Body

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, July 9, 2014 – The spread of damaging invasive forest pests is only partially powered by the insects' own wings. People moving firewood for camping can hasten and widen the insects' spread and resulting forest destruction. A new U.S. Forest Service study gives state planners a tool for anticipating the most likely route of human-assisted spread they can use to enhance survey and public education efforts.

Scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have discovered that NANOG, an essential gene for embryonic stem cells, also regulates cell division in stratified epithelia—those that form part of the epidermis of the skin or cover the oesophagus or the vagina—in adult organisms. According to the conclusions of the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, this factor could also play a role in the formation of tumours derived from stratified epithelia of the oesophagus and skin.

As climate change shifts the geographic ranges in which animals can be found, concern mounts over the effect it has on their parasites. Does an increased range for a host mean new territory for its parasites as well?

Silverback gorillas appear to use odor as a form of communication to other gorillas, according to a study published July 9, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Michelle Klailova from University of Stirling, UK, and colleagues.

A network of signals active in almost all types of cancer sends the protein factories in our cells into overdrive, and may help fuel a tumour's uncontrolled growth, new research suggests.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, identified a molecular trigger responsible for ratcheting up activity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) – the cellular factory that makes the building blocks cancer cells need to keep growing.

Using an innovative tool that captures heretofore hidden ways that cells are regulated, scientists at Rockefeller University have identified a protein that makes breast cancer cells more likely to metastasize.

What's more, the protein appears to trigger cancer's spread in part by blocking two other proteins that are normally linked to neurodegeneration, a finding that suggests these two disease processes could have unexpected ties.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Sexual selection refers to species' selection for traits that are attractive to the opposite sex. This special type of natural selection enhances opportunities to mate, the tail of male peacocks being an iconic example.

New findings from Fox Chase Cancer Center paint a relatively optimistic picture of women's chances of surviving a subset of breast cancers that have spread to the chest wall or skin, but not beyond.

Working with a gene that plays a critical role in HIV infection, University of Maryland researchers have discovered that some human genes have an alternate set of operating instructions written into their protein-making machinery. The alternate instructions can quickly alter the proteins' contents, functions and ability to survive.

Studying the most common type of lung cancer, researchers have uncovered mutations in a cell-signaling pathway that plays a role in forming tumors. The new knowledge may expand treatments for patients because drugs targeting some of these genetic changes already are available or are in clinical trials.

Reporting July 9 in Nature, investigators from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), including researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Harvard Medical School and other institutions, studied tumors from 230 patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

More scientific research into the metabolism of stromal support cells and immune cells – and the role of the metabolism of these cell types in the development of diseases – could open new therapeutic avenues for diabetes, inflammatory conditions and cancer. That was the conclusion of a review article by scientists from VIB and KU Leuven in the leading journal Nature.

Researchers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have identified novel mutations in a well-known cancer-causing pathway in lung adenocarcinoma, the most common subtype of lung cancer. Knowledge of these genomic changes may expand the number of possible therapeutic targets for this disease and potentially identify a greater number of patients with treatable mutations because many potent cancer drugs that target these mutations already exist.

In an era of increasing concern about the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant illness, Case Western Reserve researchers have identified a promising new pathway to disabling disease: blocking bacteria's access to iron in the body.

The scientists showed how bacterial siderophore, a small molecule, captures iron from two abundant supply sources to fan bacterial growth — as well as how the body launches a chemical counterassault against this infection process. Their findings appear in a recent edition of The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Researchers studying critically ill children with traumatic injuries have identified an immune marker that predicts which patients are likely to develop a hospital-acquired infection. The study, led by clinician-scientists at Nationwide Children's Hospital and published online in June in the journal Shock, is part of several larger efforts that could lead to the clinical implementation of quick-turnaround immune function tests and treatments to prevent or reverse immune system damage following critical illness or injury in pediatric patients.

Boston—Practices used in policing injection drug users in Russia might contribute to HIV transmission and overdose mortality.

A study, conducted by researchers from Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, in collaboration with St. Petersburg Pavlov State University, sought to discover the effect police arrests had on the health outcomes of a cohort of HIV-positive people with lifetime of injection drug use.