WALNUT CREEK, Calif.— As Aesop said, appearances are deceiving—even in life's tiniest critters. From first detection in the 1880s, clinging to the sides of an aquarium, to its recent characterization by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a simple and primitive animal, Trichoplax adhaerens, appears to harbor a far more complex suite of capabilities than meets the eye.
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New research may explain why breast cancer tends to be more aggressive in women with denser breast tissue.
Breast cancer cells grown in dense, rigid surroundings step up their invasive activities, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators report in the Sept. 9 issue of Current Biology.
Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new and fast method for making biological 'chips' – technology that could lead to quick testing for serious diseases, fast detection of MRSA infections and rapid discovery of new drugs.
Researchers working at the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB) and The School of Chemistry have unveiled a new technique for producing functional 'protein chips' in a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), published online today (22 August 2008).
Together with colleagues from the Department of Dermatology and Allergy and the Center for Allergy and Environment of the Technische Universität München, scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München have pinpointed a major gene for allergic diseases. The gene was localized using cutting edge technologies for examining the whole human genome at the Helmholtz Zentrum München.
Biologists and biochemists are now able to access 3D images of biomacromolecules underlying biological functions and disease. Rather than relying on text to provide the understanding of biomacromolecule structures, a collaborative website called Proteopedia now provides a new resource by linking written information and three-dimensional structural information. The wiki web resource, first described in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology, displays protein structures and other biomacromolecules in interactive format.
Throughout history, elephants have been thought of as 'different'. Shakespeare, and even Aristotle, described them as walking on inflexible column-like legs. And this myth persists even today. Which made John Hutchinson from The Royal Veterinary College, London, want to find out more about elephants and the way they move. Are they really that different from other, more fleet-footed species? Are their legs as rigid and 'columnar' as people had thought?
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Malaria Research Institute have identified a previously unknown virus that is infectious to Anopheles gambiae—the mosquito primarily responsible for transmitting malaria. According to the researchers, the discovered virus could one day be used to pass on new genetic information to An. gambiae mosquitoes as part of a strategy to control malaria, which kills over one million people worldwide each year. The study was published August 22 online in the peer-reviewed open access journal PLoS Pathogens.
One of the world's longest and largest trials of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has found that post-menopausal women on HRT gain significant improvements in quality of life.
The results of the latest study by the WISDOM research team (Women's International Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause) are published today on the British Medical Journal website www.bmj.com.
A predisposition to adult snoring can be established very early in life. Research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research describes possible childhood risk factors, including exposure to animals, early respiratory or ear infections and growing up in a large family.
New evidence published on BMJ.com today shows that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can improve the health related quality of life of older women.
HRT guidelines should be reviewed in light of this evidence, say the authors.
Previous research has suggested that HRT can improve general quality of life (the way patients feel or function) and reduce the number and severity of symptoms associated with the menopause, but these studies have used general rather than more sensitive condition specific measures.
Feelings of happiness and optimism play a positive role against breast cancer. Research published today in the open access journal BMC Cancer suggests that while staying positive has a protective role, adverse life events such as the loss of a parent or close relative, divorce or the loss of a spouse can increase a woman's risk of developing the disease.
A major international study of the effects of HRT use on quality of life has shown that HRT use can significantly improve well-being in women with menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats. The results of the WISDOM study will be published on BMJ.com on Friday 22 August 2008 (note embargo details above). This study looked at health-related quality of life in 5692 healthy women aged 50-69 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Two independent research groups have found that simultaneous inhibition of two signaling pathways resulted in substantially enhanced antitumor effects in mouse models of prostate and breast cancer. In an accompany commentary, Steven Grant, at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Science Center, Richmond, discusses the clinical importance of these studies and highlights some of the questions that still need to be answered.
BOSTON – Nearly a decade ago, while it was being tested as an immunosuppressive agent to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients, the drug rapamycin was also discovered to have anti-tumor properties. Since then, several rapamycin analogs known as mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitors have been tested in clinical trials for the treatment of various types of cancer.
But despite promising early results, mTOR inhibitors have proven less successful than originally expected.