T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

Protein kinase JNK1 identified as treatment target for retinopathy in premature babies

Results of a study in mice by researchers at the University of California, San Diego strongly suggest that the protein kinase JNK1 plays a key role in the development of retinopathy in premature infants.

4 May 2009

Scientists discover pattern of genetic faults to predict cancer drug success

A pattern of genetic defects in tumours could indicate whether ovarian cancer patients will respond to common chemotherapy drugs before treatment starts, reveals a Cancer Research UK study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today (Monday).

4 May 2009

New findings on how lithium may help radiation target cancer

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how lithium, a drug widely used to treat bipolar mood disorder, also protects the brain from damage that occurs during radiation treatments.

4 May 2009

A more potent vaccine technology

Virginia Tech virologist Chris Roberts' goal is to develop a platform for a flu vaccine that allows rapid modifications to meet new strains of flu.

4 May 2009

oct3 protein key to Parkinson's, drug addiction

Scientists have identified a protein that appears not only to be central to the process that causes Parkinson's disease but could also play a role in muting the high from methamphetamine and other addictive drugs.

4 May 2009

Obstructive sleep apnea increases risk of heart and vascular disease

Obstructive sleep apnea, or periodic interruptions in breathing throughout the night, thickens sufferers' blood vessels. Moreover, it increases the risk of several forms of heart and vascular disease.

4 May 2009

New early detection studies of lung cancer in non-smokers launched

Government and private sector cancer scientists today launched a research partnership to find biomarkers for lung cancer that develops in people who have never smoked. The research studies are designed to create a better understanding of the biology of lung cancer and to develop a test to detect early-stage lung cancer in lifetime nonsmokers.

4 May 2009

New understanding on how DNA repair works

One can have a dream, two can make that dream so real, goes a popular song. Now a Weizmann Institute study has revealed that it takes two to perform an essential form of DNA repair.

4 May 2009

Women more vulnerable to tobacco carcinogens than men

According to researchers in Switzerland women are more vulnerable to tobacco carcinogens than men.

3 May 2009

Discovery of process that controls T cell growth

Identifying one of the processes that plays a role in naïve and memory T-cells' growth and production could one day lead to better vaccines and possibly more effective cancer immunotherapy, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital in a report that appears in the current edition of Nature Immunology.

3 May 2009

Discovery of gene associated with narcolepsy

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a gene associated with narcolepsy, a disorder that causes disabling daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, irresistible bouts of sleep that can strike at any time, and disturbed sleep at night. The gene has a known role in the immune system, which strongly suggests that autoimmunity, in which the immune system turns against the body's own tissues, plays an important role in the disorder.

3 May 2009

New kind of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases

Yale researchers describe a breakthrough in safe and effective administration of potential antiviral drugs - small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules that silence genes - the first step in development of a new kind of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The work is reported May 4 as an advance online publication of Nature Materials.

3 May 2009

Research uncovers possible basis of memories for different smells

Ben W. Strowbridge, Ph.D, associate professor of Neuroscience and Physiology/Biophysics, and Yuan Gao, a Ph.D. student in the neurosciences program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, are the first to discover a form of synaptic memory in the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that processes the sense of smell.

3 May 2009

Women more vulnerable to the cancer-causing effects of smoking tobacco

Women may be more vulnerable than men to the cancer-causing effects of smoking tobacco, according to new results reported this week at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO), Lugano, Switzerland.

3 May 2009

RNA production revs up during cell-to-cell contact

MicroRNAs are single-stranded snippets that, not long ago, were given short shrift as genetic junk. Now that studies have shown they regulate genes involved in normal functioning as well as diseases such as cancer, everyone wants to know: What regulates microRNAs?

3 May 2009

Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy improves HIV survival rates, study says

The New York Times on Thursday examined a study that found asymptomatic HIV-positive people who delayed antiretroviral treatment until their disease reached an advanced stage faced higher mortality rates than those who initiated treatment earlier.

30 Apr 2009

Breakthrough in understanding of how blood cells develop and divide

A West Australian research team has made the world-first discovery a 'pied piper' molecule within blood cells, called Liar, that leads other molecules into the nucleus of the cell, and could offer a key in treating prostate, breast and colon cancers as well as leukemia.

30 Apr 2009

A systems biology map of iron metabolism

Scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have taken the first steps toward constructing a systems biology map of iron metabolism.

30 Apr 2009

DNA protecting protein helps cancer drug to kill cells

Some DNA repair enzymes can become double-edged swords - If they work too slowly, they can block necessary cell maintenance and contribute to cell death.

30 Apr 2009