(Press-News.org) In far too many cases over the years, scientists have discovered promising new cancer treatments, only to report later that the tumor cells found ways to become resistant. These disappointing results have made overcoming drug resistance a major goal in cancer research.
Now, experts at Cincinnati Children's report success at averting drug resistance in a subtype of brain tumors called glioblastomas. Importantly, the research indicates that the approach may also work in other cancers, such as melanoma, that exhibit a similar pathway of drug resistance.
The method involves inhibiting a protein called SCD and reducing the expression of the transcription factor FOSB (which regulates SCD), so that the tumor cells cannot acquire resistance to the SCD inhibitor. Results were published online Feb. 10, 2021, in the journal END
Brain tumor study reveals surprising gene deletion and method to overcome drug resistance
Inhibiting the enzyme SCD and blocking the function of the transcription factor FOSB, blunts acquired resistance and extends survival in mouse models of glioblastoma; these findings may also apply to others cancers such as melanoma, say experts
2021-02-10
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Reductions in CFC-11 emissions put ozone recovery back on track
2021-02-10
A potent ozone-depleting chemical whose emissions unexpectedly spiked in recent years has quickly dropped back to much lower levels, putting the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer back on track, according to a new study by scientists at MIT, the University of Bristol, and other institutions in South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Switzerland.
The chemical in question is CFC-11, a chlorofluorocarbon that was once commonly used for refrigeration, insulation, and other purposes. When emitted to the atmosphere, CFC-11 can loft into the stratosphere, where the sun's ultraviolet radiation breaks the chemical down to release chlorine -- a noxious chemical that then eats ...
Creating more sustainable fragrances with biotech
2021-02-10
In the face of a changing climate and crop diseases, manufacturers of products containing natural flavors and fragrances are pivoting to a new way to source ingredients. Companies have been partnering with biotechnology firms to manufacture scents and flavors using fermented microbes, which experts say are more sustainable. A new story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, details how the industry is brewing up new fragrances.
Although the availability of natural fragrances and flavors like citrus and vanilla is dwindling, the demand for them has increased, writes Senior Business Editor Melody Bomgardner. In recent years, flavor and fragrance companies have been working with the biotech industry to shore ...
Mobile game that uses implicit learning improved children's short-term food choices
2021-02-10
Rates of overweight and obesity in children are rising around the world, with serious long-term consequences for health and health care costs. In prior research, video and mobile games have helped children eat healthier and exercise more. A new study examined how Indian 10- and 11-year-olds' food choices were affected by playing a pediatric dietary mobile game that uses implicit learning--educating players without making them aware of the lessons through innovations in neurocognitive training and immersive technology. The study found that the game significantly improved children's food choices immediately after play.
The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Hofstra University, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (CCP), ...
Google Scholar renders documents not in English invisible
2021-02-10
The visibility of scientific articles and conference papers is conditional upon being easily found in academic search engines, especially Google Scholar. To enhance this visibility, search engine optimization (SEO) has been applied in recent years to academic search engines in order to optimize documents and, thereby, ensure they are better ranked in search pages (i.e., academic search engine optimization or ASEO).
Recent research, published in Future Internet, has found out whether the language of the document is a factor involved in the sorting algorithm of search results on Google Scholar. The study authors are Cristòfol Rovira, Lluís Codina and ...
The role of nanobacteria in the organic matter cycle in freshwater systems
2021-02-10
Because of their small size, some microorganisms can come through the pores of bacterial filters. Such filtrable microorganisms are difficult to grow in lab conditions and therefore remain understudied. Scientists believe that filtrable microorganisms are widely spread in the biosphere and participate in many biogeochemical processes, such as the restoration of sulfur in deep-see regions. They also play an important role in the production and use of dissolved organic matter. This term refers to a group of compounds (such as amino acids, organic acids and monomeric sugars) that are easily utilizable sources of nutrients in freshwater systems.
These compounds occur in pristine lotic systems at very low concentrations mainly from primary producers ...
How the 3-D structure of eye-lens proteins is formed
2021-02-10
FRANKFURT. The lens of the human eye gets its transparency and refractive power from the fact that certain proteins are densely packed in its cells. These are mainly crystallines. If this dense packing cannot be maintained, for example due to hereditary changes in the crystallines, the result is lens opacities, known as cataracts, which are the most common cause of vision loss worldwide.
In order for crystallins to be packed tightly in lens fibre cells, they must be folded stably and correctly. Protein folding already begins during the biosynthesis of proteins in the ribosomes, which are large protein complexes. Ribosomes ...
Tests reveal cybersecurity vulnerabilities of common seismological equipment
2021-02-10
Seismic monitoring devices linked to the internet are vulnerable to cyberattacks that could disrupt data collection and processing, say researchers who have probed the devices for weak points.
Common security issues such as non-encrypted data, insecure protocols, and poor user authentication mechanisms are among the biggest culprits that leave seismological networks open to security breaches, Michael Samios of the National Observatory of Athens and colleagues write in a new study published in Seismological Research Letters.
Modern seismic stations are now implemented as an Internet-of-Things (IoT) station, with physical devices that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet. In their test attacks ...
A language learning system that pays attention -- more efficiently than ever before
2021-02-10
Human language can be inefficient. Some words are vital. Others, expendable.
Reread the first sentence of this story. Just two words, "language" and "inefficient," convey almost the entire meaning of the sentence. The importance of key words underlies a popular new tool for natural language processing (NLP) by computers: the attention mechanism. When coded into a broader NLP algorithm, the attention mechanism homes in on key words rather than treating every word with equal importance. That yields better results in NLP tasks like detecting positive or negative sentiment or predicting which words should come next in a sentence.
The attention mechanism's ...
Temple-Led Team: COVID containment measures in Philly associated with rise in gun violence
2021-02-10
(Philadelphia, PA) - While the COVID-19 pandemic brought most of the country to a standstill in March 2020, Philadelphia trauma surgeons noticed an alarming trend in the incidence of firearm violence. Instead of decreasing with containment measures, firearm-injured patients were presenting at even higher rates to Temple University Hospital and other trauma centers around the city.
A team led by Jessica H. Beard, MD, MPH, FACS, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma Research at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM), sought to determine the magnitude of Philadelphia's increase in firearm violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also aimed to understand potential causes ...
Definitely not the flu: risk of death from COVID-19 3.5 times higher than from flu
2021-02-10
A new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) found that the risk of death from COVID-19 was 3.5 times higher than from influenza.
"We can now say definitively that COVID-19 is much more severe than seasonal influenza," says Dr. Amol Verma, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, and the University of Toronto. "Patients admitted to hospital in Ontario with COVID-19 had a 3.5 times greater risk of death, 1.5 times greater use of the ICU, and 1.5 times longer hospital stays than patients admitted with influenza."
These ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Urine tests confirm alcohol consumption in wild African chimpanzees
Barshop Institute to receive up to $38 million from ARPA-H, anchoring UT San Antonio as a national leader in aging and healthy longevity science
Anion-cation synergistic additives solve the "performance triangle" problem in zinc-iodine batteries
Ancient diets reveal surprising survival strategies in prehistoric Poland
Pre-pregnancy parental overweight/obesity linked to next generation’s heightened fatty liver disease risk
Obstructive sleep apnoea may cost UK + US economies billions in lost productivity
Guidelines set new playbook for pediatric clinical trial reporting
Adolescent cannabis use may follow the same pattern as alcohol use
Lifespan-extending treatments increase variation in age at time of death
From ancient myths to ‘Indo-manga’: Artists in the Global South are reframing the comic
Putting some ‘muscle’ into material design
House fires release harmful compounds into the air
Novel structural insights into Phytophthora effectors challenge long-held assumptions in plant pathology
Q&A: Researchers discuss potential solutions for the feedback loop affecting scientific publishing
A new ecological model highlights how fluctuating environments push microbes to work together
Chapman University researcher warns of structural risks at Grand Renaissance Dam putting property and lives in danger
Courtship is complicated, even in fruit flies
Columbia announces ARPA-H contract to advance science of healthy aging
New NYUAD study reveals hidden stress facing coral reef fish in the Arabian Gulf
36 months later: Distance learning in the wake of COVID-19
Blaming beavers for flood damage is bad policy and bad science, Concordia research shows
The new ‘forever’ contaminant? SFU study raises alarm on marine fiberglass pollution
Shorter early-life telomere length as a predictor of survival
Why do female caribou have antlers?
How studying yeast in the gut could lead to new, better drugs
Chemists thought phosphorus had shown all its cards. It surprised them with a new move
A feedback loop of rising submissions and overburdened peer reviewers threatens the peer review system of the scientific literature
Rediscovered music may never sound the same twice, according to new Surrey study
Ochsner Baton Rouge expands specialty physicians and providers at area clinics and O’Neal hospital
New strategies aim at HIV’s last strongholds
[Press-News.org] Brain tumor study reveals surprising gene deletion and method to overcome drug resistanceInhibiting the enzyme SCD and blocking the function of the transcription factor FOSB, blunts acquired resistance and extends survival in mouse models of glioblastoma; these findings may also apply to others cancers such as melanoma, say experts