beta

Poor prenatal nutrition permanently damages function of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas

...fference in pancreas size or numbers of pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin. But cultures of the beta cells revealed the answer: the undernourished mice had an abnormal way of responding to glucose. "Th...

Neuronal 'traffic jam' marks early Alzheimer's disease

...otein that underlies Alzheimer's pathology, called beta amyloid precursor protein (beta-APP), triggers def...APP is cleaved to form an aberrant form of amyloid beta (A-beta) peptide that makes up the plaques that surround the neurons of people with Alzheimer's dise...

Mouse brain cells rapidly recover after Alzheimer's plaques are cleared

...y for a key component of brain plaques,the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide. In areas of the brain whereantibodies cleared plaques, many of the swellings previously observedon nerve cell branches rapidly disappeared. "Theseswellings represent structural damage that seemed to be wellestablished and stable, bu...

Key molecule in plant photo-protection identified

...y for a key component of brain plaques,the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide. In areas of the brain whereantibodies cleared plaques, many of the swellings previously observedon nerve cell branches rapidly disappeared. "Theseswellings represent structural damage that seemed to be wellestablished and stable, bu...

Genetic defects give the immune system the green light to attack the pancreas

...ese immune cells then attack the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, mistaking them as foreign i...rate the pancreas and attack the insulin-producing beta cells.?This first step in the onset of type 1 diabetes is called insulitis. Later in life, within we...

Newly Discovered 'Branding' Process Helps Immune System Cells Pick Their Fights

...omedical research. He notes that insulin-producing beta cells, the pancreatic cells attacked by T cells in...r to those made by antigen-presenting cells. "The beta cells could therefore be modifying their own proteins in the same way that antigen-presenting cells ...

The making and breaking of microtubules

...t identical tubulin proteins, dubbed the alpha and beta forms. During polymerization the dimers stack end ...e growth. When GTP binds to a particular locus on beta tubulin (the E-site or exchangeable site) polymerization occurs: tubulin dimers pile onto the protof...

Researcher gets NSF grant to create mutant maize lines

...locks an enzyme used in the pathway that processes beta carotene, or vitamin A, thereby creating a maize plant rich in the vitamin. The project is especially important given the breadth of uses for maize, Brutnell adds. "If you walk into a grocery store, 80 percent of the products on the shelves contain ...

Pinpointing a culprit molecule in Alzheimer's disease

...hat, when clipped by enzymes, produces the amyloid beta (Ab) peptide that clusters into the amyloid plaque... The clipping of APP produces two types of amyloid beta peptide--one 40 amino acid units long (Ab40) and one 42 units long (Ab42). Circumstantial evidence h...

New Discovery May Help Doctors Treat Infertility

...lack estrogen receptor beta. The estrogen receptor beta is one of two estrogen receptor proteins which med...ished in August, 2005. “What we found is that the beta estrogen receptor plays a role in moving the egg outside the ovary so it can be fertilized,?said Ken...

New imaging technology shown to detect pancreatic inflammation in type 1 diabetes

...by which time destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas has already progressed signi...ystem mistakenly attacks its own insulin-producing beta cells and eventually kills them. Early in this process, white blood cells called T lymphocytes infil...

Living with salt

...which is commercially grown as a source of natural beta carotene, has been investigated at the Weizmann Institute for over 30 years. Yet, the secrets of its exceptionally successful adaptation to salt remained unresolved. In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,...

Targeting a key enzyme with gene therapy reversed course of Alzheimer's disease in mouse models

...myloid precursor protein (APP) releasing the toxic beta amyloid fragments that clump together to form the ...s. One of the enzymes doing the cleaving is called beta secretase or BACE1. And although the production of beta amyloid occurs in all brains, healthy brain...

Clearing jams in copy machinery

...tigator, now shows that one of these proteins, the beta sliding clamp, serves as a toolbelt from which the...isms such as humans have more). As the ring-shaped beta sliding clamp works its way along the DNA double helix, a network of proteins work together to unwin...

New cell transplantation technique restores insulin production in diabetics

...ts from the destruction of insulin-producing islet beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is necessary to metabolize sugar, which is the basic fuel that all cells need. With this minimally invasive technique, donor islet cells are injected into diabetic patients so that the new, healthy islet cells can rest...

Sickle cell disease corrected in human models using stem cell-based gene therapy

...globin gene and small interfering RNA specific for beta S-globin, the globin mutant chain that causes sickle cell disease. "An innovative and sophisticated approach was needed to genetically engineer hematopoietic stem cells using a practical and clinically applicable process. The transferred gene must ...

Genetic key to growth of new arteries is identified

...rs of the study. The mice carried a marker gene, beta galactosidase, that turns tissues blue. Different strains of the mice had different fragments of the MMP2 gene coupled to the so-called blue gene. Leg muscles turned blue only in the strain of mice with the specific gene fragment that turns on in res...

Common molecular 'signature' identified in solid tumors

...noblastoma-1 (RB1) and transforming growth factor, beta receptor 2 (TGFBR2). Croce predicts that miRNAs themselves may one day be used as treatments. "If we can replace miRNAs that are lost and block those that are overly abundant, then maybe we can prevent some of the very earliest changes that happen ...

Researchers reverse juvenile diabetes in animal model

...ructive effect of T cells on the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, a process that is known to ... T cells as they travel to the pancreas to destroy beta cells. "We did this in mice, giving them six injections over the course of several weeks. The inje...

'Bad' enzymes may wear white hats after stroke

...py with tPA," she said. "I also did some work with beta amyloid, the protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease. It seems that beta amyloid might increase levels of MMP-9 where MMPs would harm rather than help, and statins might hel...

Study in Science holds promise for a new approach to drug therapy

...y binding to the hotspot, and blocking the G gamma beta subunit's ability to activate phopholipase C, which in turn inhibits pain signals. "Imagine if we could identify 50 small molecules, with each one bringing about a specific set of changes in the behavior the hotspot," Smrcka said. "Taken together, t...

HPV subtype associated with squamous cell skin cancers

...ction with human papillomavirus (HPV) types called beta HPVs may be associated with an increased risk of d...epithelial cancers such as cervical cancer. Genus beta HPVs, which includes HPV types 5 and 8, have been detected in skin tumors, and previous studies sugg...

Common molecular 'signature' identified in solid tumors

...noblastoma-1 (RB1) and transforming growth factor, beta receptor 2 (TGFBR2). Croce predicts that miRNAs themselves may one day be used as treatments. "If we can replace miRNAs that are lost and block those that are overly abundant, then maybe we can prevent some of the very earliest changes that happen ...

Production of key Alzheimer's protein monitored for first time in humans

...itor the production and clearance rates of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) in the human central nervous syste...bout six or seven hours, you make half the amyloid beta found in your central nervous system." Ideally, the production and clearance rates stay balanced, ...

Brain enzyme treatment relieves memory lapse in Alzheimer's mice

...therapies have almost exclusively targeted amyloid beta (Aß), the protein responsible for the "amyloid pla...Shelanski of Columbia University. "While amyloid beta is certainly a key player in Alzheimer's disease--and efforts to reduce it remain a worthy goal--our...

Research reveals control of potent immune regulator

...vity. It also looked at transforming growth factor beta (TGFb), a substance also made by NK cells that lowers IFNg production. The research, by investigators with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center ?Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, found that t...

Teasing out tissue from blood

...rom brain and liver cells to the insulin-producing beta islet cells of the pancreas. The idea is to revert a patient's blood cells to the stem cell stage and then chemically nudge them to re-specialise into particular tissue types that can be implanted to heal damaged tissue. A huge advantage over using...

Defense peptide found in primates may block some human HIV transmissions

...research around the world has focused on alpha and beta defensins, the two types that humans still make. Cole studies theta-defensins called retrocyclins, which are no longer made by humans or advanced primates such as chimpanzees. However, theta-defensins are more active against HIV-1 than the other two ...

New study reveals signaling pathways required for expansion of pancreas stem cells

... destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic islet beta cells by the body's immune system. Islet beta cells are spread throughout the pancreas and are made up of two types of cells: alpha cells, which m...

Scientists reverse evolution

...named beta-thalassemia, which occurs when a mutant beta hemoglobin gene results in faulty production of he...ene, essentially creating an embryonic or juvenile beta hemoglobin gene that could make hemoglobin normally during adult life. ...

A sweet solution for Alzheimer's disease?

...er's disease has been that some compounds--such as beta secretase inhibitors--cannot enter the brain easily, St George-Hyslop explained. Scyllo-inositol, on the other hand, readily passes through the blood-brain barrier where it is made available to the central nervous system. Even if scyllo-inositol doe...

Gardenia fruit compound starting point for diabetes therapy

... causes of disease in insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. Insulin controls blood levels of glucose, t...sent a lead compound for agents aimed at improving beta cell function in type 2 diabetes." Study coauthor Chen-Yu Zhang's familiarity with traditional Chin...

Increased sensitivity to nerve signals keeps diabetes at bay

... which the pancreas cells that produce insulin, or beta cells, lack so-called M3 muscarinic acetylcholine ... genetically altered to harbor an excess number of beta cell M3 receptors show the opposite: a profound increase in glucose tolerance and insulin release, t...

New data from NIH lab confirms protocol to reverse type 1 diabetes in mice

...m the spleen can contribute to the regeneration of beta cells. In 2001 and 2003, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) demonstrated the efficacy of a protocol to reverse of type 1 diabetes in diabetic mice. Three studies from other institutions published in the March 24, 2006 issue of Scie...

PLoS ONE is launched by the Public Library of Science

...echnology will no doubt hold some surprises. The beta version5 of PLoS ONE that is launched today is a work-in-progress. It is presented in beta because PLoS wishes the community to help shape PLoS ONE, and the underlying publishing platform, in...

Holiday gluttony can spell disaster for undiagnosed diabetics

...pe 1 : The immune system attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, requiring insulin to survive. This typically affects children. Type 2: The body can't efficiently use its own insulin and insulin production can't keep up with the high demand, so glucose builds up in the blood and the body...

Beyond the book: Software automates access to brain atlases

...es. The software, now available in an experimental beta version for free download, is a robust and user-friendly interface that works on all the most popular computer operating systems. "Brain atlases are basic tools for researchers in neural science," says Gully A.P.C. Burns, a specialist in neuroinfor...

Protein folding: Building a strong foundation

...that folds into a sandwich-like structure called a beta sheet, which is a common fold in nature that consists of two beta-sheets of amino-acid strands meshed together. "In folding study the right combination of expertise in computational and experimental approaches is vital for success," Ma said. "Our c...

Slow brain waves play key role in coordinating complex activity

... second), alpha (8-13 oscillations per second) and beta (14-30 oscillations per second) to the most rapid firings in the human brain - gamma oscillations (30-60 oscillations per second). Because slow firings are detected when the brain is least active, while rapid firings accompany activity, neuroscientis...

Research suggests beta agonists may alter the immune system

...uld influence future drug development, because new beta agonists that are more effective in activating PKA may prove useful. ...

Molecular 'signature' protects cells from viruses

...or example, they then produce what is known as the beta interferon, thereby activating specific killer cells. They also initiate the cell's suicide programme ?apoptosis. The viruses cannot then continue to breed.' Up to now it was not known how cells distinguish their own RNA from that of the 'enemy'. ...

Molecules in blood foretell development of preeclampsia

...ly, a molecule known as transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta) binds to endoglin, and this binding is ...Dr. Levine added, so that more VEGF, PlGF, and TGF beta would be available for the blood vessels that need them. One company has developed the means to pro...

The power of one: A simpler, cheaper method for cell fusion

...ng hybrid, called a hybridoma. By manipulating the beta cells prior to fusion, scientists can create thousands of different hybridomas that produce antibodies effective against different viruses and diseases like cancer. Lu's research regarding the development and use of this technology was published o...

Researchers seek to design first treatment for neuroAIDS

...ant, drugs that inhibit glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3b) and mixed lineage kinase (MLK). "The number of HIV patients that suffer brain damage is usually estimated at one in five, but I believe that nearly all of them, if they live long enough, will be affected," said Harris A. Gelbard, M.D., Ph.D...

Unique tomatoes tops in disease-fighting antioxidants

...lycopene, and a tomato variety chosen for its rich beta carotene content. The tomatoes were grown at an...ther featured sauce made from the tomatoes high in beta carotene. The participants were asked to avoid tomato and beta carotene-rich foods for 13 days befor...

Scientists find new genetic clue to cause of Alzheimer's disease

...ecursor protein, or APP, is processed into amyloid beta protein fragments that make up plaques in the brai...nts that demonstrate SORL1's role in production of beta amyloid fragments. Examining blood cells from people with and without Alzheimer's, the researcher...

Elucidation of the genome for diabetics with DNA chips

...ulin produced exclusively in the insulin-secreting beta cells of the pancreas. Zinc is a trace element present in very small amounts in the body, but essential for survival. Zinc deficiency is common in developing countries and has been associated with many diseases, including dabetes. These four gen...

Protein overexpression at heart of heart failure

...a2+-channel pore. The causal role of the increased beta 2-subunit expression for the “heart failure type?o...eveloped a novel, cardiac-specific, drug-inducible beta 2a subunit overexpression transgenic mouse which was crossbred with the channel pore overexpressing ...

Turning green gunk to gold, anti-cancer gold

.... Scientists have known for several years that the beta configuration was absolutely required for the anti... that always introduces the epoxide in the desired beta configuration. Sherman, who is also the John G. Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Co...

Cold sore virus might play role in Alzheimer's disease

...at the gene plays a role in clearing toxic amyloid beta from the brain. "Just how ApoE-4 makes people vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease isn't resolved at all," said Federoff, who is director of the University's Center for Aging and Developmental Biology. "It may be that it works in multiple ways." T...

Stress may help cancer cells resist treatment, research shows

... "A study from Canada showed that men who took beta blockers for hypertension for at least four years had an 18 percent lower risk of prostate cancer," said Kulik. "These drugs block the effects of epinephrine, which could explain the finding. Another study of men after radical prostatectomy reported...

Gut research yields new anti-cancer approach

...ubules are made of two related proteins, alpha and beta tubulin, which pair up to form a chain and then wi...e PPARgamma inhibitors reduced levels of alpha and beta tubulin by 60 to 70 percent. Also described in the publication are studies where PPARgamma inhibitor...

No magic tomato? Study breaks link between lycopene and prostate cancer prevention

...xpected observation "may be due to chance, however beta carotene is already known to increase risk of lung...egetables, I would say to be cautious about taking beta carotene supplements, particularly at high doses, and consult a physician," Peters said. ...

UCLA AIDS Institute researchers find a peptide that encourages HIV infection

...eties of peptides, also known as defensins ?alpha, beta and theta, Lehrer said. Humans have only alpha and beta; monkeys have all three. "Here's a peptide whose normal structure allows it to protect against viruses, yet if you make the same peptide and place its amino acids in a reverse order, that let...

Nitric oxide: Key to cardiovascular and pulmonary function and drug effectiveness

...rs to control whether certain medications, such as beta adrenergic receptor agonists used in acute heart f...that a lack of nitric oxide leads to a decrease in beta adrenergic receptor number and function. Also, the researchers found that when SNO compounds were ad...

Statin treatment improves spatial memory in mouse models of Alzheimer's

... used in the study are homozygous for the gene for beta amyloid protein, making it inevitable that they de...se animals, together with regular mice without the beta amyloid genes, were acclimated for one week, with as much food and water as they wished, then divide...

Pistachios lower cholesterol, provide antioxidants

...utein, ?normally found in dark leafy vegetables -- beta carotene ?a precursor to vitamin A ?and gamma tocopherol ?the major form of vitamin E ?than other nuts. It is oxidized LDL and other lipproteins that contribute to plaque formation in arteries. The researchers reported that both the 1.5 and 3 ou...

Newly discovered antibody may be body's natural defense against Alzheimer's

... found antibodies selectively target aggregates of beta amyloid proteins called "oligomers" that are toxic... to contain small quantities of antibodies against beta amyloid. "The effects of IVIG in lowering beta amyloid levels in Alzheimer's patients in our Pha...

Newly found sensing system enables certain bacteria to resist human immune defenses

... study its response to a specific human AMP, human beta defensin 3. S. epidermidis is one of several hard-to-treat infectious agents that can be transmitted to patients in hospitals via contaminated medical implants. Findings by Dr. Otto’s research group are published in the May 29 issue of the Proceeding...

Brain inflammation may be friend, not foe, for Alzheimer's patients

...The team used a lentivirus to boost levels of IL-1 beta in select brain regions of its engineered mouse, then applied the technology in mice specially designed to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The mice developed normally for six months. Then Shaftel raised the level of IL-1beta in one part of the brain ...