Body

Kyoto, Japan -- A common gut microbe could soon be offering us pain relief. Japanese bioengineers have tweaked Escherichia coli genes so that they pump out thebaine, a morphine precursor that can be modified to make painkillers. The genetically modified E. coli produces 300 times more thebaine with minimal risk of unregulated use compared to a recently developed method involving yeast.

Control over obesity and diabetes may be one step closer thanks to a Hiroshima University study in fat tissue.

The research team of Professor Kazunori Imaizumi, PhD, at Hiroshima University has mapped the activation pathway for a protein responsible for burning excess energy in the body.

If the pathway can be confirmed in living animal studies, control of this pathway may lead to treatments for obesity and related metabolic diseases. Researchers studied mouse fat cells growing in a dish using a combination of chemical treatments and protein measurements.

AMHERST, Mass. - Chemists and polymer scientists collaborating at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report in Nature Communications this week that they have for the first time identified an unexpected property in an organic semiconductor molecule that could lead to more efficient and cost-effective materials for use in cell phone and laptop displays, for example, and in opto-electronic devices such as lasers, light-emitting diodes and fiber optic communications.

For the first time, genome sequencing has been carried out on Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis), a bacteria responsible for the disease Trachoma - the world's leading infectious cause of blindness, according to a study in Nature Communications.

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Menzies School of Health Research, Australia have discovered that genes can move from chlamydia strains in the eye to sexually transmitted strains of chlamydia, allowing them to then infect the eye and cause Trachoma - a neglected tropical disease.

Serious burn victims are immunocompromised and may be missing skin on parts of their body, and this makes them highly vulnerable to bacteria. Thanks to progress in intensive care, they are decreasingly likely to die from burn trauma. Death is more commonly the result of infections that can occur several months after being hospitalized. The bandages used to treat burns actually represent a real breeding ground for microbes.

(Vienna, Feb. 23, 2016) One in four cases of colorectal cancer (CRC) detected in a guiac faecal occult blood testing (gFOBT) programme are diagnosed within two years of a negative screening result, a study in the UEG Journal (1) has found, suggesting that gFOBT should be replaced by more sensitive screening methods to improve detection rates.

CRC is the most common type of digestive cancer in Europe (2) and annual incidence is predicted to rise by 12% by 2020 (3).

Philadelphia, PA, Feb. 25, 2016 - There is growing evidence that high levels of intense exercise may be cardiotoxic and promote permanent structural changes in the heart, which can, in some individuals, predispose them to experience arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm). A review published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology explores current controversies and makes the case for investing in large prospective research studies into the effect of intense exercise on heart structure and function.

This news release is available in French.

Montreal, February 25, 2016 - Pancreatic cancer carries a very bleak prognosis for patients. However, a recent breakthrough by two research teams, including one at the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (CIUSSS-EST, Montreal) and University of Montreal, has opened the door to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that cause this cancer to develop.

An Ibero-American team of scientists decoded the Mesoamerican variety of the bean genome coinciding with the celebration of the International Year of Pulses, as designated by the United Nations.

Sequencing such a common source of plant-based proteins for people around the globe will be key not only for improving beans production but also for a better conservation of Ibero-American genetic varieties.

People with diabetes often have high blood pressure and an increased cardiovascular risk. They are therefore often recommended more intensive blood pressure lowering treatment that non-diabetics. However, for patients with systolic blood pressure levels under 140, antihypertensive drugs may increase the risk of dying from cardiovascular causes. This according to a study at Umeå University in Sweden published in the BMJ.

Sophisticated prenatal techniques, not yet in clinical practice, offer the potential to prevent a cruel multi-system genetic disease passing from mother to child long before birth.

But these emerging tools raise important questions: might there be unintended, even irreversible risks to the resulting child--or even that child's future descendants? Are there potential risks to the mother's health? What about other potential consequences if its use is broadened to include indications beyond strict disease prevention, such as adapting the tools into conception aids for older women?

A diverse team of atmospheric chemists, meteorologists and modelers, including scientists from NASA, has traced the origins of mysterious pockets of high ozone concentrations and low water vapor in the air above the western Pacific Ocean near Guam to fires burning in Southeast Asia and in Africa, half a world away.

Transplantation of RPE cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is one therapeutic approach that researchers have explored to treat retinal diseases such as macular degeneration, but life-long immune suppression drugs are necessary because the "mother" cells are derived from donors unrelated to the patient. Induced pluripotent stem cells are cells that have the potential to regenerate any cell or tissue in the body, as shown in a landmark paper published by Takahashi K et al in Cell (Aug 25, 2006).

TAMPA, Fla. (Feb. 24, 2016) - Despite numerous advances in oncology since the War on Cancer began, many patients develop resistance to standard therapies and eventually relapse. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers hope to improve treatment outcomes with development of a novel therapeutic strategy, called adaptive therapy, which is based on evolutionary principals and aims to keep resistant cells in check by maintaining a population of chemo-sensitive cells.

Gorillas in the wild frequently 'sing' and 'hum' during feeding and adult males call more than their younger or female counterparts, according to a study published February 24th, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eva Maria Luef and Simone Pika at the Humboldt Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany, and their colleague Thomas Breuer from the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York.