Daily non-political popular news in brief.

Tracing the pathways of neurofibromatosis

01-18-2007 · EurekAlert!

New research into the mechanisms of neurofibromatosis finds that flaws in the gene Nf1 can lead to a biochemical domino effect that results in tumors. The research, which appears in the January 10 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, seeks to identify the biochemical pathway responsible for tumors in people with the genetic disorder. Researchers built their case based on evidence from dozens of painstaking experiments on genetically engineered fruit flies.

Keywords: tracing, pathways, neurofibromatosis, pathway, neurofibromatosi

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Cell pathway, disease linked to histone action
10-26-2007 · EurekAlert!
In the study a protein was identified that modifies H2A, which in turn regulates normal cell pathways and cell growth. When the function of this protein was blocked in tadpole embryos, the front-to-back body patterning was altered during maturation, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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Tracing Parkinson's lethal mechanism
07-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
In the vast majority of Parkinson's disease patients, the disorder arises not because of a genetic defect, but because some external insult triggers the death of dopamine-producing neurons. Now, researchers have reported progress in understanding the mechanism underlying that death, which they say suggests a new treatment pathway.
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2 different neural pathways regulate loss and regain of consciousness during general anesthesia
01-11-2008 · EurekAlert!
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have answered long-running questions about the way that anesthetics act on the body, by showing that the cellular pathway for emerging from anesthesia is different from the one that drugs take to put patients to sleep during operations. The findings will be published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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2 heads are better than 1: 2 dysfunctional DNA repair pathways kill tumor cells
04-12-2007 · EurekAlert!
Individuals who inherit one mutant copy of any one of about 12 genes that make the proteins of the Fanconi Anemia pathway are at increased risk of developing cancer. This occurs when the remaining "good" copy of the gene becomes mutated in a specific cell type. However, hope of a new treatment for these cancers has now been provided by a new study indicating that inhibiting the protein ATM can kill these cancer cells.
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New, more direct pathways from outside the cell-to-cell nuclei discovered
08-10-2007 · EurekAlert!
A team of Brooklyn College researchers has shattered a long-held belief that no direct pathway exists between material outside of a cell and the cell nucleus. The cell is the smallest metabolically functional unit of life.
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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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JCI table of contents: October 19, 2006
10-19-2006 · EurekAlert!
This release contains summaries, links to PDFs and contact information for the following newsworthy papers to be published online, October 19, 2006, in the JCI, including: Double trouble for RA patients: PLC-gamma-2 regulates osteoclastogenesis and B cell differentiation; Role for NF-kappa-B in endothelial cell function; CYLD puts a damper on inflammation; Triggering TLR4 can raise resistance to insulin; TLR4 performs a balancing act in the lungs; and Hyperactive osteoclasts cause osteoporosis in neurofibromatosis type 1 patients.
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Penn researchers discover initial steps in the development of taste
12-05-2006 · EurekAlert!
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are closer to understanding how the sense of taste develops. They have pinpointed a molecular pathway that regulates the development of taste buds. Using genetically engineered mice, they discovered that a signaling pathway activated by small proteins called Wnts is required for initiating taste-bud formation. They have also determined that Wnt proteins are required for hooking up the wiring of taste signals to the brain.
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Bioengineering efficient antibiotic biosynthesis in E. coli
02-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
An erythromycin-producing E. coli recombinant strain with an antibiotic-overproducing mutation in the mycarose biosynthesis pathway produced second-generation mutants capable of directed biosynthesis of enhanced precursor macrolide antibiotics.
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MIT biologists solve vitamin puzzle
03-21-2007 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Solving a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, MIT and Harvard researchers have discovered the final piece of the synthesis pathway of vitamin B12-the only vitamin synthesized exclusively by microorganisms.
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