Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
...cal companies harness this strategy in the potent antifungal medications amphotericin and nystatin. Yet until recently, researchers have known little about how such membrane-piercing proteins work. Now, using an innovative technique, NIH-funded researchers a......orterprotein. Such a strategy may prove to be more potent than standard treatments.Giving more dopamine to Parkinson's patients, as is done now, just keepsthe active transporters busy longer, he said. "Blocking the transporter with therapeutic drugs should greatly benefitParkinson's patients," Caron said. ...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...refore, the more enzyme you have, the more potent the drug becomes." This is an unusual pharmaceutical mechanism, Dr. Wang said. "Usually, drugs inhibit a particular enzyme. These drugs convert the enzyme to a poison." Such drugs have applications beyond chemotherap...Tumor Suppressor Gene Located In Liver Cancer Cells
... said Jirtle. It is involved in activating a very potent growth inhibitor, called transforming growth factor beta. It disables a positive growth factor, insulin-like growth factor II. The receptor also works inside the cell as a shuttle craft, moving proteolytic enzymes to the lysosomes, a part of the cel...Duke Researchers Discover Candidate Susceptibility Gene For Autoimmune Disease
...othesized the animals were producing too much of a potent inflammatoryprotein called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa). To test their idea, the researchers injected the TTP-deficient animalswith an antibody that neutralizes TNFa. In a dramatic and almost completereversal, all signs of disease completely d...Duke Researchers Find Second Gene Linked To Blood Vessel Disorder
...re of itsfunction, it appears to interact with the potent growth factor, transforminggrowth factor beta (TGF...d his colleagues have linked HHT to twogenes and a potent growth factor, TGF-_. "We've learned a lot in a short space of time," said Marchuk,an advisory boa...New Sensor Provides First Instant Test For Toxic E. coli Organism
...horough cooking of meats. The bacteria strainis a potent health threat. Undoubtedly, numerous unreported outbreaks of E.coli related disease have occurred. Children and the elderly are particularlysusceptible to infections. Symptoms include diarrhea and internal bleeding,and death can result. Be...Scientists Determine 3-D Crystal Structure Of Cancer-Causing Protein
...omain of Hck,"said Kuriyan. "Nef turns out to be a potent activator of Hck activity." This work was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In addition,Miller received support from the federal government's National Institutes ofHealth. Sicheri is a fellow of the Human Frontiers Science Progra...Molecular Piracy Turns Protein Into Traitor
... a chemokine. The virus then transformed it into a potent and broad-spectrum blocker of our chemokine system. Recent research has shown that twoof the chemokine receptors blocked by the new molecule, CCR5 and CXCR4, are co-receptors essential for HIV infection of human cells. This is the first naturally oc...Plant-Based Therapies Examined For Colon Cancer Prevention
...ne whether these naturally occuring chemicals, all potent antioxidantsand antiinflammatories, can affect cells in a similar manner as sulindac, whichprompts the cells to "turn on" a program of regulated cell death calledapoptosis. NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen and naproxen, are among the mostcommonly use...Bowman Gray Scientists Find Novel Way To Block AIDS Virus
..., "this gene-based intrakine therapy should have a potent andlong-lasting anti-HIV effect." In contrast to Chen's approach, the best current HIV treatment is withcombinations or "cocktails" of drugs. While these combinations of medicationsshows promise of extending the lives of patients with HIV-1, ...Synthetic Vitamin E And Natural Vitamin E Are Equally Powerful Antioxidents
...herol - the mostactive form of vitamin E - is more potent than the synthetic version of thevitamin. Natural alpha tocopherol is absorbed better in the bloodstream, leadingto levels 1.5 times higher than with synthetic doses. "We wanted to see if this held true in humans," said Dr. IshwarlalJialal, ...Max-Planck Researchers Unravel The Structure Of The Methane Forming Enzyme
...phic bacteria or escapes to the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas. All methanogens are dependent on the enzyme methyl-CoM reductase, a protein complex of 300 kDa size. Its crystal structure was solved to a resolution of 1.45 E which represents the highest resolution for biological macromo...Recombinant Protein Immunizes Mice, Promises New Strategy Against Infection And Cancer
...sponses. Infact, heat-shock proteins are extremely potent in stimulating a CTL immuneresponse," says Dr. Young. Heat shock proteins, or stress proteins, are a family of proteins thatcells produce in response to stress from heat, injury, germs, or toxins. Normally, these proteins act as molecular c...Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Receives $1.1 Million Grant From National Cancer Institute
...am and collaborators revealed the compound to be a potent anti-tumor agent with a mechanism of action simila...molide, however, appears to be up to 80 times more potent than Taxol in killing human tumor cells and is also effective in killing tumor cells which have deve......unities to accelerate our ongoing efforts todesign potent and specific drugs against hepatitis C," said Dr. Paul Caron,Vertex biophysicist and also an author of the Structure paper. "In addition toproviding information on a key target for therapeutic intervention, thestructural data we have unveiled also su...Fauci: New Findings Help Explain "Rebound" Of HIV In Patients Who Discontinue Triple-Drug Therapy
...servoirs of latent HIV in resting CD4+ T cells, if potent combinations of antiretroviral drugs are not present. Such drug combinations, which generally include a protease inhibitor and two or three other drugs, are commonly referred to as "highly active antiretroviral the...Extensive Phase II Data Of Amprenavir (141W94/VX-478) To Be Presented
Amprenavir's emerging profile is of a highly potent drug, well-tolerated intwo-, three-, and four-drug...wo-drug, twice daily combination showeda rapid and potent antiviral effect (13 of 17 patients evaluated hadundetectable virus at 4 weeks, and 12 of 12 evaluat...Cancer Cells Self-Destruct When "Sweet Tooth" Is Thwarted
...hat drugs which cut off the glucosesupply may be a potent way of fighting cancer with few ill effects on healthy tissues. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Hyunsuk Shim, Ph.D., apostdoctoral fellow, Dang and others gave embryonic mouse cells an unusuallyactive form of a gene known as......oholism risk in men. We found that depression is a potent predictor foralcohol dependence in both men and women," said Heath. "A history of behaviorproblems also is as strong a predictor in women than in men -- slightly morepowerful in women, in fact." The researchers acknowledge there still is much to lea...