Body

Patients with cystic fibrosis at risk of severe liver disease

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered a genetic risk factor for severe liver disease in people with cystic fibrosis. Those who carry a particular variant of the SERPINA1 gene (also known as alpha-1-antitrypsin or alpha-1-antiprotease) are five times more likely to develop cirrhosis and other liver complications than patients who carry the normal version of the gene.

Overexpressed protein converts noninvasive breast cancer into invasive disease

Active, but non-invasive breast cancer is set free to roam as invasive breast cancer when an overexpressed protein converts it to a different cell type, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Cancer Cell.

"We have discovered a key molecular mechanism for the deadly transition of non-invasive breast cancer into invasive disease," said senior author Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.

Link for signaling pathways in plant steroid hormones discovered

Researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology have discovered a key missing link in the so-called signaling pathway for plant steroid hormones (brassinosteroids). Many important signaling pathways are relays of molecules that start at the cell surface and cascade to the nucleus to regulate genes. This discovery marks the first such pathway in plants for which all the steps of the relay have been identified.

Drug has limited success delaying tumor growth

Use of the molecularly targeted agent lapatinib to delay tumor growth and improve the survival of patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma, or liver cancer, only benefited certain subgroups of patients. While results of this study were largely negative, patients that exhibited toxicity from the drug in the form of a skin rash appeared to have a greater tumor response and longer survival.

Findings of this phase II, multi-institutional study are published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Lung cancer oncogene holds key to turning off cancer stem cells

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that the lung cancer oncogene PKCiota is necessary for the proliferation of lung cancer stem cells. These stem cells are rare and powerful master cells that manufacture the other cells that make up lung tumors and are resistant to chemotherapy treatment.

Their study, published in Cancer Research, also shows that an agent, aurothiomalate, being tested at Mayo Clinic in a phase I clinical trial substantially inhibits growth of these cancer stem cells.

Autoimmune responses capable of fighting off tumors

Immune responses are capable of killing tumors before they can be directed toward normal body tissue, according to new scientific findings published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"There are extremely precise mechanistic methods augmenting the ability of the immune system to distinguish between normal tissues and tumors," said lead researcher Richard G. Vile, Ph.D. "Understanding the multiple checks and safeguards against autoimmunity should allow us to understand more closely how to generate antitumor immunity."

Research team reveals molecular mechanism underlying a form of diabetes

By investigating a rare and severe form of diabetes in children, University of Iowa researchers have discovered a new molecular mechanism that regulates specialized pancreatic cells and insulin secretion. The mechanism involves a protein called ankyrin, which UI researchers previously linked to potentially fatal human heart arrhythmias.

The findings, which appear this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help identify new molecular targets for treating both rare and common forms of diabetes and hyperinsulinemia.

'Second hit' pushes noninvasive breast cancer towards deadly metastasis

A new study identifies a molecule that acts cooperatively with a well known oncoprotein to drive progression of noninvasive breast cancer to metastatic, life-threatening disease. The research findings, published by Cell Press in the September issue of the journal Cancer Cell, could have a significant impact on therapeutic decisions by facilitating identification of high risk patients.

Researchers link depression and early stages of chronic kidney disease

DALLAS – Sept. 8, 2009 – One in five patients with chronic kidney disease is depressed, even before beginning long-term dialysis therapy or developing end-stage renal disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

The study, based on a pool of 272 participants, is the first to examine the rate of depression among these patients using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM IV), which is considered the gold-standard in evaluating depression.

The ins and outs of bacteria and tumors

In the scientific journal PLoS ONE, Sara Bartels and Siegfried Weiss of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have shown how the bacteria migrate into tumors. A messenger substance from the immune system is the door opener: It makes blood vessels in the cancerous tissue permeable; enabling the bacteria to conquer and destroy the tumor. Simultaneously, blood streams from the vessels into the cancerous tissue, a so-called necrosis develops – and the tumor dies.

Better immune defense against anthrax

Scientists discover a gene in anthrax-causing bacteria may help defend against this form of bio-warfare.

Spread of the deadly disease anthrax by spores of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis is a known terrorism risk and protection includes finding ways to treat the disease, according to an academic paper reviewed by Faculty of 1000.

Are men and women reproductive partners or antagonists?

About 10% of all couples hoping for a baby have fertility problems. Environmentalists say pollution is to blame and psychiatrists point to our stressful lifestyles, but evolutionary biologist Dr. Oren Hasson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology offers a different take. The reproductive organs of men and women are currently involved in an evolutionary arms race, he reports in a new study. And the fight isn't over yet.

When it comes to mating, female crickets know best

Scientists have found new evidence to explain how female insects can influence the father of their offspring, even after mating with up to ten males. A team from the University of Exeter has found that female crickets are able to control the amount of sperm that they store from each mate to select the best father for their young.

The research team believes the females may be using their abdominal muscles to control the amount of sperm stored from each mate. Their findings are now published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Cell discovery could open new chapter in drug development

Scientists have uncovered new details about how the cells in our bodies communicate with each other and their environment.

Cells 'talk' to each other through a complex process called 'signaling'. When these signals go wrong, it can lead to all kinds of diseases, including cancer, diabetes and arthritis, to name but a few.

Composted dairy manure in foliage plant production

Peat has been a major component of substrates used in container plant production since the 1960s. Highly porous with the capacity to hold water, peat makes an ideal rooting and growing medium for potted plants. But harvesting peat (and draining valuable peatlands in the process) releases the carbon stored in peat into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. And because peat plays an important role in wetland ecosystems—-peat bogs improve groundwater quality and are unique habitats for wild plants and animals—-the use of peat has been challenged and peat mining is increasingly regulated.