Body

A select group of garter snakes can thank their ancestors for the ability to chow down on a poisonous newt and live to tell the tale.

Researchers are resurrecting ancient bacterial protein complexes to determine how 3.5-billion-year-old cells functioned versus cells of today. Surprisingly, they are not that different, reports a study published June 9 in Cell Chemical Biology. Despite a popular hypothesis that primordial organisms had simple enzyme proteins, evidence suggests that bacteria around 500 million years after life began already had the sophisticated cellular machinery that exists today.

Large animals hunted for their parts--such as elephant ivory and shark fins--are in double jeopardy of extinction due to their large body size and high value, according to a new analysis reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 9. The study reveals underappreciated risk to marine species similar to that of iconic terrestrial species, but elevated by key differences in the sea.

CINCINNATI - As the promise of using regenerative stem cell therapies draws closer, a consortium of biomedical scientists reports about 30 percent of induced pluripotent stem cells they analyzed from 10 research institutions were genetically unstable and not safe for clinical use.

Failure of an enzyme to break down DNA spilling into the bloodstream as cells die may be a major driver of inflammation in lupus. This is the finding of a study in both mice and human patients led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and published online June 9 in the journal Cell.

Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Medical Center, and NewYork-Presbyterian, found that patients who did not adhere to their medication schedule for chronic conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, and thyroid disease, prior to a breast cancer diagnosis were twice as likely to skip oral adjuvant hormonal therapy.

An estimated more than 72,000 cases of unrepaired cleft lip and/or palate exist in 28 of India's 29 states and poor states with less health infrastructure had higher rates, according to an article published online by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

Published in JAMA Oncology, Principal Investigator of Vall d´Hebron Institute of Oncology´s (VHIO) Translational Genomics Group, Team Leader of translational genomics and targeted therapeutics in solid tumors at the August Pi I Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), and Head of Medical Oncology at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, Aleix Prat has led a study showing the intrinsic subtyping of breast cancer by means of a genomic test as the most important prognostic factor in advanced or metastatic hormone-sensitive breast cancer.

Researchers from the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Unit at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have just published an important finding regarding antiangiogenic drugs, one of the most commonly used drugs to treat cancer. In a paper published in Cell Reports they describe a resistance mechanism to these compounds and, more importantly, a way to reverse it. Working on mice with breast and lung cancer, they noted that when they added an antidiabetic agent to the antiangiogenic drug regimen, tumour growth was inhibited by 92%.

Cancer stem cells are like zombies -- even after a tumor is destroyed, they can keep coming back. These cells have an unlimited capacity to regenerate themselves, making more cancer stem cells and more tumors. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now unraveled how pre-leukemic white blood cell precursors become leukemia stem cells. The study, published June 9 in Cell Stem Cell, used human cells to define the RNA editing enzyme ADAR1's role in leukemia, and find a way to stop it.

Biomarkers play an important role in modern cancer medicine. They are used as tools to diagnose cancers more precisely and to better predict the course of the disease. One marker that is frequently associated with leukemia is a chromosomal abnormality called t(8;21) translocation, in which a part of chromosome 8 connects with chromosome 21. Back in the 1970s, researchers already recognized that in a substantial percentage of patients suffering from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the transformed cells exhibited this chromosomal abnormality.

Incorrectly folded proteins can cause a variety of diseases. Danish researchers have found a solution for preventing this misfolding.

Chicago, IL, June 9, 2016 - A single breath may be all it takes to identify the return of lung cancer after surgery, according to a study posted online today by The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Key findings in this study show that breath analysis offers an option for primary screening and post-surgery monitoring of lung cancer patients. Certain carbonyl volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath indicate the presence of lung cancer. Researchers hope to get FDA approval for this new process.

Scientists have found past El Niño oscillations in the Pacific Ocean may have amplified global climate fluctuations for hundreds of years at a time.

The team uncovered century-scale patterns in Pacific rainfall and temperature, and linked them with global climate changes in the past 2000 years.

For example, northern hemisphere warming and droughts between the years 950 and 1250 corresponded to an El Niño-like state in the Pacific, which switched to a La Niña-like pattern during a cold period between 1350 and 1900.

Drugs currently being trialled in cancer patients have been used to successfully target an autoimmune condition in mice at UCL and King's College London.

The study, published in Cell Reports, involved giving cancer drugs to mice and inducing uveitis, an incurable autoimmune eye condition responsible for 1 in every 10 cases of visual impairment in the UK*. The condition was significantly less severe in mice given the cancer drugs. Current treatment options are limited and can cause further visual problems including cataracts.