Coronary artery disease, the number one killer world-wide, restricts and ultimately blocks blood vessels, and cuts off oxygen supply to the heart. A study published on August 11 in the open access journal PLOS Biology reports that treatment with AGGF1, a protein which promotes angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels), can successfully treat acute heart attacks in mice. The therapeutic benefits depend on autophagy, a normal breakdown process that removes cellular structures that are damaged or no longer needed and recycles their molecular components.
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LA JOLLA--The best natural chemists out there are not scientists--they're plants. Plants have continued to evolve a rich palette of small natural chemicals and receptors since they began to inhabit land roughly 450 million years ago.
Greenland sharks live at least as long as 400 years, and they reach sexual maturity at the age of about 150, a new study reports. The results place Greenland sharks as the longest-lived vertebrates on Earth. The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is widely distributed across the North Atlantic, with adults reaching lengths of 400 to 500 centimeters (13 to 16 feet). The biology of the Greenland shark is poorly understood, yet their extremely slow growth rates, at about 1 cm per year, hint that these fish benefit from exceptional longevity.
Fatty acids found on the surface of water droplets react with sunlight to form organic molecules, a new study reports, essentially uncovering a previously unknown form of photolysis. The results could affect models that account for aerosol particles, including models related to climate. Conventional wisdom holds that carboxylic acids and saturated fatty acids, which are abundant throughout the environment, only react with hydroxyl radicals and are not affected by sunlight.
BOSTON (August 11) - Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University scientists have found exciting, new functions of the protein angiogenin (ANG) that play a significant role in the regulation of blood cell formation, important in bone marrow transplantation and recovery from radiation-induced bone marrow failure. Since current bone marrow transplantations have significant limitations, these discoveries may lead to important therapeutic interventions to help improve the effectiveness of these treatments.
Female domestic cats adjust their response to kitten calls depending on how urgent they sound, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Independent of their own experience of raising kittens, female cats distinguish between kitten calls that convey different levels of urgency and react accordingly, researchers at Hannover Medical School and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany have found. Male cats do not adjust their response in similar ways.
Plant scientists at the University of Cambridge have found that the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) alters gene expression in the tomato plants it infects, causing changes to air-borne chemicals - the scent - emitted by the plants. Bees can smell these subtle changes, and glasshouse experiments have shown that bumblebees prefer infected plants over healthy ones.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A team of researchers at MIT has developed a new way of making windows that can switch from transparent to opaque, potentially saving energy by blocking sunlight on hot days and thus reducing air-conditioning costs. While other systems for causing glass to darken do exist, the new method offers significant advantages by combining rapid response times and low power needs.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (August 11, 2016) - By identifying new compounds that selectively block mitochondrial respiration in pathogenic fungi, Whitehead Institute scientists have identified a potential antifungal mechanism that could enable combination therapy with fluconazole, one of today's most commonly prescribed fungal infection treatments. The approach could also prevent the development of drug resistance.
A new study published online by JAMA Oncology examines the prevalence and significance of estrogen receptor mutations in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Is regenerative medicine the next frontier in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery?
Matthew Q. Miller, M.D., of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and coauthors explored that question in a new review article published online by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
While regenerative medicine isn't rebuilding missing tissue like they do in "Star Trek" movies, it is about unlocking the regenerative potential of allografts and flaps, which are the foundation of surgical reconstruction, the authors write.
Kansas City, MO. -- Many living creatures possess exceptional abilities that set them apart from other species. Cheetahs can run up to 60 miles per hour; ants can lift 100 times their body weight; flatworms can regrow amputated body parts. Scientists have spent decades studying the mechanisms that drive such remarkable feats, with the hopes that any secrets they uncover might lead to new perspectives in human biology and new ways to enhance health and ameliorate disease.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, and in the Netherlands have discovered how a group of three closely related fungal pathogens have evolved into a lethal threat to the world's bananas, whilst an international consortium led by scientists from Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre) has unravelled the DNA of the fungus that causes black Sigatoka disease in bananas. The findings provide leads for increasing the sustainability of banana cultivation, for instance through the development of a resistant banana plant.
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) shows an increased risk of childhood obesity at age 9-11 years when the mother has had gestational diabetes during pregnancy. The study is by Dr Gang Hu, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA, and colleagues.
Commonly touted as "good cholesterol" for helping to reduce risk of stroke and heart attack, both high and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol may increase a person's risk of premature death, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
Conversely, intermediate HDL cholesterol levels may increase longevity, according to the research.
The large-scale epidemiological study is published Aug. 11 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.