Body

Researchers and clinicians have widely noted an intriguing link between some intestinal diseases and some forms of arthritis. In particular, chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) frequently afflicts patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), marked by chronic inflammation of the spine and the sacroiliac joints. Separately, both IBD and AS have been shown to run in families. Yet, the specific genetic susceptibility, and whether it is the same for both diseases, remains a mystery.

A 30-year scientific debate over how specialized cells in the inner ear amplify sound in mammals appears to have been settled more in favor of bouncing cell bodies rather than vibrating, hair-like cilia, according to investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Arthritis is common among elderly Americans, and as the population ages it is expected to increase. At the same time, disability is increasing in patients with arthritis and the racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. is changing; minority populations are forecasted to increase from 30.6 percent of the population in 2000 to 49.9 percent by 2050.

Researchers have described a novel molecular pathway that may have a critical role in bone healing and have suggested that lithium, which affects this pathway, has the potential to improve fracture healing. The study, led by Benjamin Alman from the Hospital For Sick Children, Toronto, investigated the role of the â-catenin signaling pathway, which activates T cell factor -dependent gene transcription, and which is known to have a key regulatory role in embryonic skeletal development.

A condition that has to be met for the body to be able to keep warm, move and even survive is that the mitochondria - the cells' power stations - release the right amounts of energy. Scientists at Karolinska Institutet have now identified the first known factor that acts as a brake on cellular energy production.

Mitochondria release energy through a process known as cellular respiration - a chemical process inside each mitochondrion that results in the production of the cell's energy currency, the molecule ATP.

An improved approach to gene therapy may one day treat some of the nearly 200 inherited forms of blindness, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest this week.

In a paper published online by Public Library of Science ONE, researchers take initial steps toward filling a gap in the toolkit for treating blindness by identifying DNA elements that control when and where genes linked to blindness are turned on.

Three Boston University biomedical engineers have created a genetic dimmer switch that can be used to turn on, shut off, or partially activate a gene’s function. Professor James Collins, Professor Charles Cantor and doctoral candidate Tara Deans invented the switch, which can be tuned to produce large or small quantities of protein, or none at all.

The research detailing their new switch, “A Tunable Genetic Switch Based on RNAi and Repressor Proteins for Regulating Gene Expression in Mammalian Cells,” appears in the July 27 issue of Cell.

One potent, immune-based treatment for cancer is total body irradiation (TBI). This approach first depletes the body of the population of immune cells known as lymphocytes and then involves the adoptive transfer of tumor-specific T cells to the patient. Lymphodepletion has previously been shown to improve the ability of tumor-specific T cells to cause tumor regression.

MicroRNAs became the stars of the RNA universe when, in 2001, scientists found that these short RNAs can control whether or not genes are expressed. This month, scientists at Rockefeller University and the Wellcome Trust cast new light on the genesis of these key biological regulators and how they carry out their function. These provocative new findings were reported online July 12 in the journal Genes & Development.

A class of drugs commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes may double the risk of heart failure, according to a new analysis by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

GPs are still prescribing antibiotics for up to 80% of cases of sore throat, otitis media, upper respiratory tract infections, and sinusitis, despite the fact that official guidance warns against this practice, according to an analysis1 of the world’s largest primary care database of consultations and prescriptions, published this week in a supplement2 to the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

A new University of Georgia study finds that sewage-contaminated groundwater is reaching the offshore reefs of the Upper Florida Keys, possibly threatening corals and human health.

Studies in mice suggest that a red blood cell substitute based on human hemoglobin could be a promising new treatment for sickle cell disease in humans.

Millions of Americans take statins to lower their cholesterol, but how low should you go" Many scientific studies support the benefits of lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and achieving low LDL cholesterol levels is one of the most important steps in preventing heart disease. New research, however, provides evidence for an association between low LDL levels and cancer risk.

Cancer patients don’t have time to waste. Many go through several different treatments, however, to find one that is more effective against their particular type of tumor.

Dan Theodorescu, M.D., Ph.D., a University of Virginia oncologist and cancer biologist, and Jae Lee, Ph.D., a computational biologist and bioinformatics statistician, have pioneered a system that matches the tumor to the best known treatment.