introduce high-throughput second viral coefficient determination system

Birmingham-based Soluble Therapeutics, Inc, today announced the official launch of its high-throughput second viral coefficient determination system, HSC Technology, at the IBC BioProcess International Conference in Providence, RI October 8-12.

9 Oct 2012

Healthy lungs can retain age-related cognitive functions

Keeping the lungs healthy could be an important way to retain thinking functions that relate to problem-solving and processing speed in one's later years, new research suggests.

9 Oct 2012

T2R38 taste receptor regulates immune defense of the human upper airway

The immune system protects the upper respiratory tract from bacterial infections, but the cues that alert the immune system to the presence of bacteria are not known. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Noam Cohen at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that the bitter taste receptor T2R38 regulates the immune defense of the human upper airway.

9 Oct 2012

Eating tomatoes associated with reduced risk of stroke

Eating tomatoes and tomato-based foods is associated with a lower risk of stroke, according to new research published in the October 9, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Tomatoes are high in the antioxidant lycopene.

9 Oct 2012