toxic

Adding Radiation Therapy To Chemotherapy Improves Survival In Patients With High-risk Breast Cancer

...ads to better survival outcomes with few long-term toxic effects, according to a 20-year follow-up of a ran...ed with chemotherapy alone. In addition, long-term toxic effects, including cardiac deaths, were acceptable for both groups of patients. "Our results, and t...

Novel Asthma Study Shows Multiple Genetic Input Required; Single-gene Solution Shot Down

...ads to better survival outcomes with few long-term toxic effects, according to a 20-year follow-up of a ran...ed with chemotherapy alone. In addition, long-term toxic effects, including cardiac deaths, were acceptable for both groups of patients. "Our results, and t...

Columbia research lifts major hurdle to gene therapy for cancer

...ted an adenovirus that carriesthe PEG switch and a toxic protein. The switch and the protein wereconnected ...cells, the virusentered both but only produced the toxic protein inside the cancercells. All the prostrate cancer cells died while the normal cells wereunaff...

Anti-bacterial additive widespread in U.S. waterways

...eams in the United Statesare believed to contain a toxic antimicrobial chemical whoseenvironmental fate was never thoroughly scrutinized despite large scaleproduction and usage for almost half a century, according to ananalysis conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Schoolof Public Health....

Tiny particles could solve billion-dollar problem

...r microorganisms that break the TCE down into less toxic or non-toxic constituents. In general, chemical ca...iate chemicals, like vinyl chloride, that are more toxic than TCE. In the CBEN experiments, Wong and collaborators compared the effectiveness of four variet...

U of M researcher examines newly emerging deadly disease

...parable tissue injury occurs. In addition, because toxic shock syndrome is mediated by superantigens, it is...hat the clinical features of purpura fulminans and toxic shock syndrome seen in these patients resulted from massive cytokine release induced by the S. aureu...

Spider Venom Could Yield Eco-Friendly Insecticides

...ore than 100 chemical compounds, most of which are toxic to insects, but not vertebrates. King is studying the molecular structures of the toxins that selectively target the nervous systems of insects to understand the toxins' mechanism of action at the cellular level. Because these toxins do not affect th...

Gene variations explain drug dose required to control seizures

...apeutic index refers to the ratio between a drug's toxic and therapeutic dose, used as a measure of the drug's relative safety for a particular treatment. Similarly, appropriate doses of carbamazepine take time to determine because of the drug's variable affects on patient metabolism and its potential neu...

Solution to Pollution: New Bacteria Eats Toxic Waste

... found microbes in the soil that had destroyed the toxic chemicals. Sims then collaborated with researchers from the Utah State biology department to identify the microbes. The three Libby-site microbes responsible for the remediation were mycobacterium isolates. The other two mycobacterium isolates capab...

Development of portable infectious disease detector

....Most sensors that have been developed to identify toxic agents aresingle purpose. That is, they can identify the presence of a singletoxin, or a limited number of closely related toxins. The ability tomonitor the health of small groups of cells, however, makes it possibleto detect the presence of unknown ...

Researchers add new tool to tumor-treatment arsenal

...ng agents to guarantee cell death, but without the toxic side effects. The researchers studied the results of combining a DNA-damaging agent called cisplatin with RAD001, a derivative of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin. Used in organ transplant patients, rapamycin and its derivatives have shown promi...

Why do insects stop 'breathing'? To avoid damage from too much oxygen, say researchers

...m their bodies is equally important to prevent its toxic buildup in tissues. "Even in our own case, our bod...e concentration of oxygen in the air we breathe is toxic to us. Indeed, fruit flies, which have been studied closely for decades, die sooner from aging in a ...

Nano-Probes Allow an Inside Look at Cell Nuclei

...at a high resolution. These labels are also either toxic to cells or difficult to construct and manipulate. In the future, they hope to tailor quantum dots to track specific chemical reactions inside nuclei, such as how proteins help repair DNA after irradiation. They have already visualized the dots' jou...

Duke Chemists Isolating Individual Molecules Of Toxic Protein In Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease

...o understand the detailed assembly process for the toxic protein called amyloid plaque. Such basic understa...lled monomers, that are the building blocks of the toxic protein polymers known as amyloid fibrils. Atomic force microscopes use a sharp microscopic tip to i...

UCSD discovery may help extend life of natural pesticide

...t toxin, which is produced by a soil bacterium, is toxic to insects and roundworms, but not to vertebrates, which accounts for its popularity as a pesticide," explained Aroian, who led the team. "But the development of insect resistance to Bt is a major threat to its long term use. Our findings make it pos...

Sexual cooperation: Mating increases longevity in ant queens

...(as in the case of bed bugs) or by the transfer of toxic seminal fluids (as in the case of the fruitfly Drosophila). These manipulations are beneficial to males because, for example, they reduce female re-mating probability or boost their fecundity directly after mating, but they can be very harmful to fem...

International HapMap consortium expands mapping effort

...ffect the response of people to therapeutic drugs, toxic substances and environmental factors, and the HapMap can assist in the identification of those variants. Since not all genetic variants are deleterious, the HapMap also may be used to help to pinpoint genetic variations that contribute to good health...

Molecular Motors Cooperate In Moving Cellular Cargo, Study Shows

...ly labeled peroxisomes (organelles that break down toxic substances) inside specially cultured fruit fly cells. This was the first time the imaging technique had been used inside a living cell. "Our measurements show that both dynein and kinesin carry the peroxisomes in a step-by-step fashion, moving abou...

Substance protects resilient staph bacteria

...d to serious conditions such as sepsis (widespread toxic infection) and endocarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart and its valves). Because of the ability of PGA to promote resistance to innate immune defenses, learning more about the protein could lead to new treatments for S. epidermidis and ...

Molecule that usually protects infection-fighting cells may cause plaque deposits inside arteries

...crophage cells, but the lipids themselves are very toxic to cells and promote apoptosis (cell death)," Dr. Miyazaki said. "Therefore AIM production is a self-defense mechanism for macrophage cells, but interestingly, is in turn detrimental for the body." Atherosclerosis is a contributing factor to a numbe...

Transgenic plants remove more selenium from polluted soil than wild plants, new tests show

...ineral for both humans and animals, but it becomes toxic at high doses. The dangers of selenium toxicity ca...x to seven feet tall -- and it is tolerant to many toxic conditions. It's a good plant for remediation, but we want to see if it's possible to increase its a...

Fibril Shape Is The Basis Of Prion Strains And Cross-species Prion Infection

...o infect other species depends on the shape of the toxic threadlike fibers produced by the prion. Two studies on the topic appear in the 8 April issue of the journal Cell. Although research suggests that prions from one species rarely infect other species, some scientists believe the species barrier was ...

Scientists discover how plants disarm the toxic effects of excessive sunlight

...d pathway by which cells protect themselves from a toxic byproduct of photosynthesis may hold important imp... of singlet oxygen, which is a highly reactive and toxic substance that destroys biological molecules. "We've discovered a pathway that cells use to turn on...

Gene Therapy Cures Inherited Liver Disease In Rats

...s a real promise for long-term alleviations of the toxic symptoms of these kinds of diseases. The treatment...it is called, was manipulated so that it minimized toxic side effects. This disease involved a lack of a gene that is found in the part of the cell where det...

Products containing specific probes for detecting alternative splice forms protected

...be altered by various stress events such as virus, toxic agents, and drug exposure. The genome-wide patented probe configuration described in the patent is the basis for the microarrays in ExonHit's SpliceArray product line launched earlier this year. The genome profiling market is rapidly growing, and Sp...

Survey finds silver contamination in North Pacific waters

...evel. Though still well below levels that would be toxic to marine life, this contamination of what had bee...sian coastal waters where the concentrations reach toxic levels. "The open ocean is vastly diluted, so there may be some massive hotspots of silver contamin...

Anti cancer virotherapy well tolerated in first human administration, research finds

.... Professor Shafren's group observed no "systemic toxic effects or localised inflammation" as a result of the injections of the viral material and basic blood chemistry and liver enzyme levels remain unchanged in the these two patients. Professor Shafren told conference delegates that these findings sugg...

Chemicals in tattoo inks need closer scrutiny

...und in their testing and the potential presence of toxic metals will encourage regulators to begin monitoring the tattoo ink industry more closely. There are other problems with unknown compositions of tattoo inks. For example, surgery to remove tattoos is becoming more widespread, and not knowing the com...

Silence the gene, save the cell: RNA interference as promising therapy for ALS

... functions, some additional function that makes it toxic to the cell. "Any mutation to the SOD1 gene is fat...nervous system, particularly diseases that involve toxic gain-of-function, such as inherited forms of Parkinson's disease or Huntington's disease," notes Aeb...

Defenseless plants arm themselves with metals

...ait. While essential as micronutrients, metals are toxic in high levels. Most plants have mechanisms that keep metals in the environment out of their tissues. So what would have driven some plants to do just the opposite? "The existing explanation is that metal accumulation evolved to protect these plants...

Nanoparticle Breast Cancer Drug Approved by FDA

... with Taxol, in which paclitaxel is dissolved in a toxic solvent, which requires pre-medication with steroi...ng the solvent-based paclitaxel injection. Without toxic solvents, Abraxane could be given at higher doses than Taxol, which may account, in part, for the in...

Oceans more vulnerable to agricultural runoff than previously thought, study finds

...f could cause additional stress if it does lead to toxic blooms or hypoxia." She and her colleagues plan to conduct follow-up studies to assess the ecological impact of runoff events in the Yaqui Valley. They also expressed concern about the impact of large farming operations in other vulnerable subtropic...

Could microbes solve Russia's chemical weapons conundrum?

...m called Pseudomonas putida ?could help mop up the toxic by-products caused by the destruction of the chemi...the possibility of using P putida to transform the toxic by-products contained in reaction masses (RMs) that arise when mustard is destroyed by chemical deto...

Study uncovers bacteria's worst enemy

...be the radioactive elements, but rather, the other toxic metals that might also be found at the site. The ...to these environmental bacteria, plutonium is less toxic than uranium and, in general, actinides are less toxic than other types of metals. This suggests tha...

New polysaccharide may help combat multidrug resistance in cancer

...on with chemotherapy such that much lower and less toxic doses of chemotherapeutic agents can be used." ...

Gene therapy cures inherited liver disease in rats

...s a real promise for long-term alleviations of the toxic symptoms of these kinds of diseases. The treatment...it is called, was manipulated so that it minimized toxic side effects. This disease involved a lack of a gene that is found in the part of the cell where det...

Nature provides inspiration for important new adhesive

...rchers say, but does not use formaldehyde or other toxic chemicals. Formaldehyde fumes are associated with some health problems, including eye and throat irritation. The chemical has been shown to be a human carcinogen, and in some circumstances it may be a concern in some residential building products. T...

To Stop Evolution: New Way Of Fighting Antibiotic Resistance Demonstrated By Scripps Scientists

... must be treated with experimental and potentially toxic drugs. Now some super bugs -- multiple drug-resistant bacteria -- are emerging as an even greater threat. Multiple drug-resistant TB is no longer susceptible to broad categories of antibiotics, such as rifampicin, isoniazid, and streptomycin. Some s...

Mutation in clams protects against paralytic shellfish poisoning but raises human health risk

... for the evolution of shellfish in the presence of toxic algae and increases the risk of PSP to people who eat clams by enabling contaminated clams to survive in the presence of toxins. The report, "Sodium channel mutation leading to saxitoxin resistance in clams increases risk of PSP," was written by a t...

U. Iowa researchers improve Huntington's disease symptoms in mice

...he disease-causing gene produces a protein that is toxic to certain brain cells, and the subsequent neurona...vels in the treated mice showed that levels of the toxic HD protein were reduced to about 40 percent of the level seen in untreated mice. "It is very exciti...

Asymptomatic HIV babies could use earlier treatment

...t are not known. Concerns about the drugs?possible toxic side-effects and the development of viral resistance to available treatments must be balanced against a desire to do everything possible to keep infected children healthy. Maldonado and her colleagues collected data from hospitals throughout norther...

Scientists find viruses can't stick to sea bugs in the dark

...looms. On hot, sunny days algae can cause massive, toxic blooms, poisoning huge areas of the sea with their waste products and killing fish, sea mammals such as whales, dolphins and seals, and even humans. Control of these blooms is vital to the health of the seas. "Research using cyanophages to control b...

Alien woodwasp, threat to US pine trees, found in N.Y.

... several other types of conifers, by introducing a toxic mucus and spores of a toxic fungus when the female lays her eggs through the bark and into the sapwood of the tree. "If S. noct...

Chronic Sinus Infection Thought To Be Tissue Issue, Mayo Clinic Scientists Show It's Snot

...ion: that inflammatory cells break down, releasing toxic proteins into the diseased airway tissue," says le...st Jens Ponikau, M.D. "Instead we found that these toxic proteins are released into the mucus, and not in the tissue. Therefore, scientists might need to tak...

Cancer related gene p53 not regulated as indicated by previous tissue culture research

...DNA breaks caused by UV light, ionizing radiation, toxic chemicals or other environmental damages. Unless promptly and properly repaired, these DNA breaks can let cell division spiral out of control, ultimately causing cancer. Under normal conditions, the p53 protein is very unstable and found only at ver...

Critical step traced in anthrax infection

...retes three nontoxic proteins that assemble into a toxic complex on the surface of the host cell to set off a chain of events leading to cell toxicity and death. Protective antigen (PA) is one of these proteins, and after binding to the cell, seven copies of it assemble into a specific complex that is capa...

Research on antibiotics receives historical recognition

...ty. Streptomycin, however, was the first agent not toxic to humans, and it attacked a type of bacteria resistant to penicillin. In addition to treating tuberculosis, streptomycin was effective against typhoid fever, cholera, bubonic plague and other diseases. Among the other antibiotics isolated in Waksman...

Using nanoparticles, in vivo gene therapy activates brain stem cells

... better than, viral vectors and with no observable toxic effect, according to a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper describes how the UB scientists used gene-nanoparticle complexes to activate adult brain stem/progenitor cells in vivo, demonstrating that...

One hit of crystal meth causes birth defects

...g and memory. "Methamphetamine has very different toxic effects in the fetal brain than in adult mice, which surprised me," says Wells. "In adults, you can see actual structural degeneration of the brain." U of T doctoral candidates Winnie Jeng and Andrea Wong and undergraduate Ryan Ting-A-Kee were also ...

Scientists reveal how disease bacterium survives inside immune system cell

...l harmful bacteria by producing molecules that are toxic to cells, including a bleach-like substance called hypochlorous acid. Once the bacteria are killed, the involved neutrophils self-destruct in a process known as apoptosis. Recent evidence suggests that this process is vital to resolving human infecti...

Green catalyst destroys pesticides and munitions toxins, finds Carnegie Mellon University

...stered as priority pollutants by the EPA, they are toxic to aquatic life. They produce immediate toxic effects to the nervous system, and some reports have implicated them as possible endocrine disruptor...

Researchers Discover That Microbes Can Produce Miniature Electrical Wires

...f groundwater contaminated with pollutants such as toxic and radioactive metals or petroleum. They also hav...ediments, have demonstrated promise as cleaners of toxic spills and generators of energy. They are anaerobic bacteria (living without oxygen) that use metals...

Genomic sequences processed in minutes, rather than weeks

...de new insight into how microorganisms can process toxic pollutants through processes like bioremediation. It also can help understand the components of biological systems, leading to better detection methods for homeland security purposes and making it possible to more quickly identify and respond to thre...

New insights into how Huntington's disease attacks the brain

...rong evidence that the mutant protein also elicits toxic interactions from neighboring cells to provoke the... significant signs of the disorder. If HD required toxic interactions among cells throughout the brain, however, these same mice would show little or no sign...

Researchers develop new method for facile identification of proteins in bacterial cells

...he only bacterium known to consume the backbone of toxic polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans as a food source. The researchers already knew that feeding dioxins to RW1 would cause an increased enzyme level as the bacterium consumed the model pollutant. Their study shows that this increase c...

Tufts researchers shine light on firefly mysteries

... have mated with the same female but they are also toxic to the female -- hence conflict." In a collaborative research effort with insect physiologist and Tufts postdoctoral research fellow Dr. William Woods, Lewis is also examining other questions, such as how much energy the males' "flashy" courtship di...

Novel plague virulence factor identified

...a lower biosafety ranking than other infectious or toxic agents, Aballay believes that it will much easier for research laboratories to conduct research on virulence and innate immunity. Other members of the research team were Duke's Katie Styer, Gregory Hopkins, and Richard Frothingham, as well as Sara S...

New Look at DNA Hints at Origin of UV Damage

...a lower biosafety ranking than other infectious or toxic agents, Aballay believes that it will much easier for research laboratories to conduct research on virulence and innate immunity. Other members of the research team were Duke's Katie Styer, Gregory Hopkins, and Richard Frothingham, as well as Sara S...

Insects develop resistance to engineered crops

... shown if neighboring plants producing a single Bt toxic protein might play a role in insect resistance to transgenic crops expressing two insecticidal proteins. "Our findings suggest that concurrent use of single- and dual-gene Bt plants can put the dual-gene plants at risk if single-gene plants are depl...

Study shows how retinoic acid enters a cell's nucleus

...ly, conventional treatments using RA require high, toxic doses, and tumors can develop resistance to the tr...aturally occurring levels of RA, as opposed to the toxic doses currently administered. "If you can provide a bus to get retinoic acid into the nucleus more ...