Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
... as a transport device for the delivery of drugs into human cells, Dr. Finkelstein said. But the researchers are not yet pursuing such applications. Instead, they're trying to figure out exactly how the channel forms and what regulates it. For example, alt...Dangerous Chemical Combination Presents Possible Scenario For Gulf War Illnesses
...ctivity andthus a diminished ability to inactivate drugs or pesticides. This risk factor,which affects only 3 to 4 percent of the population, may boost the toxicityof these chemicals. "Individuals with genetic types of decreased plasma BuChe activityshould be considered potentially at higher risk when ex......lems." Insights into the mechanism of amphetamine drugs derived from studying the"knockout" mice should yi...now about dopamine's function comes from studiesof drugs that tamper with the dopamine system," he said. Cocaine, forexample, temporarily blocks the transpor...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
... scientists couldn't intentionally design such drugs because they knew so little about the enzy... brackets is a hypothetical intermediate. Many drugs that target topoisomerase II stabilize such an intermediate, preventing the enzyme f...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
...rovides a mechanism for a group of diseases." If drugs could block the protein interaction the researchers described,then the discovery may offer treatment options, according to Roses. The investigators became interested in the action of repeated gene sequencesin brain tissue two years ago, when they di...Researchers Pinpoint Site For Petit Mal Seizures In Brain
...f epilepsy. The findings may lead to more specific drugs for the disorder with fewer side effects, said Dr....petit mal seizures aren't helped by currently used drugs and another 20 percent experience side effects, such as inability to concentrate. The findings were ...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
... "Conceptually, it would seem feasible to design drugs that could actas antibiotics for all gram-negative bacteria, which produce about halfof all infections," Raetz said. "It would be difficult, becausebacteria are different from one another, but the discovery of this commonstructure in an enzyme critic...Researchers Find Possible New Route to Making Cancer Cells Vulnerable
...te at DukeUniversity Medical Center have shown how drugs that stop organ transplantrejection also partially...rnal of BiologicalChemistry. They found that three drugs given to stop organ transplant rejection-- cyclosporin, FK506, and rapamycin -- also block the cell...Protein Glitch May Be Early Problem In Inherited Alzheimer's
...me that cleaves it, intervening at this point with drugs or other treatments might be ideal, according to Sangram Sisodia, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathology and neuroscience. Sisodia and Gopal Thinakaran, Ph.D., David Borchelt, Ph.D., and Michael Lee studied presenilin in cell cultures and in mic...Salvage Gene Is At The Root Of Many Mutations
...thgenetic predispositions to cancer could be given drugs to knock out the REV1 enzyme, stopping mutations before theyarise....Low-Protein Diet May Reverse Kidney Disease
...alysis. Nephrotic syndrome usually is treated with drugs and only modest reduction of dietary protein to reduce the loss of protein in the urine. Severe protein restriction has been avoided for fear of aggravating the low levels of protein in the blood. In contrast with other treatments, such as steroids ...Harvard, Duke Researchers Discover 'Off-switch' Inside Human Cells
... cell-surface receptor." However, said Casey, such drugs may berendered impotent because of the complex transformations that receptorsundergo. Thus, he said, RGS10 may constitute a more direct and effectiveway to control the G-protein-activated cellular machinery "Because of the critical role that RGS pro...Newly Discovered Gene Halts Cell Division and May Have Cancer Link
...tive and the checkpoint is challenged -- either by drugs or environmental stresses -- cell division can con...st tumor cell line that is sensitive to the cancer drugs taxol and nocodazole. The drugs, called spindle inhibitors, block the formation of the thread-like f...Laser Microscope At Cornell Images Serotonin In Live Cells
... then, for researchers in designing more effective drugs for a host of disorders. Previous efforts to image neurotransmitter secretory granules have not directly detected the neurotransmitter content or allowed visualization of secretory processes. But the Cornell technology, called non-linear laser scann...Researchers Corral Millions Of Microscopic Membranes
...fashion, the technique might be used to screen for drugs such as channel blockers that interact with receptors on a cell's surface and interior membranes, the researchers said.The starting point for the project was research that was completed in 1986 and 1987 by Stanford chemistry Professor Harden McConnel...Molecular Imposter Rebuts Long
...he new information may helpresearchers develop new drugs that are better able to sneak inand kill sickly cells -- including deadly cancer cells. Kool and co-workers created a ring-like molecule that veryclosely mimics the shape of the base thymine in DNA.This thymine mimic lacks the slightly charged r...New Study Shows Steps Leading To Colon Cancer
...using fruit flies to search for and test potential drugs which might turn off or block the signaling pathway that leads to tumors," he said. Fruit flies are far more important in biology and medicine than most people realize, Peifer said. "Two years ago, the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology went ...Erodible plastic microspheres could be effective oral drug delivery system
...ythropoetin (used to treat anemia) are examples of drugs that would benefitfrom this new form of oral deliv...ystem will be createdwithin 10 years, depending on drugs and uses. Mathiowitz is an associate professor of medical science and engineering inthe Brown Univ...... the way to a potential new target for therapeutic drugs to treat hepatitis C," said the principal investigator, Dr. Michael G. Katze (kates), UW professor of microbiology and associate director of the UW's Regional Primate Research Center. The UW's Office of Technology Transfer has negotiated a pa......discovery also provides a target for the design of drugs to prevent or treat both benign and malignant endocrine tumors. The MEN1 gene, a tumor suppressor gene--a gene that inhibits abnormal cell growth--intrigues researchers because it is unlike any of the tumor suppressors currently known, according toAl...