Tag Archives: materials

Treatment for overactive bladder and irritable bowel syndrome advanced through pioneering research — ScienceDaily

The new study, published in The FASEB Journal, has found that this clock activity in turn regulates the cycle of all cells in the body. The team of researchers also discovered that the local biological clock and its control are weakened in aging bladders, demonstrating the importance of the clock in bladder physiology and aging. While currently much is known about the central biological clock, little is known about the peripheral clocks in the body. This latest research challenges the long-held view that the central clock of the brain controls all the peripheral clocks in other parts of the body and that these in turn control the down-stream receptor molecules which generate specific cell activities, such as contraction, secretion and metabolism…

Immune cell discovery could help halt cancer spread

These natural killer cells could be harnessed to hunt down and kill cancers that have spread in the body. The team, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, also found natural killer cells were critical to the body’s rejection of donor bone marrow transplants and in the runaway immune response during toxic shock syndrome. The discoveries came after the team showed that a protein called MCL-1 was crucial for survival of natural killer cells, in research published today in the journal Nature Communications. The discovery will help to determine how natural killer cells can be manipulated to fight cancers and other disorders…

Researchers identify a mechanism that stops progression of abnormal cells into cancer

Although the link between abnormal cells and tumor suppressor pathways — like that mediated by the well known p53 gene — has been firmly established, the critical steps in between are not well understood. According to the authors, whose work appears in Cell, this work completes at least one of the missing links. Normal human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, but this number doubles to 46 pairs as a cell prepares to divide…

Previous pulmonary disease linked to increased lung cancer risk in large study

“Associations between various respiratory diseases and lung cancer have been shown in earlier studies, but few of these studies considered multiple respiratory diseases simultaneously,” said researcher Ann Olsson, PhD, of the International Agency for Research in Cancer in Lyon, France. …

Less radical procedures offer similar cancer control compared to surgery for kidney cancer patients

Dr. Thompson says radical nephrectomy — surgical removal of the entire kidney — has historically been the standard of care for management of kidney cancer; however, partial nephrectomy — surgical removal of tumors from a kidney while sparing healthy tissue -has become increasingly more common because of its nephron-sparing benefits and similar cancer control…

Bisphosphonates for osteoporosis not associated with reduced breast cancer risk, study suggests — ScienceDaily

Some studies have suggested that bisphosphonates, which are commonly used to treat osteoporosis, may have antitumor and antimetastatic properties. Some observational studies have suggested bisphosphonates may protect women from breast cancer. The authors analyzed the relationship of postmenopausal breast cancer and bisphosphonate use by examining data from two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. …