Tag: "malfunctioning" at biology news

Molecular machine may lead to new drugs to combat human diseases

...s knowledge to manipulate the intron to splice out malfunctioning genes, said Barbara Golden, associate professor of...licing in which introns are manipulated to cut out malfunctioning genes. Introns' unique capability of cutting and pasting apparently has been conserved since life e...

Gene keeps neural cells on correct developmental path

...anding repairing spinal cord injuries or replacing malfunctioning brain cells in neurodegenerative diseases. It may also provide insights into other diseases, such as small cell lung cancer, which mistakenly make neuronal proteins, or neurological syndromes, where neuronal proteins produced by cancers may trigger t...

Gov't Creates Gene Database of Normal Human Tissues

...nd tissue they suspect may have cancerous or other malfunctioning genes. To create these fingerprints, Khan and his team assembled a complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray, using a pair of glass slides on which thousands of known genes have been printed in tiny spots. Cells can be tested by manipulating them so that g...

Gene silencing technique offers new strategy for treating, curing disease

.... "Virtually every disease starts at the level of malfunctioning gene expression, or viral or bacterial gene expres... life's functions. Faulty or mutated genes lead to malfunctioning proteins, which cause disease. The information in a gene is not directly converted into proteins, b...

Using nanoparticles, in vivo gene therapy activates brain stem cells

...addition to delivering therapeutic genes to repair malfunctioning brain cells, the nanoparticles also provide promising models for studying the genetic mechanisms of brain disease. "Until now, no non-viral technique has proven to be as effective as the viral vectors in vivo," said co-author Paras N. Prasad, Ph.D....

Spiders help scientists discover how muscles relax

...ly the research to muscle diseases that arise from malfunctioning of the muscles' on/off switches. One such disease is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the wall of the left ventricle of the heart becomes enlarged, causing sudden death. It is caused by mutations in certain genes that encode several muscle prote...

Researchers track down cause of a disfiguring bone disorder

...characterized a human mutation associated with the malfunctioning of the sclerostin, or SOST, gene, and showed that it plays a key role in regulating bone formation. The culprit is a regulatory element in a missing 52,000-base-pair stretch of DNA that normally directs the SOST gene to produce a protein that maintai...

Missing Receptor Molecule Causes Tumor Growth

...on of tumors. These therapies could manipulate the malfunctioning signal transfer system, DR4-TRAIL, to make cancer cells return to the originally programmed cell death. Image and text will be available online from Wednesday, 15th June 2005, 09.00 a.m. MEZ onwards: http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/press/receptor.html ...

Nanoparticles carry cancer-killing drugs into tumor cells

...on of tumors. These therapies could manipulate the malfunctioning signal transfer system, DR4-TRAIL, to make cancer cells return to the originally programmed cell death. Image and text will be available online from Wednesday, 15th June 2005, 09.00 a.m. MEZ onwards: http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/press/receptor.html ...

PET imaging reveals the immune system at work

...network of specialized cells to defend the body. A malfunctioning immune system can cause such things as allergies, arthritis, cancer and AIDS as the body turns on itself. Current technology to assess immune response relies on invasive procedures such as biopsies to gather tissue that can be analyzed to determine ...

Jefferson biologist coaxing human embryonic stem cells to make dopamine with simpler, faster method

...network of specialized cells to defend the body. A malfunctioning immune system can cause such things as allergies, arthritis, cancer and AIDS as the body turns on itself. Current technology to assess immune response relies on invasive procedures such as biopsies to gather tissue that can be analyzed to determine ...

Single microRNA causes cancer in transgenic mouse

...rehensive Cancer Center say that just one, single, malfunctioning microRNA is sufficient to cause cancer in mice. The discovery offers new insight into the development of some forms of leukemia and lymphoma and at the same time underscores the powerful role that these tiny snippets of non-coding RNA play in cell si...

Researchers find molecular 'brake' to cell death

...m to protect against the errant release of CC from malfunctioning mitochondria. A large pool of free nucleotides along with complete ATP molecules normally exists in a healthy cell so that just a little CC could not mistakenly push the cell to self destruct, Tang says. "When CC is still limited in the cell, perhaps...

UF scientists restore sight to chickens with blinding disease

...ember, has worked since 1986 to first discover the malfunctioning gene, known as GC1, and then to develop a viral therapy to treat it. "I will always remember the first animal that we successfully treated," said Semple-Rowland, who is also a member of the UF Center for Vision Research and the UF Genetics Institute...

Scientists tie several cancers to common 'oncogene engine'

...that a common "oncogene engine" ?a small family of malfunctioning cell growth switches ?drives several seemingly unrelated, lethal forms of cancer, including malignant melanoma. The finding suggests that it may be possible to attack these different cancers with the same therapy. Reporting in the June issue of Canc...

Lack of key enzyme associated with development of rare tumor

... there are no reports in the medical literature of malfunctioning adrenal glands or increased adrenal cell growth in users of these drugs. "However, detailed clinical studies addressing this potential complication are currently lacking," they wrote. Dr. Stratakis and his colleagues are currently planning studies ...

From a lowly yeast, researchers divine a clue to human disease

...ntrol that determines gene activity and that, when malfunctioning in humans, may contribute to serious neurological disorders. The work, published in the Dec. 8 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, shows how a mutation in a single gene can have widespread effects on regulation of the genetic program in a cell, cau...

Transplanted photoreceptor precursor cells restore visual function in mice with retinal degeneration

...ation caused by distinct genetic defects involving malfunctioning or degenerating rods. The transplanted cells survived and were functional for the duration of the study. Scientists observed improvements including pupil response to light and response to light stimuli from ganglion cells, which form the circuitry t...

Enhancing activity of marijuana-like chemicals in brain helps treat

...of potentially manipulating the circuits that are malfunctioning in this disease." Malenka and postdoctoral scholar Anatol Kreitzer, PhD, the study's lead author, combined a drug already used to treat Parkinson's disease with an experimental compound that can boost the level of endocannabinoids in the brain....

Gene thought to assist chemo may help cancer thrive

...at the Ovarian Cancer Institute. When a cell is malfunctioning or injured, the gene p53 is called into action and tries to repair the cell. If the cell can't be repaired, p53 starts a process known as apoptosis that kills the cell. It's p53's role as one of the genes involved in initiating cell death that has le...

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