T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

Biological timekeeper studies reveal new temperature regulator and track clock protein across a day

Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have made new inroads into understanding the regulatory circuitry of the biological clock that synchronizes the ebb and flow of daily activities, according to two studies published May 15.

17 May 2009

Amino acid glutamine show promise in treating stomach ulcers

Nearly 20 years ago, it was discovered that bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori were responsible for stomach ulcers. Since then, antibiotics have become the primary therapy used to combat the H. pylori infection, which affects approximately six percent of the world population and is also a primary cause of stomach cancer. But today the bacteria is growing increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

17 May 2009

New system to deliver siRNA into primary cells

In technology that promises to one day allow drug delivery to be tailored to an individual patient and a particular cancer tumor, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have developed an efficient system for delivering siRNA into primary cells.

17 May 2009

Early use of antiretroviral treatment improves survival rate of HIV patients

A clinical study, led by researchers from University College Dublin, Ireland, and Stanford University, California, USA, with international collaborators, demonstrates that mortality rates of HIV patients can be almost halved when early antiretroviral (ARV) therapy is added to the treatment of AIDS-related opportunistic infections (OIs) such as pneumonia, meningitis or other serious bacterial infections.

17 May 2009

Variation of natural compound cures malaria in mice

Approximately 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria are diagnosed each year mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. While medications to prevent and treat malaria do exist, the demand for new treatments is on the rise, in part, because malaria parasites have developed a resistance to existing medications.

15 May 2009

Quantitative single cell analysis using optical tweezers and microfluidics

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a new method to study single cells while exposing them to controlled environmental changes.

15 May 2009

Researchers unravel key mechanism in pathogenesis of osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, or bone loss, is a disease that is most common in the elderly population, affecting women more often than men. Until now, it was not clear exactly how the disease develops.

15 May 2009

Determining success or failure in cholesterol-controlling drugs

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that a complex network of interactions between drugs and the proteins with which they bind can explain adverse drug effects. Their findings suggest that adverse drug effects might be minimized by using single or multiple drug therapies in order to fine-tune multiple off-target interactions.

15 May 2009

Human nose temperature too cold for avian influenza

Avian influenza viruses do not thrive in humans because the temperature inside a person's nose is too low, according to research published today in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

15 May 2009

New therapy improves chances of living disease-free with neuroblastoma

A phase III study has shown that adding an antibody-based therapy that harnesses the body's immune system resulted in a 20 percent increase in the number of children living disease-free for at least two years with neuroblastoma.

15 May 2009

Cytomegalovirus may cause high blood pressure

A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

15 May 2009

The end of the line for existing stem cell research?

Time is short for scientists to respond to the call for comments on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) proposed guidelines for the use of human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines and their eligibility for federal funds. On May 26, the window to provide feedback will close, and the drafted rules leave the possibility that funding for almost all existing cell lines will disappear.

15 May 2009

Old diabetes drug Metformin teaches experts new tricks

Research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center reveals that the drug most commonly used in type 2 diabetics who don't need insulin works on a much more basic level than once thought, treating persistently elevated blood sugar - the hallmark of type 2 diabetes - by regulating the genes that control its production.

15 May 2009

Herpes drug Acyclovir does not reduce risk of HIV transmission, does slow HIV progression, study says

The drug acyclovir, which suppresses herpes simplex virus-2, does not reduce the risk of HIV transmission when taken by HIV-positive people who also have herpes, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, United Press International reports.

14 May 2009

Pathway opens up cure for Fanconi anemia

In patients with Fanconi anaemia (FA) one of the DNA repair mechanisms that normally protects us against cancer no longer works adequately. Dutch researcher Najim Ameziane set out to find the genes responsible for this defect.

14 May 2009

Discovery of two proteins essential for ovulation

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have identified in mice two proteins essential for ovulation to take place.

14 May 2009

aPKC enzyme tells stem cells which way to divide

Driving Miranda, a protein in fruit flies crucial to switch a stem cell's fate, is not as complex as biologists thought, according to University of Oregon biochemists. They've found that one enzyme (aPKC) stands alone and acts as a traffic cop that directs which roads daughter cells will take.

13 May 2009

Discovery of molecule ‘superfamily’ that causes melanoma apread

A University of Nebraska Medical Center research team has determined that a superfamily of molecules holds the secret to the progression and spread of melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer. The study results were published in the May 13 of the British Journal of Cancer.

13 May 2009

Research shows how cocaine regulates gene expression in a crucial reward region

The study, published by Cell Press in the May 14th issue of the journal Neuron, provides exciting insight into the molecular pathways regulated by cocaine and may lead to new strategies for battling drug addiction.

13 May 2009

Scientists develop tool to study a deadly parasite’s histone code

In the Japanese art of paper folding, a series of folds can make the same sheet of paper into a ballerina or baby elephant. But try unfolding the baby elephant and making it into a ballerina. It's like trying to make a neuron from a kidney cell. Epigenetics, it turns out, isn't much different from this old Japanese art: Each fold, or epigenetic crease, both limits and permits further potential folds in a way that mirrors how epigenetic changes seal a cell's fate.

13 May 2009