Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...et topoisomerases than normal, more slowly dividing cells, Dr. Wang said. Part of the power of drugs that target topoisomerases is that they complement drugs that attack different cellular targets, and so can be used in aggressive combination chemotherapy. "For unknow...New Cancer Switch Discovered By Duke Medical Center Pharmacologists
...n the usual genetic mixing and matching within the dividing cell, bits of two chromosomes are snipped off and rejoined to one another. In the process, a piece of the gene called BCR is restitched to a large gene called cABL, or "cellular" ABL. The protein produced by the cABL gene is a "tyrosine kinase," a ty...Human-Like Ability, Categorical Perception, Found In Insects
...ects' behavior, he demonstrated, and 16kHz was the dividing line. He showed that crickets label sounds above 16kHz as "foe" and those below as "friend," and that they are capable of categorical perception. Does this mean that crickets, with just a couple hundred thousand neurons in their brains, are as inte...Newly Discovered Gene Halts Cell Division and May Have Cancer Link
... tumors. "We think the MAD2 gene stops cells from dividing when doing so would leave the newly formed daughter cells without all the chromosomes they need to function properly," says Dr. Robert Benezra, an investigator in the Cell Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and the study's lead ...New Nonviral Gene Therapy System Could Help Fight Cancer
...ide at the same time. Current cancertherapies kill dividing cells, but dormant cells can divide aftertreatment, causing the tumor to come back. The T7 system would allow scientists to inject a correctivegene into a tumor that would begin working immediately ondividing cells, then lie in wait for other ce...Virus May Be Linked To Obesity -- Early Findings Hint At Relationship
...x of 27 or above. Body mass index is calculated by dividing aperson's weight in kilograms by the square of height in meters. A viralconnection to obesity in humans has never been seriously considered before,the researchers noted. Dhurandhar first found that one type of adenovirus that infectsbirds an...Research Team Discovers Key Gene For Telomerase Enzyme In Humans
...cular clock of sorts by signaling the cell to stop dividing afterrepeated cell divisions. But the telomerase enzyme counteracts telomere shortening by addingDNA back onto the chromosome ends, he said. Normal cells do not containtelomerase, and their telomeres shorten with each cell division until the...Pitt Researchers Construct Novel Delivery System For Gene Therapy Of Liver Disorders
...ery systems only can access cells that areactively dividing and thus are prevented from entering non-dividing cells. Others, like viruses, have structures that are easily recognized by the body asforeign substances and are either rejected or destroyed by the body's immunecells. Non-viral vectors, like the RC...Gene Therapy Trial Takes Aim At Deadly Brain Cancer
...thymidine kinase (TK), into the DNA of actively dividing tumor cells. Patients are subsequently given th... “composite” virus will infect nearby dividing cells, but has been rendered incapable of dividing itself. During surgery, after the tumor ......bout biochemistry: a cell onlymakes DNA when it is dividing into two new cells. New cells can therefore beidentified if new DNA chains can be tagged, or labeled. Cells containing thelabel in their DNA are new; cells without the label are old. The life-span ofthe labeled cells also can be followed in this w......nhibitor would be preferential delivery to rapidly dividing tumor cells. "A lotof normal cells are just not dividing at all," says Yu. These law-abidingnoncancerous cells would be invisible to the APC inhibitor, avoid...3-D Structure of Human Tumor-Suppressor Protein Produced
...ene, the p16 protein, normally prevents cells from dividing when they shouldn’t. When this protein is missing or inactivated due to mutations in the p16tumor-suppressor gene, cancer can occur. In fact, damage to the p16 proteinis a factor in more than 70 different types of cancer. The researchers have ...New Gene Therapy Technique Results In 60 Percent Tumor Regression Rate
...grass says. "That and the fact that you don't need dividing cells for thesystem to work makes this technique very appealing to us." The Edison Biotechnology Institute is a Center of Excellence within theEdison BioTechnology Center headquartered in Cleveland and is funded in part bythe Ohio Department......antages include efficientdelivery of genes to both dividing and non-dividing target cells, absence ofviral genes that may be responsible for causing an undesirable immune response,high levels of gene expression, and stability which allows them to beadministered directly into patients and to be manufactured, s...New Tests Demonstrate MuchLarger, More Specific Immune Responses To Viruses
...to two weeks, and only T cells that are capable of dividing andsurviving for that long are counted. Since activated T cells are prone to diewhen restimulated with viral antigens, many of the antigen-specific T cellseither die or do not divide enough to be counted. After the initial CD8+ T cell viral ...Excess Thiamine May Help Tumor Growth, Research Shows
...blished in Cancer Research )revealed that rapidly dividing cancer cells produce a sugar known as ribosethat f... ribose molecules are in constantdemand by rapidly dividing cancer cells for the production of new DNA andRNA. “When it comes to tumor-cell growth, viru...Duke Study Helps Explain How Cells Divvy Up Genes During Reproduction
...e Ncd motor organizes the apparatusresponsible for dividing up chromosomes equally during cell division, Endow andher colleagues attached a glowing fluorescent molecule to the Ncd motor in fruitflies. Then they photographed the chromosomes and molecular motors in action asthe chromosomes lined up to separate ...Wistar Scientists Locate Genes Involved In Mammalian Tissue Regeneration
...ound. A blastema is a structure made up ofrapidly dividing immature cells with the potential to become different tissues. The mice are consequently able to regrow skin and cartilage, and to heal withoutscarring. These findings are similar to what was previously seen in amphibians. Dr. Heber-Katz's research ...A Protein Switch May Turn On Heart Cells To Combat Heart Disease
...e of dividing, shortly after birth these cellsstop dividing and express specialized "adult" genes. "We think Rb and MRP1 arekey parts of this process. If we can turn on MRP1 in adult cells, we may beable to get them to 'think' they are fetal cells and start dividing," he says."Now we are searching for the r......al cells express the NOX enzyme only when they are dividing in responseto growth hormone signals," Dorothy Morre says. "In contrast, cancer cells havesomehow gained the ability to express NOX activity at all times." Thisoveractive form of NOX, known as tNOX -- for tumor-associated NOX -- has long beenassumed ...