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Tag: "protective" at biology news

PLoS Medicine publishes first trial of effect of male circumcision on HIV infection

...s, the only way to test whether circumcision has a protective effect is a randomized intervention study. Such tr...wed, and published in a medical journal. The large protective effect of male circumcision observed has surprised many HIV experts, and it will be important to see...

Chernobyl: The true scale of the accident

...ve waste pose further environmental problems? The protective shelter was erected quickly, which led to some imperfections in the shelter itself and did not permit gathering complete data on the stability of the damaged unit. Also, some structural parts of the shelter have corroded in the past two decades. The ...

Normal chromosome ends elicit a limited DNA damage response

...n and shielded by a phalanx of proteins, forming a protective "cap". Ironically, to form this protective structure at the end of chromosomes, nature solicited help from the very same repair machinery whose...

New clues to the dark side of a key anti-tumor guardian

... in fruit flies show new evidence that despite the protective role of p53 as a guardian against tumor formation, normal levels of p53 activity--at least in some cell types--may indeed contribute to aging and decreased lifespan. The p53 protein is known to be a critical player in our body's natural defense aga...

Double trouble: Cells with duplicate genomes can trigger tumors

...alignant, the researchers used cells that lacked a protective gene, p53 that is inactivated in many forms of cancer. Compared with normal breast cells, the double-value cells tended to be genomically unstable. When injected under the skin of laboratory mice, about 25 percent of the animals developed breast cel...

Nanoparticles, nanoshells, nanotubes: How tiny specks may provide powerful tools against cancer

...the immune system because they are "shielded" by a protective polymer coating, poly-(ethylene glycol) or PEG. This does not change the properties of the nanoshells but renders them "invisible" to the body's natural defense mechanism. Twenty hours after the nanoshells were injected, the researchers imaged thei...

Bigger brain size matters for intellectual ability

...ffected brain size in women. It is not known what protective factors, which could be genetic, hormonal or environmental, operate in women. It remains to be determined what the contribution of nature and nurture are to this cerebral size relationship with intelligence, Witelson said. She added that the results...

New possibilities for flu antiviral and vaccine research emerge from 'Spanish flu' virus

...ene, as well as another gene from this virus, were protective in mice. ...

New technique multiplies life span in simple organisms

... called HST1, which negatively regulated so-called protective genes. So we set out to test whether SIR2 could do the opposite of what everybody said it does." The researchers do not quarrel with Guarente's finding of a moderate increase in life span when SIR2 is over-expressed. But their work shows that much g...

Genetic defenders protect crops from fungal disease

...t some plant species, but not others. By disabling protective genes in Arabidopsis, the researchers were able to... Institute for Plant Breeding in Köln disabled the protective genes in Arabidopsis by introducing mutations, one at a time and in various combinations. They infec...

Shorter colds, milder flu may follow from newly revealed immune mechanism

...radox," Holtzman says. "Ordinarily, apoptosis is a protective mechanism. Death of infected lung airway lining cells, or epithelial cells, would deprive the virus of its home and protect the host against the spread of infection. But in the case of the macrophage, it is the opposite. Preventing the death of the m...

Discovering the first steps in transcription-coupled repair

...traviolet light, for example by window filters and protective clothing, many XP sufferers can lead seemingly normal lives. XP results from mutations in any one of seven genes, labeled XPA through XPG, which are involved in the well-understood DNA repair mechanism called nucleotide-excision repair. In contrast,...

Brainstem blocks pain to protect key behaviors

...caping pain and potential dangers may be important protective behaviors, but eating, drinking, and eliminating wastes are absolutely essential," said study author Peggy Mason, Ph.D., professor in the department of neurobiology, pharmacology and physiology (NPP) at the University of Chicago. "What we found was ...

Effective, safe anthrax vaccine can be grown in tobacco plants

...ried plant cells that contain correct doses of the protective antigen. If that research is successful, the needs for requiring doctors to administer the shots and for shipping vaccines in refrigerated trucks, both of which can be especially difficult in poorer nations, would be eliminated. The military now ad...

Engineered Stem Cells Show Promise For Sneaking Drugs Into The Brain

...f cells and structures, and it is fortified with a protective barrier erected by blood vessels and glial cells -- the brain's structural building blocks -- that effectively blocks the delivery of most drugs from the bloodstream. But now scientists have found a new way to sneak drugs past the blood-brain barrie...

Bacteria that cause tooth decay able to survive without important biochemical pathway

...llular assembly lines, where they are made, to the protective outer surface of the cells, where they are inserted. Without a steady infusion of proteins, the membrane weakens and the cell - in this case, a bacterium - becomes unable to protect itself from harsh environmental conditions. In the human mouth, it...

Chlamydia parasite lives off our fat

...t Chlamydia not only directs lipid droplets to its protective vacuole but also causes the proliferation of new lipid droplets on the host. The co-option of lipid droplets appears to be essential for Chlamydia pathogenesis. When the researchers used drugs to inhibit lipid droplet formation in the host, they shar...

Scientists show how thinking can harm brain cells

...ressing the cells with small amounts could trigger protective genes and induce adaptations that will make the dendrites more able to withstand insults," Bellizzi said. Diazoxide is not the only drug that would work, and others might be better, the researchers said. Memantine, a drug that blocks glutamate recep...

NASA's AURA satellite peers into Earth's ozone hole

...it measured less than 4 million square miles. The protective ozone layer over Antarctica annually undergoes a seasonal change, but since the first satellite measurements in 1979, the ozone hole has gotten larger. Human-produced chlorine and bromine chemicals can lead to the destruction of ozone in the stratosp...

Stress substantially slows human body's ability to heal

...e placed directly over each small wound, forming a protective bubble, from which researchers could extract fluids that normally fill such blisters. The husbands and wives also completed questionnaires intended to gauge their level of stress at the beginning of the experiment. Lastly, each person was fitted wi...

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