Research shows skeleton to be endocrine organ
...mice with high levels of osteocalcin activity were prevented from gaining weight or becoming diabetic even when they ate a high fat diet. Analysis of mice lacking the osteocalcin protein showed that they had type 2 diabetes, increased fat mass, a decrease in insulin and adiponectin expression, and decreased be...Inflammation may cause preterm labor and fetal deaths
...ry process by using synthetic TLR4 antagonist that prevented the receptor from sensing the bacteria. Fusobacterium nucleatum, a common oral pathogen also found in the amniotic fluid of preterm babies, was used as the model organism for the study. Around day 16 of the gestation period for the mice (the equi...New mechanism links smoking to lung damage
...ultimately, to cell injury and death. Drugs that prevented hemichannels from opening protected the cells from similar exposures. Treating the cells with silencing RNA for the hemichannel protein also protected cells by preventing the creation of these channels. "It required very little stress to open these...New grants bolster efforts to generate faster and cheaper tools for DNA sequencing
...ects to get around the resolution limits that have prevented nanopores from being used for sequencing. Robert Riehn, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, Raleigh $439,000 (2 years) Sequencing DNA by Transverse Electrical Measurements in Nanochannels This group proposes to stretch long DNA molecules ...Researchers watch antibiotics, bacteria meet at atomic level
... images, the researchers found that the antibiotic prevented the normal operation of the elongation complex by freezing it in the inactive state. They saw a loop-shaped element that must close every time the elongation complex adds a nucleotide (a building block of DNA or RNA) to the growing RNA chain. This ...Detecting transmissibility of avian influenza virus in human households
...n half of the household infections could have been prevented with current antiviral drugs. It is important to continuously monitor the transmissibility of animal pathogens to and between humans. Obviously, for public health it is vital that such emerging secondary human-to-human transmission in the human popul...Radiation therapy combined with microsurgery shows promise for curing injured spinal cord
...that fluid accumulation and swelling must first be prevented if the radiation therapy is to be effective in pro...l cord injury victims that paralysis can indeed be prevented or repaired with a combination of conventional therapies at the time of injury, according to Kaldero...Did pterosaurs feed by skimming?
...that the size of these colossal animals would have prevented them from feeding as previously described, as the drag experienced by a pterosaur over a ton would have imposed too great an energetic cost. The authors also reveal that the smaller, lighter pterosaurs that may have been able to overcome this drag ba...Disease-free mosquito bred to disease-carrier can have all disease-free progeny
...nced the successful use of an artificial gene that prevented a virus from replicating within mosquitoes. But how does one apply what can be done with a small number of mosquitoes in a lab to the tens of millions of mosquitoes that spread disease worldwide" Researchers from Virginia Tech and the University of...Scientists follow familiar TRAIL to new cancer therapy
...iscovered that the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib prevented TRAIL-mediated induction of Mcl-1 and cIAP2, and although it had little effect on the killing of TRAIL-resistant cells when administered alone, combination with TRAIL caused significant death of previously TRAIL-resistant cancer cells in culture and ...Tiny tweezers and yeast help St. Jude show how cancer drug works
... of time, suggested that DNA supercoiling actually prevented the replication fork from advancing, which triggered cell death, Bjornsti said. We decided to test this model by studying the effect of camptothecin on DNA in yeast cells during the process of gene expression. During gene expression, the DNA strands ...Rapid evolution of defense genes in plants may produce hybrid incompatibility
...hybrid offspring can be successful but may also be prevented or defective because some of the parents genes are not compatible. In their survey of 900 first generation hybrid offspring among 293 strains of thale cress, Bomblies and Detlef found that 2% of the offspring were severely defective. They call this...Tracing Parkinson's lethal mechanism
...ey found that activating Prx2 in MPTP-treated mice prevented the loss of dopamine-producing neurons. And they experimentally demonstrated that the action of Cdk5 on Prx2 plays a pivotal role in the neuronal damage from MPTP. Importantly, the researchers discovered evidence that the loss of Prx2 activity also...Frog molecule could provide drug treatment for brain tumors
... needed for essential functions, ribonucleases are prevented from working by inhibitor molecules. But because Amphinase is an amphibian ribonuclease, it can evade the mammalian inhibitor molecules to attack the cancer cells. As a treatment, it is most likely to be injected into the area where it is needed. I...JCI table of contents: June 21, 2007
...ce, administration of a glutamate receptor blocker prevented optical damage. These animals are believed to be the first animal models of NTG and offer a powerful system for further investigation of retinal degeneration in NTG and the development of therapies directed at preventing or treating IOP-independent g...Autism-related proteins control nerve excitability, researchers find
...ither neuroligin-1 or neuroligin-2 were chemically prevented from firing, they did not develop excess synapses, despite the presence of the respective proteins. Together, the tests indicate that nerve cells with excess neuroligins developed extra synapses only when those cells are allowed to fire. The two ...LIAI researchers identify a potential role for retinoic acid in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases
... tube. When put back into the mice, these T cells prevented the formation of inflammatory T cells in the mice. This is especially noteworthy because combining the retinoic acid and T cells outside the body may avoid possible side effects that are more likely when scientists attempt to manipulate body process...Researchers shed light on mechanism of action used by anti-cancer drug
...nib, by virtue of its ability to inhibit Raf, also prevented an increase in expression of a chaperone protein known as Grp78, which is classically induced in the ER stress response, and which helps to resolve stresses associated with increased protein loads. The net effect of these actions was to induce a shut...Avian influenza survivors' antibodies effective at neutralising H5N1 strain
... of virus found in the lungs and almost completely prevented the virus reaching the brain or spleen. In those people in Vietnam who died from the H5N1 strain, the virus was found to have spread from the lungs; this was not the case in those who survived. "We have shown that this technique can work to prevent...Engineered protein effective against Staphylococcus aureus toxin
...initiating that cascade." The engineered protein prevented the onset of symptoms in rabbits exposed to SEB and reversed the course of the illness in those treated two hours after exposure. "We were very pleasantly surprised that it showed effectiveness in every rabbit tested," Kranz said. He noted that ...