Body

Using two successive pairs of specialized CT scans, a team of Johns Hopkins and Dutch radiologists has produced real-time images of liver tumors dying from direct injection of anticancer drugs into the tumors and their surrounding blood vessels. Within a minute, the images showed whether the targeted chemotherapy did or did not choke off the tumors' blood supply and saved patients a month of worry about whether the treatment, known as chemoembolization, was working or not, and whether repeat or more powerful treatments were needed.

MINNEAPOLIS – A new way to use MRI scans may help determine whether dementia is Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia, according to new research published in the December 26, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) often have similar symptoms, even though the underlying disease process is much different.

How can a square meter of meadow contain tens of species of plants? And what factors determine the number of species that live in an ecosystem? Science journal has defined this as one of the 25 most important unresolved questions in science, both for its importance in understanding nature and due to the value of natural ecosystems for mankind. The value of goods and services provided by natural ecosystems is estimated to exceed the GDP of our planet.

A recent study used bird watching records to build up the first bird watching database in China, which found a batch of new records of national level and a trend of of species moving to higher latitude and higher elevation regions.

The study named "Bird Watching in China Reveals Bird Distribution Changes", published in 2012 (31) issue of Chinese Science Bulletin, was senior-authored by LI Xueyan and led by Professor GONG Peng from Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University.

Bone mass is determined by the balance of two opposing activities: bone removal by osteoclasts and bone formation by osteoblasts. Additionally, there are two types of bone tissue: cancellous bone makes up the spongy interior, while cortical bone forms the hard outer portion of the bone.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by the infiltration of the central nervous system (CNS) by immune cells.

A particular type of immune cell, Tc17, has been found in MS lesions in humans, but it is unclear what role these cells play in disease pathogenesis. In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Magdalena Huber at the University of Marburg in Germany used a mouse model of MS to determine the role of Tc17 cells.

The body responds to infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses by identifying proteins that are specific to these agents, known as epitopes, and using them to generate immune cells that will selectively recognize and destroy infected cells.

HIV escapes immune detection by accumulating mutations in epitopes that are recognized by T cells, a type of immune cell that can kill virus-infected cells.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited, degenerative eye disease that causes visual impairment and, eventually, blindness. RP is caused by mutations in the light-detecting photoreceptor rhodopsin.

Calcium oxalate crystals, otherwise known as kidney stones, can cause kidney damage in addition to severe pain.

In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Hans Joachim Anders at the Klinikum der Universität München in Munich, Germany, identified the inflammatory pathways that are activated by kidney stones and characterized the molecular mechanisms that lead to kidney damage in mice.

Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation, but the mechanisms that mediate this inflammation are not entirely clear. In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Nicolas Venteclef of the Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition in Paris, identified a protein complex that blocks the expression of genes that are associated with obesity-related inflammation.

Neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1) is an inherited disorder caused by mutations in the NF1 gene that result in the formation of nervous tissue tumors (neurofibromas) in the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and the cranial and spinal root nerves.

Additionally, NF1 patients are predisposed to juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), myeloproliferative disorders, and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST).

Primary immune thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) is a bleeding disorder in which the immune system generates antibodies that destroy platelets, the cells that cause blood to clot. B cells, immune cells that produce the antibodies that recognize the platelets, develop in the spleen.

ITP patients are typically treated with rituximab, a drug that deplete B cells; however, many patients stop responding to this treatment and must have their spleens removed.

Tumor metastasis, which accounts for the majority of deaths in breast cancer patients, is a process by which cancer cells acquire the ability to invade tissue and survive in other parts of the body.

Dysregulation of the protein TGF-β is known to drive breast cancer metastasis, but the precise molecular mechanisms are unknown. In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by William Shiemann at Case Western Reserve University identified a microRNA, miR-181a, that is altered by TGF-β to promote metastasis.

MicroRNAs are small RNA molecules that regulate the expression of various genes.

In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Shelly Lu at the University of Southern California identified a trio of microRNAs that reduce the expression of MAT1A. Reduced MAT1A expression is correlated with a worse prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; liver cancer).

Angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels, is important for tumor growth; however, while many regulatory growth factors have been identified, little is known about the genetic regulation that promotes tumor angiogenesis.

In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Injune Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology examined the expression of SOX17, a protein that regulates gene expression in blood vessel-forming endothelial cells during development.