University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have found a novel, previously unreported pathogenic entity that is a fundamental link between chronic inflammation and tissue destruction in the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. COPD is the fourth-leading cause of death in the world. Credit: CC0 Public Domain This pathogenic entity—exosomes from...
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Researchers track the birth of memories
How and when the ability to form and store memories arises are topics of great interest to neuroscientists. Now Yale researchers have identified three distinct stages in brain development that occur before episodic memories can form. Credit: stock.adobe.com Yale scientists measured brain activity in the hippocampus of newborn rats and found at the beginning of...
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Using genetics of human fat cells to predict response to anti-diabetes drugs
Predicting Response to Anti-Diabetes Drugs Credit: Mitchell Lazar lab, Metabolism in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Drugs called thiazolidinediones (TZDs) reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes by targeting the activity of a receptor protein. However, an array of side effects, including weight gain, edema, and high cholesterol,...
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Researchers identify drug against the formation of metastasis
The most deadly aspect of breast cancer is metastasis, cancer cells spreading throughout the body. Researchers at the University and the University Hospital of Basel have now discovered a substance that suppresses the formation of metastases. In the journal Cell, the team of molecular biologists, computational biologists and clinicians reports on their interdisciplinary approach. The image represents an artistic coloration of...
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Speeding up genetic diagnosis of Huntington’s disease
Elongated segments of DNA cause Huntington’s disease and certain other disorders of the brain. Researchers funded by the SNSF have developed a method to determine the length of the mutated genes quickly and easily. Credit: Swiss National Science Foundation People with Huntington’s disease suffer from jerky body movements and decreasing mental abilities. The condition usually leads to death 15 to 20...
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Researchers map previously unknown disease in children
Researchers correct genetic mutation that causes IPEX, a life–threatening autoimmune syndrome. Date:January 10, 2019Source:University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences Summary:Researchers have created a method for modifying blood stem cells to reverse the genetic mutation that causes a life–threatening autoimmune syndrome called IPEX. UCLA researchers led by Dr. Donald Kohn have created a method for modifying blood stem cells to reverse the genetic mutation that causes a life–threatening autoimmune syndrome called IPEX. The gene therapy, which was tested in mice, is similar to the technique Kohn...
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Researchers answer decades-old question about protein found in Alzheimer’s brain plaques
Alzheimer’s-affected brains are riddled with so-called amyloid plaques: protein aggregates consisting mainly of amyloid-β. However, this amyloid-β is a fragment produced from a precursor protein whose normal function has remained enigmatic for decades. A team of scientists at VIB and KU Leuven led by professors Joris de Wit and Bart De Strooper has now uncovered that this amyloid precursor protein modulates neuronal signal...
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Unconventional immune cells trigger disturbed cytokine production in human spondyloarthritis
Spondyloarthritis is one of the most common types of chronic joint inflammation affecting nearly 1-2% of the Western population. Cytokine blockade of Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and more recently Interleukin-17 (IL-17) has revolutionized the perspectives of patients suffering from this disease by achieving high levels of therapeutic efficacy. The disease differs substantially from rheumatoid arthritis, another form of...
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HIV protein function that slows migration of T cells also improves viral survival
Patch’ of Nef protein amino acids appears to help virus evade the immune response in animal model MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL A study from a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has identified the specific function of a protein found in HIV and related viruses that appears to slow down viral spread in the earliest stages of infection. But they also found that, after initially slowing down the...
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The science is clear: with HIV, undetectable equals untransmittable
NIH officials discuss scientific evidence and principles underlying the U=U concept NIH/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES IMAGE: QUOTE FROM R.W. EISINGER, C.W. DIEFFENBACH AND A.S. FAUCI CREDIT: NIAID WHAT: In recent years, an overwhelming body of clinical evidence has firmly established the HIV Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) concept as scientifically sound, say officials from the...