Tag: "disable" at biology news

Mutating the entire genome

...n-gene DNA, it has the bonus of also being able to disable genes more easily and inexpensively than existing knockout techniques, Wu says. In their study, Wu and Capecchi demonstrated that by using a jumping gene to mutate a mouse gene involved in bone formation, resulting in mutant mice with abnormally ...

Gene thought to assist chemo may help cancer thrive

... for fighting cancer - namely, developing drugs to disable the functioning of this gene in the tumors of patients undergoing chemotherapy. The results appear in the May 16 edition of the open access journal PLoS ONE. “P53 has long been recognized as a key player in directing chemotherapy-damaged cancer ce...

Gene therapy for blindness clears hurdle in mice

...netic material called interfering RNA, which helps disable the gene. Normally the gene is essential for healthy eyesight, but mutated versions of it are passed from generation to generation in some families and can lead to blindness. Disabling the gene is a step toward developing a gene therapy to trea...

Will the plague pathogen become resistant to antibiotics?

...cant public health concern." Genetic ability to disable antibiotics, including multidrug resistance (MDR) sequences, is carried on plasmids, small circles of DNA that are passed easily between bacteria. In this study, the same MDR plasmids found in the Y. pestis from Madagascar were also present in bacter...

St. Jude announces breakthrough in eye cancer treatment

...aid. Targeted therapy uses a customized drug to disable a specific molecule inside a growing cancer cell; local delivery is the placement of a drug at the site of disease, rather than systemic treatment. In systemic treatment, such as chemotherapy, a drug is infused into the body through a vein and then c...

Common ancestry of bacterium and plants could be key to an effective new treatment for chlamydia

...e so that he could design an antibiotic that would disable the pathway. This approach is somewhat like designing a key to fit a lock by opening the lock and looking inside. The research is being done in collaboration with Charles Gilvarg from Princeton University. "He's the biochemist who characterized th...

Study defines effective microbicide design for HIV/AIDS prevention

...he microbicide's documented ability to bind to and disable the viral particles. The researchers demonstrated their new tool by applying it to the promising microbicide Cyanovirin-N, a protein with anti-HIV activity that has been well documented by other scientists. "Our results suggest HIV neutralizatio...

Trials for new drug to overcome HIV

... that enables HIV to replicate within cell. Others disable protease, which helps to assemble the virus into particles that infect other cells. Recent experiments in collaboration with Michael Sakalian and his colleagues at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City have shown that PA...

Scientists tie several cancers to common 'oncogene engine'

...oducing cells of the skin and hair. Mutations that disable MITF cause lack of pigment, as in albinism, but when the gene for MITF is amplified ?too many copies in a cell ?it can cause melanoma, because the growth genes that are regulated by MITF act like a stuck "on" switch for cell proliferation. Last year,...

Allergy battle could be won in five years, says scientist

...lergen Delivery Inhibitors (ADIs) ?are designed to disable these allergens so they can no longer eat through the protective cell layer and block the allergic reaction before it occurs. "The effect will be like avoiding allergens altogether. Removing carpets and rigorous cleaning of homes are established wa...

Wild meerkats school their young

...em in harm's way, the older meerkats would kill or disable the prey before providing it to the pups. In the case of the scorpions, they often removed the sting. The helpers would then modify the frequency with which they killed or disabled the prey according to the pups' age, recognised by their call, grad...

Genes discovered that allow gum disease bacterium to invade arteries

...e bacterium, each with a different gene mutated to disable it, and tested their ability to invade and survived in artery cells compared to a fully functioning strain of P. gingivalis. "Our study showed that all four mutated strains were defective in invasion of the artery cells and that their ability to s...

Salk researchers make fast strides towards understanding how our body controls walking

...the CPG, and gene targeting methods to selectively disable them in order to observe what happens. "It allowed us to peer into this black box that is the central pattern generator," explained Lanuza. V1 neurons are so-called interneurons that relay electrical signals between nerve cells in the spinal cord,a...

Researcher at UGA College of Veterinary Medicine identifies new way of combating viral diseases

...ruses are quick to adapt to the body's attempts to disable them, Hodge explained. They can mutate rapidly and develop resistance to almost any antiviral compound. By focusing on the host cell while most scientists concentrate on the virus, Hodge and his colleagues hope to identify new ways to combat viral d...

Virus uses tiny RNA to evade the immune system

...icroRNA segment that works with another complex to disable other messenger RNAs with complementary sequences. Among several dozen predicted microRNAs, the top candidate turned out to be abundantly expressed in human cells infected with SV40. Sullivan soon found the target of the plentiful SV40 microRNA. It...

How HIV disables the cells' call for help

...s surmised that the virus must be able to actively disable some part of the immune cell's system. They investigated a peptide fragment called FP (fusion peptide), a segment of the HIV protein gp41 found on the viral envelop. FP was known to play a role in the complex process in which the viral envelop fuses...

Sandia completes depleted uranium study

...es used DU in armor-piercing penetrator bullets to disable enemy tanks during the Gulf and Balkan wars. DU is a byproduct of the process used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. During the enrichment process, the fraction of one type of uranium (uranium-235) is increased relati...

Variation in HIV's ability to disable host defenses contributes to rapid evolution

.... But HIV produces a protein, called Vif, that can disable the two defensive proteins. Vif is full of variation, both in sequence and in function, according to a new study in PLoS Pathogens, and this could in turn potentially accelerate the evolution of HIV. Within a single patient, some versions of Vif do...

FDA approves more generic AIDS drugs

... against, or antagonize, the other two proteins to disable resistance protein function." The researchers also showed why they antagonized each other, he said. RAR1 and HSP90 can prevent resistance proteins from disappearing, while SGT1 helps them disappear. The result is that the system remains poised for a...

UNC plant researchers discover proteins interact to form hair-trigger protection against invaders

... against, or antagonize, the other two proteins to disable resistance protein function." The researchers also showed why they antagonized each other, he said. RAR1 and HSP90 can prevent resistance proteins from disappearing, while SGT1 helps them disappear. The result is that the system remains poised for a...

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