T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

New pathway for type 2 diabetes

Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics tend to have one thing in common: obesity. Exactly how diet and obesity trigger diabetes has long been the subject of intense scientific research.

16 Aug 2011

New role for harmonin protein in Usher syndrome

University of Iowa scientists have discovered a new role for a protein that is mutated in Usher syndrome, one of the most common forms of deaf-blindness in humans. The findings, which were published Aug. 8 in Nature Neuroscience, may help explain why this mutation causes the most severe form of the condition.

16 Aug 2011

Caffeine in sunscreens may protect from skin cancer: Study

Studies have revealed that drinking caffeinated beverages reduces one’s chances of developing some types of cancer, including UV-associated skin cancer. Now, researchers propose a possible mechanism for this observation—the inhibition of a DNA repair pathway that sensitizes cells to death after sun exposure.

15 Aug 2011

‘Methyl magnet’ genes can cause family cancer risk

Medical researchers have discovered a new type of mechanism causing cancer susceptibility, showing that tiny changes in some anti-cancer genes can act as magnets to attract modifying “biochemical tags”, effectively switching them off and predisposing families to an increased risk of the disease.

15 Aug 2011

New ‘cure-all’ antiviral method discovered

In a new development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.

15 Aug 2011

Fat interferes with body's sugar sensors to trigger type 2 diabetes

Researchers from the United States have identified how a high-fat diet can trigger type 2 diabetes, in experiments on mice and human tissue. They reveal in their study published in the journal Nature Medicine that fat interferes with the body's sugar sensors. The authors add that deeper understanding of the processes involved could help them develop a cure.

15 Aug 2011

Vampire bat causes rabies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first death linked to a vampire bat. The victim’s mother reported that her son was bitten by a vampire bat on his heel while he was sleeping. At the time, the bite was not reported or treated in Mexico, where the bite occurred.

15 Aug 2011

Targeted therapies that attack stem cell-like cancer cells can prevent spread of prostate cancer

A successful interdisciplinary project is underway between two research groups, in which senior researcher Rebecka Hellsten and Professor Anders Bjartell at the Faculty of Medicine's division for Urological Cancer Research, Sk-ne University Hospital in Malm-, and Professor Olov Sterner and Assistant Professor Martin Johansson at the Lund University division of Organic Chemistry recently published their latest research findings in the scientific online journal PLoS ONE.

12 Aug 2011

Thorne acquires global rights to Q-Cell, an advanced formulation Coenzyme Q10

Thorne Research, Inc., a leader in developing and manufacturing pure, high quality nutritional supplements marketed through licensed healthcare practitioners, has acquired exclusive global rights to market Q-Cell, an advanced formulation Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) supplement formerly marketed under the brand name Q-Best.

12 Aug 2011

Teens involved in research studies prefer telephones over social media

If you think teenagers prefer social media over the telephone, you may want to think again, at least when it comes to teens involved in research studies.

12 Aug 2011

Pyrazinamide inhibits trans-translation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

For nearly 60 years, Pyrazinamide (PZA) has been used in conjunction with other medications to treat tuberculosis (TB), but scientists did not fully understand how the drug killed TB bacteria. PZA plays a unique role in shortening the duration of current TB therapy to six months and is used frequently to treat multi-drug resistant TB.

12 Aug 2011

Researchers explain why vertebrate intestines are so predictably loopy

Between conception and birth, the human gut grows more than two meters long, looping and coiling within the tiny abdomen. Within a given species, the developing vertebrate gut always loops into the same formation-however, until now, it has not been clear why.

12 Aug 2011

Amorfix provides update on cancer therapeutic antibody programs

Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd., a product development company focused on diagnostics and therapeutics for misfolded protein diseases, provides an update on its cancer therapeutic antibody programs.

12 Aug 2011

New technique can help develop HIV vaccines

Researchers have traced in detail how certain powerful HIV neutralizing antibodies evolve, a finding that generates vital clues to guide the design of a preventive HIV vaccine, according to a study appearing in Science Express this week.

12 Aug 2011

Study tracks development of chimp brain and makes comparison to humans

In both chimpanzees and humans, portions of the brain that are critical for complex cognitive functions, including decision-making, self-awareness and creativity, are immature at birth. But there are important differences, too. Baby chimpanzees don't show the same dramatic increase in the volume of prefrontal white matter in the brain that human infants do.

12 Aug 2011

Researchers to develop new prostate cancer therapy

Prostate cancer that has become resistant to hormone treatment and that does not respond to radiation or chemotherapy requires new methods of treatment. By attacking stem cell-like cells in prostate cancer, researchers at Lund University are working on a project to develop a new treatment option.

12 Aug 2011

Research team reports first genetic sequencing of urothelial carcinoma

In an article published online this week in Nature Genetics, a University of Colorado Cancer Center team in partnership with universities in China and Denmark reports the first genetic sequencing of urothelial (transitional) carcinoma, the most prevalent type of bladder cancer.

12 Aug 2011

Insight into how molecular motor proteins save energy

The transport system inside living cells is a well-oiled machine with tiny protein motors hauling chromosomes, neurotransmitters and other vital cargo around the cell. These molecular motors are responsible for a variety of critical transport jobs, but they are not always on the go. They can put themselves into "energy save mode" to conserve cellular fuel and, as a consequence, control what gets moved around the cell, and when.

12 Aug 2011

G-CSF therapy does not induce chromosomal instability in healthy stem cell donors

According to a study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), researchers have reported that administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), a drug that releases stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood, is unlikely to put healthy stem cell donors at risk for later development of abnormalities involving loss or gains of chromosomes that have been linked to hematologic disorders such as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia.

12 Aug 2011

MYCN amplification can serve as a favorable prognostic indicator for neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor that primarily affects infants and young children, is a leading cause of death for children with cancer. When amplification of the MYCN oncogene is found in the tumor, it usually indicates an aggressive tumor with rapid progression of the disease and a poor outcome. Thus MYCN amplification has come to be used as a prognostic indicator.

12 Aug 2011