UCSD discovery opens new avenues for design of anti-tumor medications
... vessels to low oxygen levels may be the Achilles' heel of a developing tumor, according to a study led by University of California, San Diego biologists. The study, published in the November 15 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, is the first to examine how blood vessels respond to the low oxygen condition...Endurance running may be key to evolution of human body form
...ands of tissue that anchor the calf muscles to the heel bone, and related tendons along the back of the leg and foot. This extensive system of springs in the leg and foot effectively store and release significant elastic energy during running, but they're not needed for walking. "There were 2.5 m......springs. Humans also evolved with an enlarged heel bone for better shock absorption, as well as shorter toes and a big toe that is fully drawn in toward the other toes for better pushing off during running. The study by Bramble and Lieberman concludes: "Today, endurance running is primarily a form...Talking robots, green buildings, and shockwave healing
...ll present the use of shock waves to treat chronic heel spurs (plantar fasciitis) and tennis elbow. (1aBB4). In a randomized, double-blinded human clinical trial, Kenneth Pace of the University of Toronto ( Kenneth.pace@utoronto.ca ) discovered that breaking up kidney stones was more effectively achieved...Unchecked DNA replication drives earliest steps toward cancer
...s and cancer cells may turn out to be the Achilles heel of cancer," Halazonetis says. "It might be possible to inhibit repair of these DNA breaks, in which case the cancer cells would die." The lead authors on the Nature study are Vassilis G. Gorgoulis and Leandros-Vassilios F. Vassiliou at the Universit...Ancient immune defense mechanism is no match for HIV-1
...or an SRS is solely to shield this last 'Achilles' heel that we think HIV-1 cannot alter for functional reasons. The sequence we describe may represent a viable target for RNAi that HIV-1 cannot elude by using the point mutation mechanism, " explains Dr. Jeang....'Achilles' heel' of the herpes virus possibly found
...s. "This may be one central part of the Achilles' heel in interactions of herpes virus with a cell to start infection. We can use the receptor molecule to try to understand the process and perhaps combat infection at this vulnerable site," says A. Oveta Fuller, Ph.D. the leader of the U-M team, senior au...'Cookbook recipes' would cure disease with nontoxic DNA delivery systems
...ut killing innocent cells has become the Achilles' heel in DNA delivery. Positively charged (cationic) synthetic molecules will readily bond to negatively charged DNA molecules and have been used for DNA delivery, but these cationic molecules are often toxic to cells, Wong said. An alternative is to use n...Breakdown of myelin insulation in brain's wiring implicated in childhood developmental disorders
...the brain's internal wiring, as a neural Achilles' heel early in life. An upcoming application of a novel model of human brain development and degeneration pioneered by a UCLA neuroscientist identifies disruption of myelination as a key neurobiological component behind childhood developmental disorders an...Common food preservative might provide treatment for cystic fibrosis
... "We believe that we have discovered the Achilles' heel of the formidable mucoid form of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which could lead to improved treatment for cystic fibrosis airway disease," said Dr. Hassett. "We can essentially say that this organism, which some people thought could never be beaten, can no...Novel newborn screening can open door to treating rare but devastating diseases
...technique uses a spot of blood drawn from a baby's heel and dried on a paper card. A 2-millimeter section is punched out of the spot, then is rehydrated, the target enzymes are incubated and then measured using tandem mass spectrometry, a means of determining a substance's chemical makeup and quantity. Th...Attacking cancer's sweet tooth is effective strategy against tumors
...ng contribution that reveals a surprising Achilles heel in cancer cells. It also adds to our sense of opportunity for new avenues of cancer therapeutics," said Stuart Schrieber, Morris Loeb professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. As a tumor grows,...Key fat and cholesterol cell regulator identified, promising target
..., which may provide a potential molecular Achilles heel that could be targeted by drugs" says Dr. Nr. The researchers initially found that after removing ARC105 from human cells by a process called RNAi, SREBPs were no longer able to activate cholesterol and lipid biosynthesis genes. To validate these f...Natural anti-viral enzyme helps keep cancer cells alive, researchers find
...und something a little bit different an Achilles' heel of cancer cells that's apparently broadly conserved among many types of solid tumors." Using cultured human cells, the researchers set out to study enzymes known to be involved in keeping cancer cells alive and proliferating. They soon narrowed the f...Smokers quit after damage to brain region
...nding that one small region could be the Achilles' heel of smoking addiction is especially surprising, given the brain-wide effects of nicotine on the nervous system. The study considered smokers with damage that did not include the insula, but the likelihood of disrupting the smoking addiction was many...New way to target and kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria found
...ase is the gatekeeper, and it is also the Achilles heel of the resistance process, Redinbo said. Led by graduate student Scott Lujan, the team suspected they could block relaxase by searching for vulnerability in a three-dimensional picture of the relaxase protein. Lujan, a biochemistry graduate student......C, unlike A and B, HLA-C may represent an Achilles heel of HIV, according to Goldstein, who said that a vaccine could be designed to elicit an HLA-C mediated response which HIV-1 might be unable to defuse. This study was the first time a genome-wide approach has been used for an infectious disease, Gold...