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Tag: "defenses" at biology news

Researchers find 'secret weapon' used by SARS virus

...t the SARS coronavirus uses to sabotage the immune defenses of infected cells. Experiments conducted by the UTMB scientists show that a SARS coronavirus protein called "nsp1" causes the breakdown of biochemical messages that normally prompt the production of a protein critical to defending the body against vi...

Mussels evolve quickly to defend against invasive crabs

...tocks. "Although 15 years is fast to evolve better defenses to your predator, it can be painfully long if you're a shellfisherman," Byers adds. This paper is one chapter of Freeman's doctoral dissertation, which also explores how mussels respond to sea stars and to multiple predators. He anticipates complet...

Cornell researchers find serious fish virus in Northeast for first time

...er can stress fish, thereby lowering their natural defenses and making them more vulnerable. ...

Spinal cord bridge bypasses injury to restore mobility

...erves. When an injury occurs, the body's policing defenses put up a roadblock in the form of a scar to preven...s grafts in the limbs, spinal cord injuries put up defenses called inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans that create molecular guardrails within scars a...

BGSU biologist trying to crack microscopic code

...the barrier. Some drugs already target the outer defenses of bacteria. Perhaps best known is penicillin, one of several existing antibiotics that successfully target specific structures required for the barrier function to work, Larsen notes. The outer membrane is stabilized by a grid of sugar polymers, and...

Stanford snake venom study shows that certain cells may eliminate poison

...nimal venoms. As more is learned about the natural defenses the mammalian immune system has against venom, it may someday even lead to better antivenins, though it will first have to be shown that human mast cells respond in the same way mouse mast cells do. The group has begun in vitro studies using human ma...

Flick of a protein switches immune response

...d dozens of other illnesses ?begin when the body's defenses respond at the wrong time or place, the on-off mechanism for the immune system has been the subject of intense study for decades. The USC-Harvard team studied proteins critical to immune tolerance, a term for the healthy balance between a weak immu...

New human retrovirus originated in mice

...ic mutation that compromised some of their natural defenses against viral infection. Thus, the researchers said their discovery raises the possibility that increased susceptibility to viral infection may play a role in development of some cancers. However, they emphasized that their findings by no means impli...

USC researchers investigate protein that protects tumors

...ves as a sentry, guarding the tumor cells from any defenses the body deploys to attack them. "There are means in the body to kill tumor cells," Gill says. "[If] you block those then you give the cells the opportunity to survive and grow." Not only did EphB4 block those defenses, but it helped the cancer cell...

Oxidation defense in mosquitoes benefits malaria parasite

...e). The synthesis of XA is one of the biochemical defenses against oxidative stress resulting from 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) accumulation in mosquitoes and possibly other species as well. "3-HK is oxidized easily under physiological condition, stimulating the production of reactive oxygen species, which can...

Possible brain hormone may unlock mystery of hibernation

... regulation of energy metabolism and/or biological defenses during hibernation--crucial events for adapting to the severe physiological state," Ohtsu said. In the current study, the researchers first demonstrated that hibernation in chipmunks is strictly controlled by an individual's internal circannual rhyt...

Invasive exotic plants helped by natural enemies

...y native plant eaters, they may not have the right defenses and are often easier prey than the native herbivores' usual meal. Moreover, most previous assessments of this "natural enemies hypothesis," have focused on the effect that specialized insects have on plants. However, Parker notes that insects common...

How can we protect patients with weakened immune systems from influenza?

... government is funding medical research to improve defenses against flu. Dr. Sullivan looks to broader and longer-term benefits of her funded program. "Even if the worst-case scenarios of flu pandemic or weaponized flu attack do not occur in the next few years, we will have greater understanding of how to pr...

Front-line immune cells mature in four stages, study shows

...al killer (NK) cells, one of the body's front-line defenses against cancer and infections, mature from progenitor stem cells in four discrete stages. They also found that this happens in secondary lymphoid tissue such as tonsils and lymph glands. Key discoveries made decades ago in animals and humans showed...

Animals can change genes quickly to keep up with viral ingenuity

... both plants and animals--participate in molecular defenses against viruses by homing in on viral genetic material and directing its enzymatic destruction. Viruses can evolve quickly to out-maneuver RNAi mechanisms, but hosts would be expected to rapidly evolve countermeasures of their own to resist new viral...

New DNA 'fingerprinting' technique separates hemp from marijuana

...bution networks. It also could be used in criminal defenses against claims of conspiracy." The technique chops up DNA and generates numerous fragments of DNA, each defined by particular "marker" DNA sequences that act like bookends. The lengths of the fragments within the bookends were found to vary accordin...

Wisconsin scientists discover a master key to microbes' pathogenic lifestyles

... says Klein. "They can remain dormant until immune defenses are lowered. It's a significant medical problem in endemic regions." The discovery of the switch that governs dimorphism and virulence in this prevalent class of fungi provides a target for new therapeutic agents and might even help underpin a vacci...

Predators keep the world green, ecologists find

...n debating whether herbivores are limited by plant defenses or by predators," wrote the authors. "The matter is trivially simple in principle, but in practice the challenge of experimentally creating predator-free environments in which herbivores can increase without constraint has proven almost insurmountabl...

UCLA scientists discover immune response to HIV differs, even in identical twins

...//jvi.asm.org ), the findings show that the body's defenses against the virus are random rather than genetically determined. The researchers followed the cases of male twins who were infected shortly after their 1983 births in Los Angeles by blood transfusions administered from the same donor at the same tim...

Computer models aid understanding of antibody-dependent enhancement in spread of dengue fever

...e viruses' ability to exploit the human body's own defenses to increase their replication may be both a blessing and curse, according to the findings of a study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The process is known as antibody-dependent enhancement. Scientists b...

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