Body

Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins University have discovered that delivering a small molecule that is highly expressed in normal tissues but lost in diseased cells can result in tumor suppression.

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are a class of small RNA molecules that are highly expressed in normal tissues and are critical in gene expression and in maintaining normal cell development and cell balance. Dysfunction of miRNAs has been linked to multiple human diseases including schizophrenia, autism and cancer.

Those pesky graying hairs that tend to crop up with age really are signs of stress, reveals a new report in the June 12 issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication.

A new study suggests that delivering small RNAs, known as microRNAs, to cancer cells could help to stop the disease in its tracks. microRNAs control gene expression and are commonly lost in cancerous tumors. Researchers have shown that replacement of a single microRNA in mice with an extremely aggressive form of liver cancer can be enough to halt their disease, according to a report in the June 12 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.

From the valves in a human heart to the quills on a porcupine to the petals on a summer lily, the living world is as varied as it is vast. For this to be possible, the cells that make up these living things must be just as varied. Parent cells must be able to divide in ways that create daughter cells that are different from each other, a process called asymmetric division. Scientists know how this happens in animals, but the process in plants has been a mystery.

In today's economy, it's increasingly difficult to elicit donations for charitable causes — but new research from Dr. Anat Bracha of the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at Tel Aviv University can provide fundraising organizations with a potent tool.

A powerful spur to giving, Dr. Bracha's research demonstrates, is "image motivation," the positive recognition a giver gets from other members of the community. Her study, published in American Economic Review, can help organizations understand how to elicit maximum donor response in today's tough times.

A team of researchers led by Amy G. Hise, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Center for Global Health and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is the first to discover how the body fights off oral yeast infections caused by the most common human fungal pathogen, Candida.

As fungal infections become more resistant to current drugs, this groundbreaking research may directly lead to the development of new drugs and therapies that will help limit and/or prevent Candida infections in the future for millions of sufferers.

MADISON — Failing to see the forest for the trees may be causing us to overlook the declining health of Wisconsin's forest ecosystems.

Even areas with apparently robust trees and lush canopies are threatened as forests are increasingly fragmented by roads and development, becoming isolated green islands in a sea of agricultural fields, housing tracts, and strip malls, say University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

Researchers have found a potential new treatment for the common problem of muscle atrophy. Results of the animal study were presented at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Knockout of myostatin, a growth factor that limits muscle growth, can decrease body fat and promote resistance against developing atherosclerosis, or "hardening" of the arteries, according to a new study conducted in mice. The results will be presented Thursday at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday 11 June 2009: DNA vaccination using lupus autoantigens and interleukin-10 (IL-10, a cytokine that plays an important role in regulating the immune system) has potential as a novel therapy to induce antigen specific tolerance and may help to prevent kidney damage in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), according to a new study presented today at EULAR 2009, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Caribou and reindeer numbers worldwide have plunged almost 60% in the last three decades.

The dramatic revelation came out of the first ever comprehensive census analysis of this iconic species carried out by biologists at the University of Alberta.

The results have recently been published in the peer reviewed Global Change Biology Journal and co-author PhD student Liv Vors said global warming and industrial development are responsible for driving this dramatic decline in species numbers around the world.

Liver cirrhosis has been recently studied in the light of the new view of the renin angiotensin system (RAS). While the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-Ang 2-AT1 receptor arm contributes to liver tissue injury and fibrosis and the maintenance of basal vascular tonus in non-compensated cirrhosis, the activation of the ACE2-Ang-(1-7)-Mas receptor arm exerts anti-fibrotic actions and probably has also a role in arterial vasodilation in liver cirrhosis.

Checkpoint with forkhead and ring finger (CHFR) is a mitotic stress checkpoint gene whose promoter is frequently methylated in various kinds of cancer. In gastric cancer, CHFR promoter hypermethylation has been reported to lead to chromosome instability (CIN) and genetic instability is one of the hallmarks of human cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in China. Although the association between the epidemiological factors and sporadic colorectal cancer has been studied, the relation between smoking, alcohol drinking, family history of cancer, body mass index (BMI) and sporadic colorectal cancer still remains uncertain. So it is important to investigate the role of these factors in the development of sporadic colorectal cancer.

Cecal volvulus is axial twisting that occurs involving the cecum, terminal ileum, and ascending colon. Rarely, it may take the form of upward and anterior folding of the ascending colon ("cecal bascule").

The research team led by Prof. Hiroshi Suzuki from Toyama Hospital reported a case of caecal voluvuls seen in a 78-year-old woman and reviewed of Japanese literature. This will be published in May 28, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this issue.