Tag Archives: cell

Integrins losing their grip drive activate T cell immune responses

Integrins are adhesion molecules expressed on the surface of cells. They play a crucial role in “integrating” the cell exterior and the interior cytoskeleton in cells. �The beta2-integrin family members are highly expressed in dendritic cells that are very important in immune responses. Dendritic cells pick up antigens in inflamed tissues and move to lymph nodes where they present the antigen to T cells and activate them to help fight infection…

Blood vessel growth in brain relies on a protein found in tumor blood vessels

A summary of the research appears in the journal Developmental Cell on Oct. 27. The mystery of the gene, TEM5, began in 2000 with research conducted by Brad St. Croix, Ph.D., working in the laboratory of Bert Vogelstein, M.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Clayton Professor of Oncology, and Kenneth Kinzler, Ph.D., professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine…

Head injury causes immune system to attack brain, new study finds

To date, there are no effective treatments to prevent or reverse the damage sustained after brain injury. The researchers were testing the theory that blows to the head cause brain damage, in part, because of the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, allowing the immune cells in the blood to come into contact with brain cells and destroy them. They hypothesized that mice missing a vital immune component would have less brain damage from trauma, and that a treatment which blocks a component of the immune system would prevent damage. …

Earlier unknown molecular-level mechanism may contribute to growth rate of breast cancer

MicroRNAs are small intracellular RNA molecules that regulate gene expression. Therefore, they play important roles in various normal processes of the human body, such as embryogenesis, and the regulation of cell viability. In addition, it is known that abnormal amounts of microRNA stimulate the onset and development of different diseases, such as cancer…

How a molecular Superman protects genome from damage

It’s a familiar scenario, played out hundreds of times in the movies. But the dramatic scene is reenacted in real life every time a cell divides. In order for division to occur, our genetic material must be faithfully replicated by a highly complicated machine, whose parts are tiny enough to navigate among the strands of the double helix. The problem is that our DNA is constantly in use, with other molecular machines continually plucking at its strands to gain access to critical genes. …

Bio-inspired ‘nano-cocoons’ offer targeted drug delivery against cancer cells

“This drug delivery system is DNA-based, which means it is biocompatible and less toxic to patients than systems that use synthetic materials,” says Dr. Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill. …

Hormone loss could be involved in colon cancer

The researchers at Thomas Jefferson University examined colon cancer samples from 281 patients and compared those tissues to nearby colon tissue that wasn’t cancerous. They found that guanylin production — measured by number of messenger RNAs for guanylin contained in each cell — decreased 100 to 1,000 times in more than 85 percent of colon cancers tested. They verified their results by also staining for the guanylin hormone production in slices of the tissue samples. …

Live and let-7: microRNA plays surprising role in cell survival

Specifically, principal investigator Albert R. La Spada, MD, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular medicine, chief of the Division of Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics and associate director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at UC San Diego, and colleagues found that a microRNA known as let-7 controls autophagy through the amino acid sensing pathway, which has emerged as the most potent activator of mTORC1 complex activity. Autophagy is a fundamental process used by cells to degrade unnecessary components in times of starvation, releasing energy stores that help promote cell survival…