Researchers in Malaysia have identified key laboratory and clinical features of an emerging new form of malaria infection. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, confirms the potentially deadly nature of the disease.
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Scientists have uncovered a new role played by Vitamin C in protecting the skin.
Researchers at the University of Leicester and Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Portugal studied new protective properties of vitamin C in cells from the human skin, which could lead to better skin regeneration.
By attaching light-emitting genes to infectious bacteria in an experimental system, researchers at University College, Cork, Ireland, have been able to track where in the body the bacteria go – giving an insight into the path of the infection process leading to the development of more targeted treatments.
Turning grape juice into wine is a stressful business for yeasts. Dr Agustin Aranda from the University of Valencia, Spain has identified the genes in yeast that enable it to respond to stress and is investigating ways to improve yeast performance by modifying its stress response mechanism.
Strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that cause food poisoning have been shown to have marked differences in the numbers of genes they carry compared to laboratory strains of E. coli. Some of these genes may enable them to survive stresses such as those caused by modern food processing techniques or exploit food sources that laboratory E. coli strains cannot use.
Competitors copying songs is an issue that every great singer must face, but now it has been discovered that even birds have to deal with cover artists. Research, published today in Evolution, reveals how some bird species have evolved to sing the same tune as their rivals in order to compete effectively.
The latest data from clinical trials of the effectiveness of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) show that the primary determinant of improvements in achieving better diabetes control is regular use of monitors – six days per week or more – rather than the age of patients, and that benefits continue well past the time when people with type 1 diabetes begin using the devices – including experiencing fewer low blood sugar emergencies.
In 2004, Jeremy Luban and colleagues from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, reported that New World Owl Monkeys (Aotus genus) make a fusion protein – AoT5Cyp – that potently blocks HIV-1 infection. The human genome encodes the equivalent of the 2 components of AoT5Cyp (i.e., TRIM5 and cyclophilin A), but humans unfortunately do not make the T5Cyp fusion protein.
It is well known that survivors of breast cancer have a much higher risk of developing a second breast cancer than women in the general population have of developing a first breast cancer. However, little is known about what lifestyle factors may make survivors more vulnerable to a second cancer.
A new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, has found that obesity, alcohol consumption, and smoking all significantly increase the risk of second breast cancer among breast cancer survivors.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered a genetic risk factor for severe liver disease in people with cystic fibrosis. Those who carry a particular variant of the SERPINA1 gene (also known as alpha-1-antitrypsin or alpha-1-antiprotease) are five times more likely to develop cirrhosis and other liver complications than patients who carry the normal version of the gene.
Active, but non-invasive breast cancer is set free to roam as invasive breast cancer when an overexpressed protein converts it to a different cell type, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Cancer Cell.
"We have discovered a key molecular mechanism for the deadly transition of non-invasive breast cancer into invasive disease," said senior author Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.
Use of the molecularly targeted agent lapatinib to delay tumor growth and improve the survival of patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma, or liver cancer, only benefited certain subgroups of patients. While results of this study were largely negative, patients that exhibited toxicity from the drug in the form of a skin rash appeared to have a greater tumor response and longer survival.
Findings of this phase II, multi-institutional study are published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology have discovered a key missing link in the so-called signaling pathway for plant steroid hormones (brassinosteroids). Many important signaling pathways are relays of molecules that start at the cell surface and cascade to the nucleus to regulate genes. This discovery marks the first such pathway in plants for which all the steps of the relay have been identified.
Scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that the lung cancer oncogene PKCiota is necessary for the proliferation of lung cancer stem cells. These stem cells are rare and powerful master cells that manufacture the other cells that make up lung tumors and are resistant to chemotherapy treatment.
Their study, published in Cancer Research, also shows that an agent, aurothiomalate, being tested at Mayo Clinic in a phase I clinical trial substantially inhibits growth of these cancer stem cells.
Immune responses are capable of killing tumors before they can be directed toward normal body tissue, according to new scientific findings published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
"There are extremely precise mechanistic methods augmenting the ability of the immune system to distinguish between normal tissues and tumors," said lead researcher Richard G. Vile, Ph.D. "Understanding the multiple checks and safeguards against autoimmunity should allow us to understand more closely how to generate antitumor immunity."