Gene found to defend against environmental pollutants and pulmonary emphysema
...moke-induced emphysema by upregulating antioxidant defenses and decreasing lung inflammation."...A puzzle posed by black-headed ducks yields to persistent biologists
...t there to be much pressure on the hosts to evolve defenses against this kind of parasitism," said Bruce Lyon,...ies. The black-headed ducks were being thwarted by defenses that had evolved as a result of brood parasitism among the coots themselves. The researchers carefu...Psychological stress and disease: UCSF-led study suggests connection
...h mount the body's healing response to wounds, and defenses against illness. When the immune system needs to rev up, it produces more defense cells, which requires high levels of the telomerase enzyme, in order to maintain telomere length, thus allowing for additional rounds of cell division. The current stud...NC State gets $1.59M grant to map genome of parasitic worm
...o pesticides is quite robust, so in many cases the defenses against root-knot nematodes are more toxic to vertebrates than to the nematodes," he says. "There are also non-target effects of pesticides to worry about, like the groundwater and other environmental concerns." NC State's Genome Research Laboratory ...Three Yale scientists receive Ellison Medical Foundation awards
...esponses to one infectious agent affect the body's defenses against other, concurrent infections. Medzhitov is a pioneer of research on innate immunity -- defenses that are present at birth, rather than generated adaptively by the immune system in response to spec...Deficient DNA repair capacity associated with increased risk of breast cancer
...nal Cancer Institute. DNA repair is the system of defenses designed to protect the integrity of the genome. Studies have suggested that deficiency in cells' capacity for DNA repair contributes to the accumulation of DNA damage and accelerates the genetic changes involved in carcinogenesis. To evaluate wheth...Blocking cell signaling can stymie viral infections, study shows
..., as part of an effort to strengthen the country's defenses against bioterrorism, and from the Dana Foundation. Smallpox has been identified as a potential terror weapon because, with the suspension of universal vaccination against the virus in the 1970s, most Americans are thought to have little immunity to...... host. PGA protects the pathogen from innate host defenses during infection. S. epidermidis is the only human pathogen known to produce PGA other than Bacillus anthracis, but several differences exist in how the two pathogens use PGA to their advantage. PGA is currently used as an antigen for vaccine produc...'Man the Hunter' theory is debunked in new book
...l our competitors, says Sussman. "One of the main defenses against predators by animals without physical defenses is living in groups," says Sussman. "In fact, all diurnal primates (those active during the day) liv...Studies reveal methods viruses use to sidestep immune system
...chanisms used by viruses to thwart a host's immune defenses and may aid in the development of more effective d...e, called RIG-I, turns on a cascade of host immune defenses when the hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicates in cultured human cells. Those immune defenses should f...New book looks at ecosystem of mucous membranes
...The mammalian mucosa has evolved numerous types of defenses to protect itself from microbial invaders and simu...ffective means to prevent infection." As mammalian defenses evolve to protect against infection, pathogens are simultaneously evolving to circumvent new barrier...Mount Sinai researchers identify key to controlling HIV
..."Understanding the mechanism by which natural host defenses work against viruses such as HIV will give us insight into understanding the host virus relationship," says Theresa Chang, PhD, first author of the study and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "This study suggests the...Neutralizing a protein linked to tumor development
...to be targeted and destroyed by the body's natural defenses than some other types of potential therapeutic molecules. Libri and colleagues chose to target a particular tyrosine kinase, RET, mutations of which cause multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 2 syndromes. Using a technique known as whole-cell S...In the sea slug's defense against lobsters, confusion is key
...ures, Aplysia, a common sea slug, enlists chemical defenses against its predators, but the mechanisms by which...archers. New work has now shown that such chemical defenses can involve modes of trickery that had not previously been appreciated as components of chemical def...Sea skate experiment sheds light on human cell transport
...an't die. This cell "suicide" is one of the body's defenses against cancer. "There is a possible relationship between operation of these channels and the uncontrolled multiplication of cancer cells," Goldstein said. "If so, this research points up an important area for future research."...Disabling gene defuses rheumatoid arthritis in mice
...nvaders and normally comprise the body's frontline defenses against bacterial infection. Peng became interested in Foxo3a because of prior studies his research team had conducted on a related gene, Foxj1. Both genes belong to the forkhead family of genes, which regulates the activity of other genes and has b...Cigarette smoke exacerbates alcohol's effects on defense against Streptococcus pneumoniae
...es for S. pneumoniae to enter their lungs. Host defenses within the lungs of alcoholics are also compromise...ffects of alcoholism and cigarette smoking on lung defenses against pathogen infection," added Bagby. "It also illustrates the difficulty of studying combined ...Human cells can 'silence' HIV genes
...h plants and insects lack the sophisticated immune defenses of higher organisms, they nevertheless successfully battle viruses by detecting, and then silencing, viral genetic material. Silencing leads to the destruction of viral RNA. Viruses, however, are not permanently defeated because they have evolved way...Cure for common cold will need to wiggle to work, scientists say
...all can change its appearance subtly so the body's defenses cannot recognize it. "Ordinarily our systems make antibodies to clean out invaders like viruses," Post said. "But the rhinovirus has many faces. Each time a new one infects us, its outer surface may have mutated from a previous cold virus so that our......or L-lep, the bacteria have overwhelmed the immune defenses and can spread along nerves throughout the body and may cause blindness. The scientists found DC-SIGN+ macrophages in both types of leprosy infections. The CD1b+ cells were present only in the milder form, indicating a successful battle against the l...