Evolutionarily in Medical News

FOXO factor promotes survival of oxygen-deprived cancer cells

... Scientists report that an evolutionarily conserved transcription factor may have both positive and negative effects ... increase in a protein called FOXO3a. FOXO transcription factors are evolutionarily conserved proteins that are critical regulators of cell survival under ...

Structures from the human immune system's oldest branch shed light on a range of diseases

... systemic lupus erythematosus, as well as give insight into the pathogenesis of other immune and inflammatory diseases. The complement system, an evolutionarily old arm of the immune system, comprises a network of proteins that "complement" the work of antibodies in destroying foreign invaders. They serve as ...

Wistar Institute team finds key target of aging regulator

... Researchers at The Wistar Institute have defined a key target of an evolutionarily conserved protein that regulates the process of aging. The study, published June 11 in Nature , provides fundamental knowledge about key mechanisms ...

Synthetic peptoids hold forth promise for new antibiotics

... the research in the Feb. 26 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Natural peptides Anti-microbial peptides are evolutionarily ancient infection fighters found in organisms from grasses to amphibians to humans. In the human body, the peptides show up in the mouth, lungs and ...

Cancer stem cell marker also drives transcription in normal cells

... Two separate studies, published by Cell Press in the January 18th issue of Molecular Cell, provide insight into novel subunits associated with an evolutionarily conserved transcriptional regulatory complex and reveal a previously undescribed chromatin function that is required for full activity of nuclear ...

Evolution of human genome's 'guardian' gives people unique protections from DNA damage

... growth, initiate repairs or, if needed, apoptotic cell death. Apoptotic, or programmed cell death capability in the p53 network, is thought to be evolutionarily conserved throughout the development of vertebrate species and was probably established after the divergence of vertebrates and non-vertebrates. DNA ...

Level of oxytocin in pregnant women predicts mother-child bond

... Humans are hard-wired to form enduring bonds with others. One of the primary bonds across the mammalian species is the mother-infant bond. evolutionarily speaking, it is in a mothers best interest to foster the well-being of her child; however, some mothers just seem a bit more maternal than others do. ...

Heat shock proteins are co-opted for cancer

... in which brain cells die slowly over time. In cancer, the opposite is true: cancer cells dont die. Ironically, cancer cells hijack and exploit this evolutionarily conserved self-protective function of HSF1. In fact, he says, cancer cells appear much more sensitive than normal cells to the loss of HSF1 ...

Ancient mechanism for coping with stresses also gives cancer a boost

... "We expected it would have some effect on cancer, but we were surprised at the degree." The heat-shock response is one of the most ancient and evolutionarily conserved protective mechanisms found in nature, the researchers said. While environmental insults provoke a variety of adaptive physiological ...

Why are some groups of animals so diverse?

... evolved into amazingly large numbers of skink species. Australian skinks are really fascinating, Rabosky says. Two groups in particular have gone evolutionarily crazy, each splitting into as many as 100 different species. In contrast to skinks on other continents, and even some other groups in Australia, the ...

Choosing a mate: what we really want

... 46 adults in a speed-dating session were also asked to fill out a questionnaire beforehand assessing themselves and their ideal mate according to evolutionarily relevant traits, such as physical attractiveness, present and future financial status, health and parenting qualities. Not surprisingly, Todd ...

A Major Break Through in Treatment for Metabolic Syndrome

... worm C. elegans, a favorite model organism among those studying evolutionarily conserved biological processes because of its rapid generation time and ... as identified in C. elegans. This suggests that the molecular switch is evolutionarily conserved (and therefore likely physiologically important). Exhaustive ...

Pediatric Cancer Stem Cell Identified

... the cancer stem cell for rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common soft-tissue sarcoma of childhood. 'Identifying the cancer stem cell and the evolutionarily conserved genetic programs underlying self-renewal in ERMS will likely lead to new insights into how to destroy these cell types in established ...

Males Adapt To Battle With Competing Sperm

... unlikely. But according to the authors, extra pair copulations (i.e. affairs) appear to be a significant part of our ancestral history and could, evolutionarily speaking, spell disaster. Ultimately, a male whose female partner engages in extra-pair copulation is at risk of unwittingly investing his resources ...

Study Offers Window into Human Behavior, Brain Disease

... Economo neurons could provide new strategies. Why the cells are vulnerable is still a mystery, says Seeley. But given the fact that they are evolutionarily new, the explanation may be that there are still "kinks" in the genetic programming of the neuronal circuits. "VENs probably help us in some ...

Novel method conceived, to achieve genome-wide gene silencing.

... L. Berger, Ph.D., the Hilary Koprowski Professor at The Wistar Institute and senior author on the study said, “We’ve discovered what looks to be an evolutionarily ancient mechanism for broadly repressing and protecting the genome. We believe it to be the first identified mechanism of its kind." Small ...

Evoprinter, a multigenomic comparative tool for rapid identification of functionally important DNA

... alignment tool) alignments of a reference DNA to different test genomes, the EvoP presents an ordered, uninterrupted representation of the evolutionarily resilient sequences within the reference DNA. By superimposing the different species evolutionary histories, the combined mutagenic force reveals DNA ...