Leeches provide source for cardiovascular drugs
...st heart attacks and strokes are associated with a blocked artery," explains study author Oscar Yanes. "In some cases, blood clots may cause the blockage of arteries that lead to cardiovascular disease. People with cardiovascular disease typically have an increased tendency to form blood clots, and a decreas...JCI table of contents November, 2005
...tor TACI:Fc. Treatment destroyed germinal centers, blocked immunoglobulin production and inhibited expression of the T cell cytokine IFN-_. Surprisingly, inhibition of BLyS and APRIL in other types of synovitis enhanced IFN-_ production. Thus, BLyS and APRIL regulate both B and T cell function and have both...Multiple sclerosis progression linked to immune-cell substance
...luences the course of disease. They found that MIF blocked the steroid hormone, corticosterone (known as cortisol, in humans). Animals missing MIF had high levels of the steroid, while those with MIF showed very low levels. The level of the steroid hormone, in turn, caused important immune-system changes in...Scientists zero in on memory-related proteins at the core of Alzheimer's disease
... on how the formation of long-term memories may be blocked in Alzheimer's disease. Reporting in two companion papers in the October 19 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, investigators from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease show in genetically engineered mouse models of the disease that th...UCLA researchers identify how antibody blocks prostate cancer growth in animal models
... without engaging an immune response, the antibody blocked the growth of the prostate cancer cells. "The fragments we created were unable to bind to the immune system, but they retained the same activity the whole antibody showed, so we proved that 1G8 must work by signaling the cancer cells to stop growing ...GSA should stand for 'going strong again' for the UC Department of Geology as always
...e sheets. We find that two suggested pathways were blocked by the glacier and thus the fresh water could not have come from that source. This requires rethinking the meltwater hypothesis and perhaps rather fresh water has a role in abrupt climate changes at all."...Stroke treatment a step closer after trial
...s when vessels supplying blood to the brain become blocked and the brain is starved of oxygen. A core area of the brain dies within minutes but it is the threatened area around this core that the treatment may help to salvage. "The protein targets the molecule that causes inflammation and dramatically reduce...Joslin study sheds light on birth defect cause in pregnant women with diabetes
...ousing them in cages containing 30 percent oxygen) blocked the decrease in Pax3 expression and neural tube defects in their embryos. Neural tube defects occur when parts of the brain, spinal cord, or their protective coverings fail to develop properly. For example, spina bifida the most common neural tube d...New lifespan extension genes found
...for most of the difference. Deleting Hst2 and Sir2 blocked most of the beneficial effect of caloric restriction. When Hst2 was overexpressed, so that the gene was more active than normal, the yeast lived longer than normal. A third gene, Hst1, appears to act when both Sir2 and Hst2 are missing. Sir2 and the ...Secrets to antibody's success against West Nile Virus surprise scientists
...reproduce. But with the viral reproduction process blocked by the antibody, scientists suspect that the host ...s, they found that only the therapeutic antibodies blocked the virus' reproduction. The therapeutic antibodies' ability to stop reproduction in macrophages eve......munities are displaced away from the ocean, unless blocked by a barrier, such as a cliff. In areas like Galveston Island, natural cliffs are not the issue, but development and non-native lawns block the plants' migration. Creating models to explore low, medium, and high increases in sea levels for Galvest...First link found between obesity, inflammation and vascular disease
...se, but also demonstrates that this process can be blocked by drugs now on the market," said study leader Edward T. H. Yeh, M.D., who is both chairman of the Department of Cardiology at M. D. Anderson and director of the Research Center for Cardiovascular Disease at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecula...Casting a wide net to fight coronaviruses
...ch allowed them to identify compounds that rapidly blocked proteases from multiple coronaviruses and kept the coronaviruses from reproducing. The compounds caused no obvious damage in human cells in the experiments. The compounds developed in this study inhibit Mpro from new coronavirus strains that cause ...Researchers find drug that blocks spread of lung cancer in mice
...ells into the tails of mice and found that GRN163L blocked the development of metastatic tumors over several months. The higher the dose, the fewer tumors there were. "That suggests that this drug prevented the lung metastasis," Dr. Shay said, noting that the reactions took place at doses that would be cons...Mysterious molecules begin to yield their secrets
...cells" (NFAT). The scientists found that when they blocked the noncoding RNA, the activity of NFAT increased dramatically. For this reason, they dubbed the noncoding RNA the noncoding repressor of NFAT "NRON." Demonstrating the function of one noncoding RNA like NRON is only the beginning, says Scripps Rese...Prostate cancer uses Wnt signaling proteins to promote growth of bone tumors
...e cells to increase the amount of active DKK-1, it blocked Wnt's signal, changing prostate cancer cells from an osteoblastic to a highly osteolytic cell line." To test their hypothesis, U-M scientists injected human prostate cancer cells into the tibias, or long leg bones, of one group of immune-deficient mi...UCLA discovery prevents cell abnormality leading to progeria
...h progeria and cultured the cells with a drug that blocked the mutant protein from attaching to the cells' nuclei. The drug significantly reduced the number of human cells with misshapen nuclei. The UCLA team earlier used the same approach to improve the shape of abnormal nuclei from mice genetically engin...Virginia Tech group adds tools to DNA-targeted anti-cancer drugs
...e light in the therapeutic range a wavelength not blocked or reflected by tissue. The systems also were able to operate without oxygen. The group now has more kinds of supramolecular assemblies that absorb therapeutic light and they are adding units to the structure. For instance, they added platinum, a met...Study identifies protein's role in cell division
...en DNA synthesis stalls because its replication is blocked by ultraviolet light or toxic chemicals, for example, the cell pauses to fix things," said Marzluff. But without Upf1, or another protein called ATR that becomes activated when DNA synthesis is paused, histone messenger RNA is not destroyed, thus all...... discovered other cases where protein synthesis is blocked at this head region. But this case turned out to be different. "Copies of SXL have to be attached to both ends of the msl-2 mRNA to efficiently stop the synthesis of MSL-2 proteins," says Karsten Beckmann, a PhD student in Hentze's lab, who headed th...