Body

(Boston) – A study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) demonstrates a new mechanism involving a signaling protein and its receptor that may block the formation of new blood vessels and cancer growth. The findings are published in the December issue of Science Signaling.

Angiogenesis creates new blood vessels in a process that can lead to the onset and progression of several diseases such as cancer and age-related macular degeneration.

A ground-breaking international collaborative survey, published today in Annals of Oncology, shows that more than half of the world's population live in countries where regulations that aim to stem drug misuse leave cancer patients without access to opioid medicines for managing cancer pain.

The results from the Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI) [1] project show that more than 4 billion people live in countries where regulations leave cancer patients suffering excruciating pain.

New research shows that pre-existing diabetes in pregnant women greatly increases the risk of death of their unborn fetus by around four-and-a-half times compared with pregnant women without diabetes, and also almost doubles the risk of death of infants after birth. The research, published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes), is by Dr Ruth Bell and Peter Tennant, Newcastle University, UK, and colleagues from Newcastle University, and the South Tees NHS Trust, UK and Public Health England.

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 27, 2013 – In an unprecedented windfall for public access to health data, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers have collected and digitized all weekly surveillance reports for reportable diseases in the United States going back more than 125 years.

Genetic research that will be published tomorrow in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests to Dr. André Lacroix, professor at the University of Montreal, that clinicians' understanding and treatment of a form of Cushing's syndrome affecting both adrenal glands will be fundamentally changed, and that moreover, it might be appropriate to begin screening for the genetic mutations that cause this form of the disease.

NEW YORK, NY (November 27, 2013) —An international team of scientists, including researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), has identified a key metabolic enzyme that common malaria parasites require for survival at each stage of infection in humans. The findings raise the possibility of a new approach to combating malaria, one of the world's deadliest diseases. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Nature.

MINNEAPOLIS – Scientists may have found a new treatment that can help people with spinal cord injuries walk better. The research is published in the November 27, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Philadelphia, Pa. (November 27, 2013) – Once viewed as an "outlandish morally objectionable" concept with science-fiction overtones, face transplantation is now accepted as a "feasible and necessary treatment" for severely disfigured patients.

NEW YORK, NY (November 27, 2013) —An international team of scientists, including researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), has identified a key metabolic enzyme that common malaria parasites require for survival at each stage of infection in humans. The findings raise the possibility of a new approach to combating malaria, one of the world's deadliest diseases. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Nature.

Using advanced methodologies that pit drug compounds against specific types of malaria parasite cells, an international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, have identified a potential new weapon and approach for attacking the parasites that cause malaria.

Their findings are published in the November 27, 2013 advanced online publication of Nature.

Nature builds flawless diamonds, sapphires and other gems. Now a Northwestern University research team is the first to build near-perfect single crystals out of nanoparticles and DNA, using the same structure favored by nature.

"Single crystals are the backbone of many things we rely on -- diamonds for beauty as well as industrial applications, sapphires for lasers and silicon for electronics," said nanoscientist Chad A. Mirkin. "The precise placement of atoms within a well-defined lattice defines these high-quality crystals.

Researchers have identified the protein in malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites that is inhibited by a newly discovered class of anti-malarial compounds known as imidazopyrazines. The protein, phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase (PI4K), is the first potential malaria drug target shown to be essential to all stages of the Plasmodium life cycle; imidazopyrazines impede its activity throughout this process.

HOUSTON – A protector for PTEN, a tumor-thwarting protein often missing in cancer cells, has emerged from research led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center published online at Nature Cell Biology this week.

"We discovered that the enzyme USP13 stabilizes the PTEN protein by reversing a process that marks various proteins for destruction by the cell's proteasome," said the paper's senior author Li Ma, Ph.D., assistant professor of Experimental Radiation Oncology.

Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 27 have identified a cryptic new species of wild cat living in Brazil. The discovery is a reminder of just how little scientists still know about the natural world, even when it comes to such charismatic creatures. The findings also have important conservation implications for the cats, the researchers say.

As part of a collaborative initiative, PLOS and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) are delighted to be launching a special Collection—PLOS & DNDi: a decade of Open Access and Neglected Tropical Diseases R&D (Research and Development)—to coincide with a joint event at the Institut Pasteur in Paris celebrating the 10-year anniversary of DNDi.