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Copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps show no real effect on pain, swelling, or disease progression in rheumatoid arthritis study finds
Date: Sep-19-2013Copper bracelets and magnet wrist straps have no real effect on pain, swelling, or disease progression in rheumatoid arthritis, according to new findings from a study conducted at the University of York. In the first randomised controlled trial to study the effects of copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps on rheumatoid arthritis, 70 patients with active symptoms each wore four different devices over a five-month period, reporting on their pain, disability, and medication use throughout the study...
How Yersinia spreads within infected organs
Date: Sep-19-2013Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have identified how one type of bacteria, Yersinia, immobilizes the immune system in order to grow in the organs of mice. To do so, the researchers extended the use of a technique and suggest that it could be used to study other bacteria that use the same or similar means of infection. The study is published in Cell Host & Microbe. Led by microbiologist Joan Mecsas, the research team studied a specific member of a family of effector proteins known as Yops...
Discovery of potent tumor-suppressor in lung cancer
Date: Sep-19-2013New research shows that microRNA-486 is a potent tumor-suppressor molecule in lung cancer, and that the it helps regulate the proliferation and migration of lung-cancer cells, and the induction of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in those cells. The preclinical study was led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James). It found that microRNA-486 (miR-486) directly targets the insulin growth-factor pathway, which is important for cell survival and proliferation...
RNA tetraloop: accurate computer model
Date: Sep-19-2013A computational model developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first to accurately simulate the complex twists of a short sequence of RNA as it folds into a critical hairpin structure known as a "tetraloop." The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a glimpse into RNA, found in all life on Earth, and could advance a variety of research areas, including the search for new antibiotics and cures for protein-related diseases...
Sickle cell pain improved by arginine therapy
Date: Sep-19-2013Arginine therapy may be a safe and inexpensive treatment for acute pain episodes in patients with sickle cell disease, according to results of a recent clinical study. The study was the first randomized placebo-controlled study to demonstrate benefits of arginine therapy in children with sickle cell disease hospitalized for severe pain. Sickle cell disease is an inherited condition in which the body makes red blood cells containing abnormal hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to other cells in the body...
Immune marker predicts transplant success and improves selection of bone marrow donors
Date: Sep-19-2013The risk of death following bone marrow transplantation can be reduced about 60 percent using a new technique to identify bone marrow donors who make the most potent cancer-fighting immune cells, according to research from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The research builds on an earlier St. Jude discovery that specialized immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells dispatched cancer cells more efficiently when the NK cells carried a particular version of a KIR protein on their surface...
Researcher identify rare gene variant linked to macular degeneration
Date: Sep-19-2013An international team of researchers, led by scientists at The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, has identified a gene mutation linked to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in Americans over age 50. It's not the first gene variation linked to AMD, but it is the first to suggest a mechanism where the variant may contribute to the disease...
Out of control mucus-regulating protein receptors in uterine and pancreatic cancers
Date: Sep-19-2013A "vicious cycle" produces mucus that protects uterine and pancreatic cancer cells and promotes their proliferation, according to researchers at Rice University. The researchers offer hope for a therapeutic solution. They found that protein receptors on the surface of cancer cells go into overdrive to stimulate the production of MUC1, a glycoprotein that forms mucin, aka mucus. It covers the exposed tips of the elongated epithelial cells that coat internal organs like lungs, stomachs and intestines to protect them from infection...
New method developed for discovering antibiotics
Date: Sep-19-2013Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a revolutionary new method for identifying and characterizing antibiotics, an advance that could lead to the discovery of new antibiotics to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria. The researchers, who published their findings in this week's early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, made their discovery by developing a way to perform the equivalent of an autopsy on bacterial cells...
Extremely potent and improved new derivatives of successful anticancer drug
Date: Sep-19-2013Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to make dramatic improvements to the cancer cell-killing power of vinblastine, one of the most successful chemotherapy drugs of the past few decades. The team's modified versions of vinblastine showed 10 to 200 times greater potency than the clinical drug. Even more significantly, these new compounds overcome the drug resistance that emerges upon treatment relapse, which renders continued or subsequent vinblastine treatment ineffective in some patients...
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