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Scientists develop new compound for multiple sclerosis treatment

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have developed the first of a new class of highly selective compounds that effectively suppresses the severity of multiple sclerosis in animal models.

18 Apr 2011

Scientists create hollow nanofiber spheres for tissue repair

For the first time, scientists have made star-shaped, biodegradable polymers that can self-assemble into hollow, nanofiber spheres, and when the spheres are injected with cells into wounds, these spheres biodegrade, but the cells live on to form new tissue.

18 Apr 2011

Researchers discover strategy that promotes new blood vessel formation

Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have discovered a strategy for stimulating the formation of highly functional new blood vessels in tissues that are starved of oxygen. Dr. Geoffrey Pickering and Matthew Frontini at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry developed a strategy in which a biological factor, called fibroblast growth factor 9, is delivered at the same time that the body is making its own effort at forming new blood vessels in vulnerable or damaged tissue.

18 Apr 2011

Scientist discovers new molecular mechanism underlying asthma, COPD

Michael Croft, Ph.D., a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, has discovered a molecule's previously unknown role as a major trigger for airway remodeling, which impairs lung function, making the molecule a promising therapeutic target for chronic asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and several other lung conditions.

18 Apr 2011

Person's inability to understand sarcasm and lies can be a warning sign of dementia

By asking a group of older adults to analyze videos of other people conversing -- some talking truthfully, some insincerely -- a group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has determined which areas of the brain govern a person's ability to detect sarcasm and lies.

16 Apr 2011

WHO will assist Indian officials in exploring threat of NDM-1 in water supply

The WHO has said it will assist government officials evaluating whether the presence of bacteria containing the NDM-1 gene in the water supply in New Delhi poses health risks, Agence France-Presse reports. The announcement comes after the Lancet last week published a report that bacteria carrying NDM-1, a gene that enables resistance to a variety of antibiotics, "was found in 51 out of 171 New Delhi samples taken from water pools and two out of 50 tap water samples," the news service writes.

16 Apr 2011

Team of researchers study development of mesoderm

During the development of an embryo, a large number of different, specialised cell-types arise from the fertilised egg. The genetic information is identical in all cells of an organism. Different properties of cells arise because the activity of genes is controlled and regulated by so called transcription factors. By switching genes on or off, the body makes muscle cells, bone cells, liver cells and many more.

16 Apr 2011

Scientists discover new clues about mechanism behind losartan drug's protective effects

The Johns Hopkins researchers who first showed that the commonly used blood pressure drug losartan may help prevent life-threatening aneurysms of the aorta in patients with Marfan syndrome have now discovered new clues about the precise mechanism behind the drug's protective effects.

16 Apr 2011

Policy paper intendeds to start debate about nature of informed consent in DNA-related research

Healthy people who contribute DNA samples for medical research see their relationship with researchers as sharing a trade secret, rather than participation in traditional medical research, according to a new study.

16 Apr 2011

Neural dysfunction underlying impulsive choice increases with AD severity: Study

Researchers already know that alcohol dependence is strongly associated with impaired impulse control or, more precisely, the inability to choose large, delayed rewards rather than smaller but more immediate rewards.

16 Apr 2011

NVP-BEZ235 inhibits growth of ovarian cancer cells, increases survival: Study

An experimental drug that blocks two points of a crucial cancer cell signaling pathway inhibits the growth of ovarian cancer cells and significantly increases survival in an ovarian cancer mouse model, a study at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

16 Apr 2011

NIH researchers survey landscape of melanoma genome

A team led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health is the first to systematically survey the landscape of the melanoma genome, the DNA code of the deadliest form of skin cancer. The researchers have made surprising new discoveries using whole-exome sequencing, an approach that decodes the 1-2 percent of the genome that contains protein-coding genes.

16 Apr 2011

Chronic exposure to polluted air can lead to inflammation

Chronic inhalation of polluted air appears to activate a protein that triggers the release of white blood cells, setting off events that lead to widespread inflammation, according to new research in an animal model.

16 Apr 2011

Proteins could lead to new therapeutic target for NF2: Wistar Institute researchers

The proteins that provide cells with a sense of personal space could lead to a therapeutic target for Neurofibromatosis Type 2, an inherited cancer disorder, according to researchers at The Wistar Institute. Their findings, which appear in the April 12 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, could have profound implications for NF2 and related cancers, such as mesothelioma.

16 Apr 2011

New approach links cancer cell metabolism with poor clinical outcome

Identifying gene mutations in cancer patients to predict clinical outcome has been the cornerstone of cancer research for nearly three decades, but now researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have invented a new approach that instead links cancer cell metabolism with poor clinical outcome. This approach can now be applied to virtually any type of human cancer cell.

15 Apr 2011

New research finds older adults consume more phytonutrients than youths

Although only one in 10 American adults eats enough fruits and vegetables, new research being presented at the Experimental Biology meeting this week in Washington, D.C., finds older adults are consuming higher levels of carotenoids, flavonoids and other phytonutrients found in fruits and vegetables that are thought to support healthy aging.

15 Apr 2011

New insights into dynamics of amyloid fibrils

A research study, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, demonstrates that the aggregation of amyloid-beta proteins into amyloid fibrils characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is not irreversible, as previously thought.

15 Apr 2011

FEN1 enzyme might serve as anti-cancer therapy target

An enzyme essential for DNA replication and repair in humans works in a way that might be exploited as anti-cancer therapy, say researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

15 Apr 2011

Cytonet initiates clinical trial using liver cell infusion to treat urea cycle disorders in children

International biotechnology firm Cytonet recently launched the first ever clinical trial in the United States using an investigational liver cell infusion to treat urea cycle disorders (UCD) in children. The first patient in the Phase II trial, which will seek to enroll 20 patients in 12 medical centers, is a child with citrullinemia, which is a hereditary UCD. He received six liver cell infusions on six consecutive days at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.

15 Apr 2011

New treatment improves immune function in 13-year-old with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome

In a novel approach that works around the gene defect in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, an inherited immune deficiency disorder, researchers used an alternative cell signaling pathway to significantly improve immune function in a 13-year-old boy with the disease.

15 Apr 2011