TEL2 gene cooperates with MYC gene to provoke B-cell lymphomas
The genes TEL2 and MYC cooperate with each other to promote pediatric cases of the immune system cancer B-cell lymphoma. This finding, from investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the current issue of Molecular Cell Biology (MCB). . B-cell lymphoma is a cancer in which the antibody-producing cells (B lymphocytes) multiply uncontrollably and crowd out other blood ce...How does Mycobacterium tuberculosis infect the lung?
Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common major infectious disease today. It is estimated that two billion people--or one-third of the world's population--are chronically infected without active symptoms. Nine million new cases of active disease are diagnosed annually, resulting in two million deaths. TB is predominantly a lung disease. It is caused by a microbe called Mycobacterium tuberculosis which...Experimental TB drug effective against resistant and latent mycobacterium tuberculosis
An experimental tuberculosis drug may be effective against not only multi drug-resistant forms of the disease but could also be the first compound to treat the latent stage of infection as well. Researchers report their results today at the 2006 ASM Biodefense Research Meeting. . "The class of which this compound is the lead has a very different mechanism of action from any other drug currently...c-myc, a gene commonly involved in cancer onset, has been found to have a role in the immune system's normal function according to a study published today in Blood. The surprising finding, by a Swiss research team led by investigators from the Lausanne Branch of the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), showed that c-myc functions in the immune system's 'memory' of previous i...