Tag: "brakes" at biology news

Novel Enzyme Shows Potential As An Anti-HIV Target

... whether inhibiting SIRT1 can successfully put the brakes on HIV transcription and control the virus (See also “A New Paradigm in Eukaryotic Biology: HIV Tat and the Control of Transcriptional Elongation?/a>. ...

Yale Scientists Find MicroRNA Regulates Ras Cancer Gene

...tissue, had reduced let-7 and increased Ras -- the brakes on Ras were removed in lung tumors. "The discovery of a new aspect of the regulation and targeting of a well-known gene involved with cancer progression will have profound implications as we continue to focus on the causes of tumor development," sai...

New component of the 'brakes' on nerve regeneration found

...e, central nervous system (CNS) neurons have their brakes firmly in place and locked. Now, two groups of sc...ation and of possible treatments to switch off the brakes on regrowth of spinal cord or brain tissue. The two groups--one group led by Jong Bae Park, Glenn Y...

NSAID drug protects against intestinal tumors in mice, despite poor diet and gene losses

...fat Western-style diet - even when several genetic brakes to cancer formation were missing in the animals, say researchers from the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. The investigators, who presented their findings at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, say that while the r...

The making and breaking of microtubules

...tributes to their stability -- but it also put the brakes on the project for a long time. "The key was to get the tubulin assemblies locked at the correct states suitable for structural analysis, but even more challenging was finding an algorithm to reconstruct the double-layered GDP-tubulin tubes," says W...

Depression gene may weaken mood-regulating circuit

...y suggests that the cingulate's ability to put the brakes on a runaway amygdala fear response depends upon the degree of connectivity in this circuit, which is influenced by the serotonin transporter gene." Since serotonin activity plays a key role in wiring the brain's emotion processing circuitry during ...

Discovery suggests why stem cells run through stop signs

...nger dividing. Without the microRNAs at work, the brakes were applied to the cell division of the mutant stem cells, just like ordinary cells. The cellular brake (in this case a protein called Dacapo, a fruit fly homologue of a human tumor suppressor) kept the stem cells from proliferating. "Determining w...

Scientists discover a genetic switch that links animal growth and cancer

...s that keep them in this quiescent state. When the brakes fail, cells that should be static start growing and dividing, leading to cancer. These brakes are proteins called tumor suppressors. Working with a tiny roundworm known as Caenorhabditis elegan...

New brain hormone puts brakes on reproduction

...d gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH), puts the brakes on reproduction by directly inhibiting the action of the central hormone of the reproductive system - gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). GnRH stimulates the pituitary gland to activate the reproductive system, whereas GnIH appears to reduce the e...

Key to lung cancer chemo resistance revealed

...ts at Johns Hopkins have discovered how taking the brakes off a "detox" gene causes chemotherapy resistance in a common form of lung cancer. Products made by a gene called NRF2 normally protect cells from environmental pollutants like cigarette smoke and diesel exhaust by absorbing the materials and pumpi...

Molecular motors and brakes work together in cells

...s -- use proteins that act as molecular motors and brakes to organize into their correct structure. If micro... cover of that issue. "Up until now motors and brakes were studied separately from microtubules," says senior author Phong Tran, PhD, Assistant Professor ...

Statin plus cancer drug deliver combo punch to brain cancer cells

...known to curb destruction of proteins that put the brakes on cell growth, causing cancer cells to self-destruct through a process called apoptosis. The effects of the statin already is being studied in people at high risk for the deadly skin cancer, melanoma. First extracted from corn lilies in the 1950...

Chemical switch triggers critical cell activities

...r of biochemical reactions, one of which takes the brakes off cell division, allowing cells to multiply, according to the researchers. These thioester bonds are chemical links between two biological molecules that form when a sulfur atom on one of the molecules binds to an atom that is part of the other mol...

Notorious cancer gene may work by destroying messenger

... halt production of proteins that normally put the brakes on cell growth ?tumor-suppressor proteins, for example, or other growth-regulating proteins.? In healthy cells, Src helps control cell proliferation, differentiation, survival and movement. Mutated Src is found in about half of all colon, liver, l...

Brown cancer biologists identify major player in cell growth

...l division, there is a period when the biochemical brakes are put on and cells become inactive. Then the process is kick-started and cells move into the so-called S phase, when DNA is duplicated. This is a critical juncture. If genes are missing or broken, these alterations are passed on to the new cell -- ...

Putting feelings into words produces therapeutic effects in the brain

...ut feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses.” As a result, an individual may feel less angry or less sad. This is ancient wisdom,” Lieberman said. “Putting our feelings into words helps us heal better. If a friend is sad and we can get them to talk about it, t...

1