Tag: "fights" at biology news

Revealed -- Mosquito genes that could be controlling the spread of killer viruses

...annot have evolved an effective immune system that fights off the pathogen, we may be able to use this knowledge to enhance specific reactions of the immune systems in other mosquitoes to control the spread of the disease.”...

Fat screen delivers plant-derived chemical with antidiabetic effects

...discovered that an ingredient found in some plants fights diabetes in mice without some of the side effects attributed to other antidiabetes drugs. The chemical they pinpointed, known as harmine, was first isolated more than 150 years ago from plants traditionally included in ritual and medicinal preparatio...

Cold sore virus might play role in Alzheimer's disease

...mation often is a byproduct when the immune system fights an infection....

Fish can determine their social rank by observation alone, study finds

...simply by watching how they perform in territorial fights with other males, according to a new study by Stan...to food and mates. "Males that repeatedly lose fights are unable to hold territories and consequently descend in social status," the authors wrote. "Succe...

Natural anti-viral enzyme helps keep cancer cells alive, researchers find

...ly understood about how the adaptive immune system fights cancer and also helps create tissue environments permissive to cancer, Dr. White said, but a cancer-promoting role for the host defense response has not been previously seen. It's a straightforward matter to block the action of TBK-1, so this might...

Fighting like a girl or boy determined by gene in fruit flies

...itz's lab have been methodically scoring fruit fly fights to determine the normal aggression patterns with t...d molecules change those patterns. They stage male fights on bottle-cap-sized food cups decorated with a headless female (a live female will fly away, leaving...

Loosen leash on cancer protein 'watchdog,' researchers say

...seems to be an important stress response gene that fights cancer when it works," Mendrysa said. "So we decided to see what we could do to increase p53's activity without completely cutting its Mdm2 leash." The scientists spent three years creating a strain of genetically modified mouse that only produced a...

U-M scientists identify major psoriasis susceptibility gene

... complex (MHC) that regulate how the immune system fights off infection. MHC genes carry DNA-coded instructions for proteins whose job it is to distinguish between what belongs in the body and what doesn't. "There is a great deal of genetic variation in the MHC, because it's on the front lines of dealing w...

Animals can change genes quickly to keep up with viral ingenuity

...genes controlling a part of the immune system that fights viruses actually evolve much faster than almost all other genes, evidence of the host's evolutionary race to keep the viruses at bay. In their research, the scientists found evidence that some genes that participate in so-called RNAi mechanisms evol...

LIAI scientists make major finding on potential smallpox treatment

... by identifying an antibody in humans that quickly fights the smallpox virus. "This is a very important finding because it has the potential to be an effective treatment for smallpox in humans and therefore could help quickly stop a smallpox outbreak," said Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D, LIAI President. The...

Newfound roadblock to interferon effectiveness against malignant melanoma

...to affect the liver, lungs, or brain. Chemotherapy fights the disease with limited efficiency, and the use of interferon has become the most established immunotherapy for advanced-stage melanoma. However, melanoma tumors often develop a resistance to the drug, posing one of the major obstacles in the clinic...

Why do aneurysms form? New studies suggest leading role for white blood cells

...y to the process of inflammation by which the body fights off insults from bacteria, viruses and injuries. The two new papers show for the first time that neutrophils are important in the very early stages of AAA formation, when the aorta wall begins to weaken and bulge. The researchers think the cells may...

Bacteria recognize antimicrobials, respond with counter-defenses

...chain. Learning how this sometimes deadly organism fights back against the immune system may lead to treatments that get around bacterial resistance. Work in this area may also suggest ways other disease-causing, Gram-negative bacteria maintain a stronghold in the midst of the body's attempts to get rid of...

New protein vital for immune response is found in surprise location

...to make a protein called interferon, which in turn fights off the virus. But the chain of events between RIG-I's encounter with the virus and the interferon response is not known. Researchers have been trying to identify and characterize the proteins involved in an effort to better understand the nature o...

Secret of smallpox's success may lead to bioterror cure

...y healthy," notes Jacobs. "The body reacts and it fights off both the mutant, and also the normal virus tha...ed to start fighting a virus infection!' and so it fights the mutant virus and a normal pathogenic virus as well." The gene that Jacobs has isolated and elim...

Defensins Ward Off HIV In Two Ways

...ystem. The researchers show that alpha-defensin-1 fights HIV in two different ways. Without serum (the watery portion of blood that remains when blood cells are removed) and under conditions where viral burden is low, alpha-defensin-1 directly inactivates HIV virus. When serum is present, alpha-defensin-1 ...

NYU study reveals how brain's immune system fights viral encephalitis

...ered how the innate immune system in mice's brains fights viral infection of neurons. The findings, published as the cover study in the latest issue of Virology, show that proteins in neurons fight the virus at multiple stages--by preventing the formation of viral RNA and proteins, and blocking the virus' r...

NYU Study Reveals How Brain's Immune System Fights Viral Encephalitis

...ered how the innate immune system in mice's brains fights viral infection of neurons. The findings, published as the cover study in the latest issue of Virology, show that proteins in neurons fight the virus at multiple stages--by preventing the formation of viral RNA and proteins, and blocking the virus' r...

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