TOKYO METROPOLITAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE DAMAGED MITOCHONDRIA ARE SELECTIVELY ELIMINATED VIA AUTOPHAGY CALLED MITOPHAGY. IN MAMMALIAN CELLS, UBIQUITIN CHAINS ON THE DAMAGED MITOCHONDRIA PLAY CRITICAL ROLES TO INDUCE MITOPHAGY. Researchers at TMIMS have revealed that PINK1 (a serine/threonine kinase) and Parkin (a ubiquitin ligating enzyme: E3) work together to ubiquitylate the outer membrane proteins...
Silencing of an ALS gene safely delivered to patients in new study
by Jim Fessenden, University of Massachusetts Medical School UMass Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital are the first to safely treat two research participants with a synthetic microRNA, delivered into the spinal fluid, designed to silence a human disease-causing gene. Details of the treatment, which targeted the mutant SOD1 gene that causes ALS, appear in...
Drug treatment could improve effectiveness of immunotherapy for cancer patients
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — While immunotherapy — a form of treatment that uses the body’s immune system to recognize, attack and kill tumor cells — has given hope to people across the globe, it fails in a significant proportion of cancer patients. However, a new study published in the Nature journal Cell Death Discovery...
Black individuals at higher risk for contracting COVID-19, according to new research
AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY IN A STUDY, BLACK RACE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED COVID-19 INFECTION RISK. view more CREDIT: ATS July 08, 2020 – Results of an analysis published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society found that Black individuals were twice as likely as White individuals to test positive for COVID-19. The average age...
Study sheds light on how cancer spreads in blood
Analysis of particles shed by tumors points to new, less invasive way to diagnose malignancies CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER MAGNIFIED IMAGE SHOWS PROSTATE CANCER CELLS EXHIBITING FORMATION OF EXTRACELLULAR VESICLES ON THE CELL MEMBRANES, WHICH CONTAIN TUMOR-DERIVED PROTEINS AND ARE IMPLICATED IN THE SPREAD OF CANCER. view more CREDIT: IMAGE BY CEDARS-SINAI. A new study sheds...
X-ray scattering shines light on protein folding
Multiple forms of a non-functional, unfolded protein follow different pathways and timelines to reach its folded, functional state, a study reveals THE KOREA ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (KAIST) THE SCIENTISTS FOUND THAT NON-FUNCTIONAL UNFOLDED FORMS OF THE PROTEIN CYTOCHROME C FOLLOW DIFFERENT PATHWAYS AND TIMELINES TO REACH A STABLE FUNCTIONAL FOLDED STATE. view...
New clues to lung-scarring disease may aid treatment
by Vanderbilt University Medical Center Scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona, have discovered previously unreported genetic and cellular changes that occur in the lungs of people with pulmonary fibrosis (PF). Their findings, reported Wednesday, July 8, in the journal Science Advances, should aid the...
Spatial mapping method pinpoints potential new therapeutic targets in lupus
by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia A team of researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used a new method of pinpointing potential disease-causing changes in the genome to identify two new potential therapeutic targets for lupus, while also paving the way for more accurately identifying disease-causing variations in other autoimmune disorders. The findings were published...
Species could hold a cure for melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer
Could the cure for melanoma — the most dangerous type of skin cancer — be a compound derived from a marine invertebrate that lives at the bottom of the ocean? National Science Foundation-funded scientists led by Alison Murray of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, think so. They’re looking to the microbiome of an...
Host cell fusion in bacteria infection alarms immune system, causing host cell destruction
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, YONG LOO LIN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE A GIANT CELL RESULTING FROM BURKHOLDERIA INFECTION UNDERGOING ABORTIVE CELL DIVISION. PART 1: THE GENETIC MATERIAL IN THE GIANT CELL IS HIGHLY CONDENSED, SIMILAR TO WHAT HAPPENS DURING NORMAL CELL… view more CREDIT: DR GAN YUNN HWEN Burkholderia pseudomallei is a bacterium in the soil...