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Tag: "blocking" at biology news

Malignant melanoma cells secrete protein required for embryo formation

... is absent in normal skin. They also found that blocking Nodal signaling reduced melanoma cell invasiveness, as well as cancer cell colony formation and tumor-forming ability. Strikingly, nodal inhibition promoted the reversion of these cells toward a normal skin cell type. Like embryonic stem cells, mali...

Inflammation and drugs to control this activity studied in a variety of tumors sites

...cancers. NSAIDs exert anti-inflammatory effects by blocking COX, or cyclooxygenase enzymes, which are produced by the body when there is inflammation and are also produced by precancerous tissues. "The combined results of 20 human studies of aspirin and ibuprofen reflect an approximate 30 percent reduction i...

Study fishes out new role for prostaglandins

...or caused defects similar to those associated with blocking PGE2 synthesis. When the researchers analyzed cell movement, they found that the shapes and trajectories of embryonic cells were normal ?they simply moved much slower. This suggested that signaling through the EP4 receptor regulates the speed of cell...

Possible brain hormone may unlock mystery of hibernation

...ation terminated. The researchers also found that blocking the activity of one of the HP complex proteins in the brain with antibody greatly decreased the hibernation time during which the chipmunks maintained a lowered body temperature, suggesting its critical role in the brain's capacity for dormancy. The...

MIT research holds promise for Huntington's treatment

...tective effect against proteasome disruption, thus blocking one of the toxic effects of the huntingtin protein. The B2 compound also promoted large inclusions and showed a protective effect in a cellular model of Parkinson's disease, another neurodegenerative disorder caused by misfolded proteins. In Parkin...

Drug resistance may travel same path as quorum sensing

...signals, they send out drug instead ?inadvertently blocking the ability of the drug to kill the bacteria. This does not occur because the bacteria "know" that the drugs are going to kill them, but because the drug looks like a communication signal. So the bacterial cells send out what they think is a communic...

Major WHO study concludes calcium supplements can reduce complications during pregnancy

... might be able to wedge between the ear and cheek, blocking the flap opening. "Some drugs act by binding to the active site of a target molecule, such as the site that an enzyme normally uses to catalyze reactions," McCammon said. "But increasingly, scientists are finding that other binding sites can be imp...

Computer simulation hints at new HIV drug target

... might be able to wedge between the ear and cheek, blocking the flap opening. "Some drugs act by binding to the active site of a target molecule, such as the site that an enzyme normally uses to catalyze reactions," McCammon said. "But increasingly, scientists are finding that other binding sites can be imp...

Scientists develop a way to make the deadliest toxin known even more toxic

...es at the point where they connect to muscles, and blocking the release of acetylcholine, which signals the muscles to contract, including those that regulate breathing. Blocking the nerve signal results in paralysis and, unless treated quickly, death. A lethal dose is small--eight tenths of an inhaled microg...

Scientists discover a genetic switch that links animal growth and cancer

...functions to keep the animal in a waiting state by blocking cell growth when food is absent. If these animals hatch from their eggs without any source of nutrition, they are able to remain in a perpetually young state for a long time without growing. When they eventually find food they start growing and matu...

Gene-specific Ebola therapies protect non-human primates from lethal disease

...venting their replication. The drugs, which act by blocking critical viral genetic sequences, may be more potent than anti-virals such as protease inhibitors, which seek to inhibit a protein needed for viral replication. Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever with case fatality rates as high as 80 percent in ...

Basic research leads to a novel cancer therapy

... already showed at the beginning of the 1990s that blocking blood vessel development in a tumour slows down its growth, and shrinks its tissue. This fundamental principle led to the development of SUTENT®, whose active ingredient is Sunitinib. SUTENT® was recently approved for clinical use in the United State...

Single microRNA causes cancer in transgenic mouse

...d how they regulate gene expression ?basically, by blocking messenger RNA's instructions for protein production. MiRNAs normally help control important biological functions by switching "on" and "off" at different times during cell growth, death, development and differentiation. They can be harmful, though, i...

Tool developed to silence genes in specific tissues using RNAi

... of that gene is in that particular tissue without blocking its essential functions in other tissues." In their study, Wilkinson and his research team demonstrated how well their tool worked by silencing the WT1 tumor suppressor gene in the testes of mice. They found this gene is important in the production ...

Team discovers possible 'universal strategy' to combat addiction

...lved in drug addiction, together with a method for blocking its action, that may point to a single treatment strategy for most addictions. Their findings appear in the March issue of the prestigious journal Nature Medicine. The team, led by Xia Zhang, associate professor in the U of S department of psychiat...

Salmonella caught red-handed

...rogress. "Knocking out" the gene was equivalent to blocking its corresponding metabolic path, thereby simulating the effect of antibiotics. The analysis demonstrated the following: in the two possible types of salmonella-related illness (diarrhoea and typhoid), the bacteria is surprisingly unaffected by the b...

Why nerve cells work faster than the theory allows

... argument for its existence. They achieved this by blocking a part of the sodium channels with the nerve poison tetrodoxin, so that the channels that still functioned lay so scattered in the membrane, that they were not able to cooperate. Furthermore, the researchers were able to show that the cells probabl...

Botox could help target resistant tumors for treatment

...e face. The toxin acts on the nervous system by blocking the release of neurotransmitters, particularly acetylcholine and norepinephrine. Gallez and his colleagues hypothesized that since Botulinum toxin impeded neurotransmitter release in the sympathetic nervous system, it could prevent neuromuscular cont...

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

...elieve it does this by 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. "...

New cellular flaw found in some virulent breast cancers

...o ErbB-2-caused breast cancers, demonstrating that blocking CDK4 was not harmful to the mice. That research wa...to inhibit the action of a protein like cyclin D1, blocking a kinase is significantly easier. ...

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