Researchers led by LMU’s Professor Angelika Vollmar and Professor Stephan Sieber of the Technische Universit�t M�nchen have identified a class of chemicals that represent a potential new weapon in the fight against malignant tumors. The compound is itself non-toxic, but it stimulates the killing of rapidly dividing cells by chemotherapeutic drugs. …
In a new study, the team from Lund University, working with colleagues in France and Italy, have studied pigment in the skin and its building blocks. …
A team of five researchers and clinicians in Singapore led by Dr Desmond Heng, ICES, has developed a new combination of drugs to effectively combat bacteria in the lungs which lead to common respiratory system infections, or bacteria-linked pulmonary diseases such as pneumonia, bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis. An acute upper respiratory tract infection, which includes the common flu, was reported to be among the top four conditions diagnosed at polyclinics for eight consecutive years, from 2006 to 2013. Pneumonia on the other hand, was the second leading cause of death in 2012, contributing to 16.8 per cent of the total number of deaths from illnesses behind cancer…
This week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT now report that they have successfully delivered small RNA therapies in a clinically relevant mouse model of lung cancer to slow and shrink tumor growth. Their research offers promise for personalized RNA combination therapies to improve therapeutic response. …
Using the genome editing tool known as CRISPR, the Duke University researchers were able to selectively destroy two viral genes responsible for the growth and survival of cervical carcinoma cells, causing the cancer cells to self-destruct. The findings, appearing online August 7 in the Journal of Virology, give credence to an approach only recently attempted in mammalian cells, and could pave the way toward antiviral strategies targeted against other DNA-based viruses like hepatitis B and herpes simplex. “Because this approach is only going after viral genes, there should be no off-target effects on normal cells,” said Bryan R. …
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering have now developed a probe that combines into one device three unique ways of using light to measure the properties of skin tissue and detect cancer. The researchers have begun testing their 3-in-1 device in pilot clinical trials and are partnering with funding agencies and start-up companies to help bring the device to dermatologists’ offices. The researchers describe the skin cancer probe in a new paper published in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, from AIP Publishing. Skin cancers of all types are the most common forms of cancer in North America, and melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, is one of the leading causes of cancer death, killing nearly 10,000 people every year in the United States. …
In healthy cells, TRAP-1 is an important regulator of metabolism and has been shown to regulate energy production in mitochondria, organelles that generate chemically useful energy for the cell. In the mitochondria of cancer cells, TRAP-1 is universally overproduced. The Wistar team’s report, which appears in the journal Cell Reports, shows how “knockout” mice bred to lack the TRAP-1 protein compensate for this loss by switching to alternative cellular mechanisms for making energy…
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140703102512.htm
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140618122253.htm
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140528105402.htm