Body

LOS ANGELES — Keck Medicine of USC scientists have discovered new clues about a drug instrumental in treating a certain blood cancer that may provide important targets for researchers searching for cures.

The team investigated whether demethylation of gene bodies induced by the drug 5-Aza-CdR (decitabine), which is used to treat pre-leukemia, could alter gene expression and possibly be a therapeutic target in cancer.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Herbivores, not herbicides, may be the most effective way to combat the spread of one of the most invasive plants now threatening East Coast salt marshes, a new Duke University-led study finds.

Phragmites australis, or the common reed, is a rapid colonizer that has overrun many coastal wetlands from New England to the Southeast. A non-native perennial, it can form dense stands of grass up to 10 feet high that block valuable shoreline views of the water, kill off native grasses, and alter marsh function.

AMHERST, Mass. – Along with copying and splitting DNA during division, cells must have a way to break safely into two viable daughter cells, a process called cytokinesis. But the molecular basis of how plant cells accomplish this without mistakes has been unclear for many years.

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 25, 2014) — Taller individuals are less likely to develop esophageal cancer and it's precursor, Barrett's esophagus, according to a new study1 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

Typical cave-dwelling organisms, unpigmented and eyeless, were discovered in a karst area located in northeastern Brazil. The organisms were assigned to a new genus and species of freshwater flatworm and may constitute an oceanic relict. They represent the first obligate cave-dwelling flatworm in South America. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 25, 2014) — The long-observed association between pneumonia and heart failure now has more physical evidence, thanks to research in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The researchers found proof that Streptococcus pneumoniae, the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia, actually physically damages the heart. The bacterium leaves tiny lesions that researchers detected in mouse, rhesus macaque and human autopsy tissue samples.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue researchers have discovered the structure of the enzyme that makes cellulose, a finding that could lead to easier ways of breaking down plant materials to make biofuels and other products and materials.

The research also provides the most detailed glimpse to date of the complicated process by which cellulose - the foundation of the plant cell wall and the most abundant organic compound on the planet - is produced.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Is my child lagging behind physically, mentally or emotionally? Should I be concerned? When should I ask our pediatrician about it? What can I do to help my child?

CLEVELAND: Two recently published studies by a research team at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center have the potential to advance treatments for small cell lung cell cancer (SCLC). This aggressive form of lung cancer has seen no treatment advances in 30 years and "is a disease in urgent need of new drug therapies," write the study's authors.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Bacillus anthracis bacteria have very efficient machinery for injecting toxic proteins into cells, leading to the potentially deadly infection known as anthrax. A team of MIT researchers has now hijacked that delivery system for a different purpose: administering cancer drugs.

Experts at LSTM have used a novel modelling approach to project the effects of new diagnostic methods and algorithms for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) recently endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), looking at the patient, health system and population perspective in Tanzania.

DALLAS – Sept. 25, 2014 – Patients who lost more than 100 pounds and those who shed weight through bariatric surgery had the highest risk of complications from later surgical procedures to reshape their leaner bodies, a new study from UT Southwestern Medical Center shows.

The study, published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, compared surgical complication outcomes for 450 patients who underwent body contouring, a type of surgery to remove excess sagging fat and skin to improve body shape.

All bird migrations are fraught with danger – from the risk of not finding enough food, to facing stormy weather, and most importantly – trying not to be eaten along the way. Raptors such as peregrine falcons (see picture) are the main predators of migratory birds, and huge flocks of congregating shorebirds can be easy pickings. In a paper, just published in Animal Migration, an open access journal by De Gruyter Open, Dr. Sarah Jamieson and her colleagues provide new evidence that shorebird species can adopt substantially different ways of dealing with this predation pressure.

The immune system functions as the body's police force, protecting it from intruders like bacteria and viruses. However, in order to ascertain what is happening in the cell it requires information on the foreign invaders. This task is assumed by so-called immunoproteasomes. These are cylindrical protein complexes that break down the protein structures of the intruders into fragments that can be used by the defense system.

Scientists have developed an approach to creating treatments for osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases that may avoid the risk of infection and cancer posed by some current medications.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis redesigned a molecule that controls immune cell activity, changing the molecule's target and altering the effects of the signal it sends.