Bilirubin can prevent damage from cardiovascular disease
2012-12-06
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Each year, about 610,000 Americans suffer their first heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart attacks and other symptoms of cardiovascular disease can be caused when blockage occurs in the arteries. In a new study from the University of Missouri, a scientist has discovered a natural defense against arterial blockage: bilirubin.
Bilirubin is typically something parents of newborns hear about when their children are diagnosed with jaundice. Generated during the body's process to recycle worn-out red blood cells, ...
OHSU study shows that a molecule critical to nerve cells increases drammatically during hypertension
2012-12-06
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Dentistry have made an important connection between a molecule critical to nerve cells and high blood pressure. Production of the molecule Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) appears to increase dramatically in blood pressure-sensing nerve cells during hypertension. The study, published online in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, may someday have implications for the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure, which affects about one in three adults in the United States.
BDNF is essential to ...
Protein controlling glucose metabolism also a tumor suppressor
2012-12-06
A protein known to regulate how cells process glucose also appears to be a tumor suppressor, adding to the potential that therapies directed at cellular metabolism may help suppress tumor growth. In their report in the Dec. 7 issue of Cell, a multi-institutional research team describes finding that cells lacking the enzyme SIRT6, which controls how cells process glucose, quickly become cancerous. They also found evidence that uncontrolled glycolysis, a stage in normal glucose metabolism, may drive tumor formation in the absence of SIRT6 and that suppressing glycolysis ...
European Romani exodus began 1,500 years ago, DNA evidence shows
2012-12-06
Despite their modern-day diversity of language, lifestyle, and religion, Europe's widespread Romani population shares a common, if complex, past. It all began in northwestern India about 1,500 years ago, according to a study reported on December 6th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that offers the first genome-wide perspective on Romani origins and demographic history.
The Romani represent the largest minority group in Europe, consisting of approximately 11 million people. That means the size of the Romani population rivals that of several European countries, ...
At high altitude, carbs are the fuel of choice
2012-12-06
Mice living in the high-altitude, oxygen-starved environment of the Andean mountains survive those harsh conditions by fueling their muscles with carbohydrates. The findings, reported online on December 6 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, provide the first compelling evidence of a clear difference in energy metabolism between high- and low-altitude native mammals.
"The high-altitude mice we examined in this study are a rare exception to a general exercise fuel use pattern seen in lowland mammals," said Marie-Pierre Schippers of McMaster University. "Studying ...
Disgust circuit: Flies sniff out and avoid spoiled food
2012-12-06
VIDEO:
The ability to detect rotten food is so crucial for survival that even flies have a dedicated neural circuit to do just that, according to a study published on December...
Click here for more information.
The ability to detect rotten food is so crucial for survival that even flies have a dedicated neural circuit to do just that, according to a study published on December 6th in the Cell Press journal Cell. The brain circuit allows flies to avoid feeding and laying ...
Mexican paradox: While opinion surveys overestimate abortions 10-fold, abortion mortality clearly decreases
2012-12-06
This press release is available in Spanish and French. A collaborative study conducted in Mexico by researchers from the West Virginia University-Charleston (US), Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (México), Universidad de Chile and the Institute of Molecular Epidemiology of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (Chile), revealed that opinion surveys used by researchers from the Guttmacher Institute overestimated figures of induced abortion in the Federal District of Mexico (Mexico DF) up to 10-fold. The research recently published in the International ...
A direct line through the brain to avoid rotten food -- a full STOP signal for Drosophila
2012-12-06
VIDEO:
Bill Hansson and Marcus Stensmyr explain their results now published in CELL.
Click here for more information.
Consuming putrid food can be lethal as it allows bacterial pathogens to enter the digestive system. To detect signs of decay and thus allowing us and other animals to avoid such food poisoning is one of the main tasks of the sense of smell. Behavioral scientists and neurobiologists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have ...
Scientists identify molecules in the ear that convert sound into brain signals
2012-12-06
LA JOLLA, CA – December 6, 2012 – For scientists who study the genetics of hearing and deafness, finding the exact genetic machinery in the inner ear that responds to sound waves and converts them into electrical impulses, the language of the brain, has been something of a holy grail.
Now this quest has come to fruition. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, CA, have identified a critical component of this ear-to-brain conversion—a protein called TMHS. This protein is a component of the so-called mechanotransduction channels in the ear, which ...
Flexible silicon solar-cell fabrics may soon become possible
2012-12-06
For the first time, a silicon-based optical fiber with solar-cell capabilities has been developed that has been shown to be scalable to many meters in length. The research opens the door to the possibility of weaving together solar-cell silicon wires to create flexible, curved, or twisted solar fabrics. The findings by an international team of chemists, physicists, and engineers, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State University, will be posted by the journal Advanced Materials in an early online edition on 6 December 2012 and will be published on a ...
Hubble sees a galaxy hit a bullseye
2012-12-06
In Hubble's image, NGC 922 clearly reveals itself not to be a normal spiral galaxy. The spiral arms are disrupted, a stream of stars extends out towards the top of the image, and a bright ring of nebulae encircles the core. Observing with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals more chaos in the form of ultraluminous X-ray sources dotted around the galaxy.
NGC 922's current unusual form is a result of a cosmic bullseye millions of years ago. A smaller galaxy, catalogued as 2MASXI J0224301-244443, plunged right through the heart of NGC 922 and shot out the other side. ...
Biochemists trap a chaperone machine in action
2012-12-06
AMHERST, Mass. – Molecular chaperones have emerged as exciting new potential drug targets, because scientists want to learn how to stop cancer cells, for example, from using chaperones to enable their uncontrolled growth. Now a team of biochemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Lila Gierasch have deciphered key steps in the mechanism of the Hsp70 molecular machine by "trapping" this chaperone in action, providing a dynamic snapshot of its mechanism.
She and colleagues describe this work in the current issue of Cell. Gierasch's research on Hsp70 chaperones ...
Image of the Carina Nebula marks inauguration of VLT Survey Telescope
2012-12-06
The latest telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile -- the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) -- was inaugurated today at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) Observatory of Capodimonte, in Naples, Italy. The ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Naples, Luigi De Magistris, the INAF President, Giovanni Bignami, the ESO representatives Bruno Leibundgut and Roberto Tamai, and the main promoter of the telescope, Massimo Capaccioli of the University of Naples Federico II and INAF.
The VST is a state-of-the-art 2.6-metre telescope, with the huge 268-megapixel ...
Research on blood vessel proteins holds promise for controlling 'blood-brain barrier'
2012-12-06
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have shed light on the activity of a protein pair found in cells that form the walls of blood vessels in the brain and retina, experiments that could lead to therapeutic control of the blood-brain barrier and of blood vessel growth in the eye.
Their work reveals a dual role for the protein pair, called Norrin/Frizzled-4, in managing the blood vessel network that serves the brain and retina. The first job of the protein pair's signaling is to form the network's proper 3-D architecture in the retina during fetal development. ...
Immune system kill switch could be target for chemotherapy and infection recovery
2012-12-06
Researchers have discovered an immune system 'kill switch' that destroys blood stem cells when the body is under severe stress, such as that induced by chemotherapy and systemic infections.
The discovery could have implications for protecting the blood system during chemotherapy or in diseases associated with overwhelming infection, such as sepsis.
The kill switch is triggered when internal immune cell signals that protect the body from infection go haywire. Dr Seth Masters, Dr Motti Gerlic, Dr Benjamin Kile and Dr Ben Croker from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute ...
Nobody's perfect
2012-12-06
Researchers at Cambridge and Cardiff have found that, on average, a normal healthy person carries approximately 400 potentially damaging DNA variants and two variants known to be associated directly with disease traits. They showed that one in ten people studied is expected to develop a genetic disease as a consequence of carrying these variants.
It has been known for decades that all people carry some damaging genetic variants that appear to cause little or no ill effect. But this is the first time that researchers have been able to quantify how many such variants each ...
Overestimation of abortion deaths in Mexico hinders maternal mortality reduction efforts
2012-12-06
This press release is available in Spanish and Portuguese.
A collaborative study conducted in Mexico by researchers of the University of West Virginia-Charleston (USA), Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (Mexico), Universidad de Chile and the Institute of Molecular Epidemiology of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (Chile), revealed that IPAS-Mexico overestimated rates of maternal and abortion mortality up to 35% over the last two decades. The research, recently published in the International Journal of Women's Health highlights that Mexico ...
Researchers discover regulator linking exercise to bigger, stronger muscles
2012-12-06
BOSTON - Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have isolated a previously unknown protein in muscles that spurs their growth and increased power following resistance exercise. They suggest that artificially raising the protein's levels might someday help prevent muscle loss caused by cancer, prolonged inactivity in hospital patients, and aging.
Mice given extra doses of the protein gained muscle mass and strength, and rodents with cancer were much less affected by cachexia, the loss of muscle that often occurs in cancer patients, according to the report in the Dec. ...
A relationship between cancer genes and the reprogramming gene SOX2 discovered
2012-12-06
A team of researchers from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Manuel Serrano, from the Tumour Suppression Group, together with scientists from London and Santiago de Compostela, has discovered that the cellular reprogramming gene SOX2, which is involved in several types of cancers, such as lung cancer and pituitary cancer, is directly regulated by the tumor suppressor CDKN1B(p27) gene, which is also associated with these types of cancer.
The same edition of the online version of the journal also includes a study led by Massimo Squatrito, who recently ...
Study IDs gene that turns carbs into fat
2012-12-06
Berkeley — A gene that helps the body convert that big plate of holiday cookies you just polished off into fat could provide a new target for potential treatments for fatty liver disease, diabetes and obesity.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are unlocking the molecular mechanisms of how our body converts dietary carbohydrates into fat, and as part of that research, they found that a gene with the catchy name BAF60c contributes to fatty liver, or steatosis.
In the study, to be published online Dec. 6 in the journal Molecular Cell, the researchers ...
ACNP: Novel NMDA receptor modulator significantly reduces depression scores within hours
2012-12-06
HOLLYWOOD, FL and EVANSTON, IL, December 6, 2012 -- Naurex Inc., a clinical stage company developing innovative treatments to address unmet needs in psychiatry and neurology, today reported positive results from a Phase IIa clinical trial of its lead antidepressant compound, GLYX-13. GLYX-13 is a novel partial agonist of the NMDA receptor. The Phase Ila results are being presented this week at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
The Phase IIa results show that a single administration of GLYX-13 produced statistically significant ...
Research yields understanding of Darwin's 'abominable mystery'
2012-12-06
Research by Indiana University paleobotanist David L. Dilcher and colleagues in Europe sheds new light on what Charles Darwin famously called "an abominable mystery": the apparently sudden appearance and rapid spread of flowering plants in the fossil record.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers present a scenario in which flowering plants, or angiosperms, evolved and colonized various types of aquatic environments over about 45 million years in the early to middle Cretaceous Period.
Dilcher is professor emeritus at IU Bloomington ...
Environmental chemical blocks cell function
2012-12-06
Bisphenol A, a substance found in many synthetic products, is considered to be harmful, particularly, for fetuses and babies. Researchers from the University of Bonn have now shown in experiments on cells from human and mouse tissue that this environmental chemical blocks calcium channels in cell membranes. Similar effects are elicited by drugs used to treat high blood pressure and cardiac arrhythmia. The results are now presented in the journal "Molecular Pharmacology."
The industrial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is worldwide extensively utilized for manufacturing polycarbonates ...
New evidence for epigenetic effects of diet on healthy aging
2012-12-06
New research in human volunteers has shown that molecular changes to our genes, known as epigenetic marks, are driven mainly by ageing but are also affected by what we eat.
The study showed that whilst age had the biggest effects on these molecular changes, selenium and vitamin D status reduced the accumulation of epigenetic changes, and high blood folate and obesity increased them. These findings support the idea that healthy ageing is affected by what we eat.
Researchers from the Institute of Food Research led by Dr Nigel Belshaw, working with Prof John Mathers and ...
New understanding can lead to srategies for dealing with neurodegenerative diseases
2012-12-06
Jerusalem Dec. 6, 2012 – A new understanding of what takes place on the cellular level during the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS and Huntington's diseases, offers promise towards possible new strategies for combating such diseases, say Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers.
Neurodegenerative conditions result from an impairment of motor function or cognitive function or both. This impairment results from degeneration in the particular area of the brain responsible for those functions.
Although these neurodegenerative ...
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