AGU Journal Highlights -- April 16, 2007
...ural substances, such as nutrients, and human-made toxins that can affect aquatic ecosystems. However, it is often challenging to characterize subsurface water flow paths, which differ markedly in length, depth, and flow duration. Noting that fractal patterns are found in distributions of both watershed pat...Green Nanotechnology: It's Easier Than You Think
...SHINGTON, DC -- The ability to eliminate waste and toxins from production processes early on, to create more efficient and flexible solar panels, and to remove contaminants from water, is becoming an exciting reality with nanotechnology. This "green nanotechnology" involves designing nanoproducts for the en...Can a taste for poison drive speciation?
...species treat the rank odor, which arises from the toxins hexanoic acid and octanoic acid, as a warning sign...it in advanced stages of decay, when octanoic acid toxins have mostly degraded. Behavioral adaptations between herbivores and their hosts tend to involve chan...Study shows food preparation may play a bigger role in chronic disease than was previously thought
...lf. Researchers now know more about a new class of toxins that might soon become as important a risk factor for heart disease and metabolic disorders as trans fats. This class of toxins, called advanced glycation end products (AGEs), are absorbed into the body through the consumption of grilled, fried, o...Scientists find new agent to fight genetic disorders -- Zorro-Locked Nucleic Acid
...es, but also of acquired diseases when microbes or toxins cause genes to go awry" said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "One might say these researchers have found a gene-hunters Holy Grail for which scientists have been hunting for many years. Zorro-LNA should give us a new, sa...Prenatal toxicity linked to immune dysfunctions in later life
...evelop in people who were exposed to environmental toxins or drugs either in the womb or as infants. They have found that most of the diseases have two things in common: They involve an imbalanced immune system and exaggerated inflammatory reactions (at the cellular level). In an invited, peer-reviewed arti...Biosensor sniffs out explosives
...of immense value in the detection of environmental toxins and chemical warfare agents even at sublethal levels," said Dhanasekaran, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Temples Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology. The research team is now perfecting the utility of the biosensor, for...DNA repair proteins monitored at double-strand break
...on, natural oxidants in food or the body and other toxins that can cause disease and aging. "Prior to this work, there was no practical and efficient way to find and study the DNA repair proteins that organize themselves on and around a double-strand break in human cells," said Michael Kastan, M.D., Ph.D....MU researchers examine the environmental effects of silver nanoparticles
...itrifying bacteria is extremely sensitive to metal toxins and could serve as a potential environmental health indicator," Hu said. "Over time, a small volume of nanoparticles will accumulate in our sewage plants." The engineers want to find out if silver nanoparticles, known for their bacteria-fighting a...DNA sieve -- Nanoscale pores can be tiny analysis labs
...identify tiny biological molecules such as DNA and toxins using less than a drop of salt water in a system that can fit on a microchip. It's closer than you might believe, say a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Brazil's Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, and...Lipoic acid explored as anti-aging compound
...ible to both free radicals and other environmental toxins but lipoic acid can restore glutathione function to near normal. And the expression and function of other genes seems to come back to life. "We never really expected such a surprising range of benefits from one compound," Hagen said. "This is real...Engineered protein effective against Staphylococcus aureus toxin
...roach was to take these receptors that bind to the toxins and to try to make them higher affinity and therefore act as effective neutralizing agents when delivered in soluble form," Kranz said. "It's the binding of the toxin to T-cells that is critical. If you can prevent the toxin from binding to the T-cel...Understanding why C. difficile causes disease -- it's hungry
...n as the tcd locus. Two of the genes code for the toxins the bacterium produces that cause disease and a th...s a hole in the organisms cell envelope to let the toxins out. The last two genes are of greatest interest to Sonenshein and his colleague, Bruno Dupuy from ...Staphylococcus aureus hides out in cells
... in a dormant state. Simultaneously, production of toxins potentially lethal for the epithelial cells becomes strictly controlled to limit cellular damage. Mechanisms that helped the bacteria to survive and/or multiply, including metabolic and energy production functions, then resumed. Although most of the ...Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...toxin displayed prominent immune responses to both toxins and blood from immunized mice was capable of neutralizing C. difficile toxin A in a cell culture test. Our results suggest that transcutaneous immunization with C. difficile toxin A may be a feasible immunization strategy against C. difficile, an ...JCI table of contents: June 21, 2007
...ays an important role in the metabolism of dietary toxins and orally absorbed drugs. It can also produce hig... involved in CYP1A1-mediated metabolism of dietary toxins and orally absorbed drugs. Title: Dietary phytochemicals regulate whole-body CYP1A1 expression thr...Waging war on the deadliest superbug
... effective way of identifying and deactivating the toxins and other factors that cause the disease and can begin the search for new therapies to prevent or cure it. Professor Minton said: Although we have the entire genetic blueprint of C.diff, and have an inkling as to what bacterial factors might be im...UF scientists work to develop simple bladder cancer test
...ase, and smoking as well as exposure to industrial toxins increases the risk. Although the five-year survival rate is about 94 percent when it is detected early, bladder cancer is extremely difficult to cure because it tends to recur. Imagine the bladder like a balloon, and the tumors grow into the inter...UT and Atom Sciences Collaborate on NIH grant to develop test for major african disease
...o Small. As the bacteria progresses, it produces toxins that suppress the immune system, eventually destroying skin and underlying tissue. The World Health Organization has said finding the source of this disease is one of the two most important research priorities in its Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative. ...Particle emissions from laser printers might pose health concern
...a added, they contain more mass and can carry more toxins into the body. No matter how you look at it, there could be problems. Morawska said that more research on the health effects of inhaling printer-generated particles is needed. As a first step to lower risk, people should ensure that rooms in offic...