Tag: "disrupts" at biology news

Cells re-energize to come back from the brink of death

... The St. Jude study also suggests that a drug that disrupts a cancer cell’s ability to block this backup program would allow that program to kill the cell. Such a specifically targeted drug might be more effective and less toxic than standard chemotherapy. A report on this work is in the June 1 issue of “Cell...

Sleepless for science: Flies show link between sleep, immune system in Stanford study

...obiology and immunology. "Disrupting sleep in turn disrupts the immune system, which makes them even more infected and it's downhill from there in a 'spiral of death.'" Schneider is the senior author of a study on the sleep patterns of flies that will be published in the May 15 issue of Current Biology. S...

Researchers discover gene crucial for nerve cell insulation

...ve discovered how a defect in a single master gene disrupts the process by which several genes interact to cre...rounding why a single mutant copy of the EGR2 gene disrupts the functioning of the normal EGR2 gene, leading to a disorder of the nervous system. In many gen...

Finnish scientists discovered a new approach to treat virus-induced lymphomas

...53 and MDM2, and that the MDM2 inhibitor Nutlin-3a disrupts the p53-MDM2-LANA complex and selectively induces massive apoptosis in PEL cells. The cytotoxic effect of Nutlin-3a was specific for the KSHV-infected cells since Nutlin-3a did not induce apoptosis in lymphoblastoid cell lines transformed with anothe...

How genetic malfunction causes a form of retardation

...mutation in SHP-2 that can be found in NS patients disrupts the neuron-glial balance by further promoting the formation of neurons and inhibiting glial cell formation. The researchers also studied the effects of the mutation in mice engineered to mimic the human disorder. Like humans with NS, the mice had ...

Lead with a poisonous electron shield

...synthesis of hemoglobin. Inhibition of this enzyme disrupts the formation of blood to the point of anemia. At the active center, a zinc ion binds to four ligands, three of which involve a sulfur atom. When lead replaces zinc, it only binds to the three sulfur atoms. The reason for this is the emerging free el...

MicroRNA helps prevent tumors

...help give rise to tumors if a mutation in the gene disrupts the microRNA's ability to regulate it. In addition, the results show that the interaction of one microRNA with one of its target genes can produce a certain trait in mammals. This is important because scientists are only beginning to learn the functi...

HIV dementia alarmingly high in Africa

...eir populations and governments. Dementia not only disrupts jobs and adds to the cost of care, but also interferes with a patient’s ability to adhere to a regular course of antiretroviral medication, thus increasing the risk of drug resistance. People with dementia also are less likely to practice safe sex. ...

British cattle give TB to badgers, finds UC Davis expert

..., infection rates in badger had doubled. "Culling disrupts badgers' territorial behavior so they travel further and interact with more other badgers; that is probably why disease spreads more rapidly," said Woodroffe, the leader of a team which also included researchers from Britain's Central Science Laborat...

A silent pandemic: Industrial chemicals are impairing the brain development of children worldwide

...rference--for example, from toxic substances--that disrupts those processes, can have permanent consequences. That vulnerability lasts from fetal development through infancy and childhood to adolescence. Research has shown that environmental toxicants, such as lead or mercury, at low levels of exposure can ha...

Heavy smoking cuts women's chance of pregnancy -- even with donated oocytes

...resent in the cell. It could be that heavy smoking disrupts the stability of cells in the lining of the uterus differently in some women to others or triggers a response in the embryo itself, resulting in a reduced general pregnancy rate overall, but an increased chance of multiple pregnancy in those who do b...

St. Jude finds clues to hearing loss from chemotherapy

...f the brain. Understanding how a specific mutation disrupts that cascade might lead to ways to repair the damage, Zuo said. For example, one type of damage that occurs in children whose hearing is damaged by chemotherapy is loss of hair cells in the inner part of the ear. These cells sprout extremely fine ha...

Radiologists attempt to solve mystery of Tut's demise

... so-called curse that is said to plague anyone who disrupts the remains of the boy king. "While performing the CT scan of King Tut, we had several strange occurrences," he said. "The electricity suddenly went out, the CT scanner could not be started and a team member became ill. If we weren't scientists, w...

New finding points way to foiling anthrax's tricks

...a protein produced by the human immune system that disrupts bacteria's iron scavenging system," said Ken Raymond, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Anthrax bacteria are known to produce two small molecules - bacillibactin and petrobactin - t...

Scientists solve 30-year-old mystery of mutant mouse's kidney woes

... processes; leucine cannot. This change apparently disrupts the processes that otherwise produce a normal distribution pattern for the protein. Chen compares the machinery that transfers water from the kidney to a plumbing system. With aqp2 unable to reabsorb water, he says, that results in up to 30 times m...

Genetic 'roadmap' charts links between drugs and human disease

...ion. As confirmed through additional work, gedunin disrupts a key quality control mechanism in the cell. Another key finding suggests a new way to overcome drug resistance in cancer. Using the Connectivity Map, a scientific team led by Scott Armstrong, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Ch...

Fly's courtship sheds light on the formation of innate behaviors

...d in male flies. Using a mutant that specifically disrupts one form of the Fruitless protein, the researchers showed that the male fly's sexual behavior is not a closed neural circuit, but rather a series of independent but interlinked steps that are regulated to have an additive effect on the success of the...

UBC researchers find stroke death channel

...nction and leak chemicals. The process drastically disrupts levels of critical brain cell ingredients such as calcium and potassium, and is associated with rapid cell death. Every year, 50,000 Canadians suffer a stroke. Another 300,000 people are living with the consequences of stroke, which is the le...

Neural stem cell gene plays crucial role in eye development

...nto neurons during development," Pevny said. "This disrupts the normal maintenance of the stem cell pool in the eye and disrupts the whole developmental process." A complete loss of SOX2 expression in neural retinal progenitor c...

New pathways for autoimmune treatment identified

...per i NKT cell development. A defective Aire gene disrupts this natural nurturing relationship by disrupting medullary epithelial cell function, leading to insufficient numbers of i NKT cells. "Whether or not you develop autoimmune disease to a large degree depends on the balance of these bad T cells that ...

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