Body

Using archival documents, a new report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine examines the sugar industry's role in coronary heart disease research and suggests the industry sponsored research to influence the scientific debate to cast doubt on the hazards of sugar and to promote dietary fat as the culprit in heart disease.

Scientists have identified where a four-stranded version of DNA exists within the genome of human cells, and suggest that it may hold a key to developing new, targeted therapies for cancer.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have identified a protein which causes cells to eat their dying neighbours, helping to prevent inflammation - something which is vital in the fight to stop cancer spreading.

Researchers discovered the Pac-Man like Rac1 protein switches cell function and causes cells to respond to 'eat me' signals omitted from their dying neighbouring cells and clears them away efficiently to minimise damaging inflammation which is linked to a variety of diseases including cancer.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a chronic disease causing severe muscle degeneration that is ultimately fatal. As the disease progresses, muscle precursor cells lose the ability to create new musclar tissue, leading to faster muscle deterioration. This month in the JCI, work led by Ming-Jer Tsai at Baylor College of Medicine has identified a protein involved in coordinating the function of muscle precursor cells. The protein, COUP-TFII, may be a promising target for treating progressive muscle wasting in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

MANHASSET, NY--In a study published today in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology, scientists from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Karolinska Institutet discovered that T-cells capable of producing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine can regulate blood pressure. These T-cells are white blood cells, part of the immune system, which contain an enzyme choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). It is this ChAT enzyme that is responsible for the production of acetylcholine.

Three large, collaborating international consortia of researchers, including a team co-led by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), have uncovered new genes and sites in the genome tied to elevated blood pressure, implicating certain biological pathways and pointing toward new therapeutic strategies for treating hypertension. In one of three papers published simultaneously in Nature Genetics on Sept.

HOUSTON - (Sept. 12, 2016) - An international team including Rice University researchers has discovered a way to fight the overexpression of a protein associated with the proliferation of breast cancer.

Dialing down the level of the protein NAF-1 and the activity of the iron-sulfur clusters it transports may be key to halting tumor growth, they reported.

In a study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers suggest a drug that is typically used to treat type 2 diabetes, pioglitazone, has proven effective at controlling NAF-1 levels.

In papers receiving advance online publication in Nature Genetics, two international multi-institutional research teams describe identifying a total of 44 novel gene sites associated with hypertension or high blood pressure. The studies, co-led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), point towards potential new treatment strategies for the condition affecting around one-third of U.S. adults.

LOGAN, UTAH, USA - In the popular nursery story The Three Little Pigs, the prudent porker who builds his house of brick is chided by his pals, who choose much easier ways to construct their respective abodes. Only later in the cautionary tale does the reader discover the benefits of extra cost and effort in erecting shelter.

Genomic integrity in living cells is maintained by packaging of nuclear DNA into chromatin, which protects it from damage and controls gene replication and expression. Histones are the primary protein components of chromatin and their post-translational modifications regulate chromatin structure and play a fundamental role in biological processes such as DNA repair, DNA replication, mitosis, etc.

When it comes to delivering drugs, nanoparticles shaped like rods and worms are the best bet for making the daunting journey to the centre of a cell, new Australian research suggests.

A new study published in Nature Nanotechnology has answered a long-standing question that could lead to the design of better drug delivery vehicles: how nanoparticle shape affects the voyage through the cell.

The discovery, led by Associate Professor Brian Abbey at La Trobe in collaboration with Associate Professor Harry Quiney at the University of Melbourne, has been published in the journal Science Advances. Their findings reverse what has been accepted thinking in crystallography for more than 100 years.

Researchers have shown for the first time how the placenta "umpires" a fight for nutrients between a pregnant mother and her unborn baby. The study suggests that the placenta will adjust the amount of nutrients transported to the foetus for growth in line with the mother's physical ability to supply.

Genome-wide studies of fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) suggest that the evolutionary conserved enzyme Pfh1 helicase facilitates DNA synthesis by tracking along with the replication apparatus, promoting intact DNA synthesis at hard-to-replicate sites and consequently suppressing DNA damage. The findings are published in PLOS Genetics.

Genome organization similarities of fission yeast and humans suggest that human DNA replication likely also need such helicases at hard-to-replicate sites. According to the new findings, human PIF1 is a top nominee for this task.

New research has found that venom extracted from a species of marine cone snail could hold the key to developing 'ultra-fast-acting' insulins, leading to more efficient therapies for diabetes management.

Researchers from Australia and the US have successfully determined the three-dimensional structure of a cone snail venom insulin, revealing how these highly efficient natural proteins called Con-Ins G1 can operate faster than human insulin.