Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...hypothetical intermediate. Many drugs that target topoisomerase II stabilize such an intermediate, ... ability to kill cells, have turned out to target topoisomerases, Dr. Wang said. Among these are doxorubicin (Adriamycin), etoposide, ...New Cancer Switch Discovered By Duke Medical Center Pharmacologists
...RB-2 interactions may provide a useful therapeutic target for treatment of [chronic myelogenous leukemia] as well as other tyrosine kinase-associated human cancers such as breast, ovarian, glioma, squamous cell carcinoma and leukemia," the scientists wrote. According to Gishizky, SUGEN has already produced ...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
...malfunctions of the brain, and to open the door to target drugs," he said. The primary researchers involved in the discovery are Duke neurologistsStrittmatter, James Burke and Jeffery Vance. Other collaborators includeJan Enghild and Margaret Martin, both from Duke, and geneticists Yuh-ShanJou and Richard ...Tumor Suppressor Gene Located In Liver Cancer Cells
...in receptor produced by M6P/IGF2r is an attractive target because it is present on the cell surface and in the plasma, Jirtle said, making it readily accessible for use in both liver tumor therapy and diagnosis. Researchers often work backwards from the biological changes involved in cancer to find the gen...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
...al left-handed helical structure may offera unique target for a new generation of antibiotics designed to home inon the structure. The left-handed structure also offers a new "twist"to biochemists attempting to design and construct proteins for use as medicinesand chemical probes. The researchers' n...Mutate Or Die: New Polymerase Gives Desperate Yeast An Option
...mans and works similarly, it would be anattractive target for anti-cancer therapies. "If this does work the same way in humans, then it'sconceivable that some day we could inhibit this enzyme in people prone to mutations, such as those receivingchemotherapy or people with a genetic history of cancer," ......n when the starting point ofthe reconstruction was target materialfrom organisms evolutionarilyextremely different from humans --bacteria, yeasts and others -- 25 ofthe reconstructions were 100 percentaccurate "We believe our method willprove extremely useful toresearchers, not just in biotechnology,but als...Researchers Identify A New Cellular Structure: The "Dumposome"
...evoted to DNA degradation. Dumposomes seem to target heterochromatin, a distinct form of highly repetitive DNA that contains few active genes."It's been said that heterochromatin is a bad neighborhood for good genes," Smothers says. "Such inactive regions mightjust be trashed in the name of streamlinin...Scientists Identify Retrovirus-Like Components In Corn Genome
... "We don't know how they do this, but because they target their insertions between genes, these repetitive e...he genome, and how the retrotransposons find their target sites between genes. Bennetzen's group at Purdue worked with Keith J. Edwards of the Long Ashton Res...Medicinal Leech May Offer Clues To Neural Regeneration
...at carry impulses away from the cell body toward a target cell. "We are now conducting follow-up studies to identify what information this molecule provides at a cellular level, and to see how these functions might help the leech's nervous system set itself up to allow regeneration to occur," she says. NOS,...Scientists Identify Gene For Sexual Behavior In Male Flies
...the fly's brain.The properties of the fru gene's target neurons suggest that theycarry out command-and-control functions to set up and coordinate thecomplex events of male courtship and copulation. "There has been speculation recently that no single gene could control acomplex behavior. This work shows ...Blood Test Can Identify Some Children With Strep-Related Behavioral Disorders
...ith behavior modificationtherapy. These treatments target control of symptoms, not elimination ofcauses. Medical personnel often consider the onset of tics or other involuntarybehavior in children to be the result of parental pampering and coddling, saidPatricia Moore, president of the Rhode Island Chapte...Herpes-Based Gene Therapy Is Key To Promising Liver Tumor Vaccine
... the first to be created using gene therapy and to target livercancer. It's also rare for a vaccine to completely eliminate theformation of cancerous tumors in animals or humans. Lead author of the report is Yuman Fong, M.D., one of theworld's leading liver cancer surgeons, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering ...Herpes-Based Gene Therapy Is Key To Promising Liver Tumor Vaccine
...compound that recruits the body's immune system to target and wipe out cancer cells in the liver. In a study... the first to be created using gene therapy and to target liver cancer . It's also rare for a vaccine to completely eliminate the formation of cancerous tumo...... resistance, and points the way to a potential new target for therapeutic drugs to treat hepatitis C," said ..." "We believe we've identified a potential target for therapeutics," said Katze. "If a compound can be identified that inhibits or prevents the associ...NIH Team Discovers Endocrine Tumor Gene
...s and cancers grow. The 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 current...Duke researchers find existing drugs can stop fungus that attacks AIDS patients
...o infect people,and suggested a potential new drug target to stop the infection. The studies were fun... activates immunesystem cells by blocking a single target inside cells, a protein calledcalcineurin. Since the drugs only work at body temperature, calc...Stuttering Appears To Have Strong Link To Family Genes, Researchers Say
...t -- the aim of the overallproject -- will help to target them for early intervention. The geneticlink "is so far the single strongest, consistent, reliable predictorthat we have," Yairi said....Enhancin Protein Attacks Insect Immune System
...ported their findings, "An intestinal mucin is the target substrate for a baculovirus enhancin," in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (24 June 1997), authored by Granados and Ping Wang, Cornell graduate student in entomology. Another research report, "Molecular cloning and sequencing of a nov......hown that the MAD protein is a direct regulator of target gene transcription in response to a (specific) signal." The mapping of the communication pathways between cells is a fundamental quest in modern biology. Identifying the messengers -- a large family of proteins that carry genetic signals an...