Blocking cell suicide switch fails to stop prion damage in mouse brains
...rs, the most infamous of which is mad cow disease, copies of a normal brain protein, PrP, fold themselves in...rties. Genetic mutations can increase chances that copies of the PrP protein will misfold into the prion form. Proximity to prions also can increase the chanc...Mouse brain tumors mimic those in human genetic disorder
...s in the brain called astrocytes have two abnormal copies of this same gene. Their latest paper shows that brain tumor formation in these mice has several of the same distinguishing clinical characteristics as tumor development in children with NF1. First, the mice developed tumors along the optic nerve and...Brain tumor study reveals why treatment efforts fail in genetic disorder
...d that RAS proteins become overly active when both copies of the NF1 gene are abnormal in tumors from patien... RAS are overly active in mouse cells lacking both copies of the Nf1 gene. They specifically examined support cells in the brain called astrocytes, which ofte...Other highlights in the January 5 JNCI
...there was some evidence that women who carried two copies of the PROGINS allele had a decreased risk of breast cancer. The authors write that these findings may provide evidence that changes in progesterone signaling can influence ovarian cancer risk, which could provide further insight into how the disease...Genetic polymorphisms, antidepressant use may be associated with altered tamoxifen activity
...hs of tamoxifen therapy, women carrying one or two copies of a CYP2D6 variant allele had lower plasma concen...ygous wild-type genotype. Among women carrying two copies of the wild-type CYP2D6 allele, the plasma endoxifen concentration was 58% lower in women taking an ...Agilent Technologies announces breakthrough for cancer researchers studying chromosomal changes
...terations leading to changes in the number of gene copies present in cells are important events in the genesis and progression of cancer," said Michael Bittner of the Translational Genomics Research Institute. "Agilent has now taken array-CGH experiments into a new realm of resolution, sensitivity, and repr...Scientists discover key genetic factor in determining HIV/AIDS risk
People with more copies of a gene that helps to fight HIV are less likely ...cestry, such as European Americans, who have fewer copies of the gene, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease...NYU researchers simulate molecular biological clock
... within the cell (for instance, there are only two copies of DNA). To simulate the random nature of the biochemical interactions of the mammalian intra-cellular circadian clock, Forger and Peskin used the existing Gillespie method. The method tracks the changes in the integer numbers of each type of...Genetic testing for Parkinson's disease on the horizon
...patients from 20 different families had one or two copies of the mutation and had typical clinical features of Parkinson's disease. Their results suggest that the single mutation in the LRRK2 gene causes Parkinson's disease in 5% of individuals with the familial form of the disease. Dr Nichols comments: "S...Study provides insights on why some prostate cancer becomes resistant to hormone withdrawl therapy
... to advanced disease. In contrast, mice with extra copies of a normal receptor, as well as mice with the normal receptor and an unrelated type of mutant receptor, did not cause cancer. "This demonstrates a causal role for certain androgen receptor mutations in prostate cancer," Greenberg said.Not all men wi...Interaction between stem cells and their niches key to differentiation
...ls that stimulate stem cells to either create more copies of themselves or to differentiate into another cel... the germline stem cells either created additional copies of themselves or differentiated into another cell type known as a cystoblast, which eventually becom...New insight into regulation of blood stem cells
...(HSC), which can either "self-renew" and make more copies of itself or differentiate into either red blood cells, various types of white blood cells, or platelets. The genes that control proliferation and differentiation have been difficult to study using traditional gene disruption methods because loss of ...Multi-purpose protein regulates new protein synthesis and immune cell development
...the gene for IRE1. He found that mice lacking both copies of IRE1 died before birth and had fewer hematopoietic stem cells precursor cells which develop into many different types of blood and immune cells than normal mice. Zhang transplanted hematopoietic stem cells from IRE1 knock-out embryos into mice ...Blocking cell signaling can stymie viral infections, study shows
...he cells' division and transport machinery to make copies of themselves. Most existing anti-viral drugs consist of small molecules that bind to viruses, hindering the bugs' ability to enter cells or to multiply once inside. The problem with this approach is that viruses mutate rapidly, changing their genet...Key mechanism in genetic inheritance during cell division identified
...e formed by longitudinal self-assembly of multiple copies of the Dam1 complex upon the microtubule surface," the authors state in their Molecular Cell paper. "Although the presence of microtubules strongly facilitates the oligomerization process, ring assembly seems to be an intrinsic property of the Dam1...Gene used in brain development can cause childhood brain cancers
...udy, the scientists discovered that multiple extra copies of the gene, called OTX2, had been switched back on among tumor cells removed from patients with medulloblastoma brain tumors. In the United States, medulloblastoma accounts for approximately 30 percent of all pediatric brain tumors. Further, the sc...Circles of DNA might help predict success of stem cell transplantation
...ite cells. The St. Jude team showed that the more copies of tiny rings of DNA called signal-joint TRECs (sj..., healthy donors contained 1,200 to 155,000 sjTREC copies per milliliter of blood, the investigators chose 1,200 as the lowest end of the normal range for sjT...Gene therapy for Parkinson's disease moves forward in animals
...ys, including a control group, scientists inserted copies of a gene to produce GDNF into a region in the front part of the brain called the striatum. They then induced Parkinson-like conditions by introducing a drug to destroy the dopamine-producing cells. Seventeen weeks after that, not only did the GDNF-t...National Inventors Hall of Fame announces 2005 inductees
...rtant advances such as the idea of making multiple copies of a document. Alec Jeffreys (1950- ) Genetic Fingerprinting Genetic fingerprinting serves law enforcement and research as a powerful tool, using DNA evidence to exonerate defendants, implicate others, and establish family relationships i...Scientists document complex genomic events leading to the birth of new genes
... The key to this, however, is that the duplicated copies of genes very quickly evolve functions that are significantly different than those of their progenitors. Natural selection acts on gene duplications, most often by deleting them from the gene pool or by degrading them into non-functional pseudogenes....