Promote

Protein That Promotes Survival Of Stem Cells Might Be Key To Poor Leukemia Prognosis

The complex and life-sustaining series of steps by which hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) give rise to all of the body's red and white blood cells and platelets has now been discovered to depend in large part on a single protein called Mcl-1. This finding, from an investigator at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the February 18 issue of Science. Mcl-1 blocks the biochem...

Whole genome promoter mapping - Human Genome Project v2.0?

Investigators from the University California, San Diego (UCSD) Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and NimbleGen Systems have developed an efficient method to identify thousands of regulatory sequences in the human genome, according to a study published today in Nature. Genes are defined by their ability to generate a functional product. Thus the 'promoter' - a DNA se...

New insight into autoimmune disease: Bacterial infections promote recognition of self-glycolipids

The immune system is a complex and powerful weapon that provides protection against bacteria and viruses that, if left unchecked, would wreak havoc throughout the human body. The ability of the immune system to recognize the body's own tissues is essential, but sometimes the immune system loses the ability to distinguish "self" from potentially harmful invaders. This can lead to autoimmune diseas...

Prostate cancer uses Wnt signaling proteins to promote growth of bone tumors

Prostate cancer is a cruel disease. Left untreated, prostate cancer cells often metastasize, or spread, to bone where they form fracture-prone tumors that are extremely painful. More than 80 percent of men who die from prostate cancer die with metastatic disease in their bones. But scientists know very little about how migrating prostate cancer cells set up housekeeping in bone tissue and...

Islands in the Genome Promote Speciation

Have you ever wondered how the myriad insect forms—beetles, flies, dragonflies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, ants, wasps, bees, and countless others—evolved? Insects make up 75% of all species known. The large number of insect species is probably a result of a combination of one or more factors: a high rate of formation of new species, or speciation, an ability to adapt to new environments an...

Have a taste for fat? Yes! A sensor in the mouth promotes preference for fatty foods

The sense of taste informs the organism about the quality of ingested food. It comprises five sub-modalities that perceive sweet, salt, sour, bitter, and umami stimuli. The possibility for an additional taste modality directed to lipid has often been suggested because many animals exhibit a spontaneous attraction for fats, but the existence of an actual sensor remained a matter of debate. <...

Texas scientists discover how a hepatitis C protein promotes liver cancer

Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have identified a key biochemical connection between the hepatitis C virus and liver cancer. The molecular mechanism is similar to the one that links the human papilloma virus (HPV), the cause of genital warts, and cervical cancer, according to Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, the senior author of a paper on the discovery that w...

New antimicrobial compound adheres to skin to promote healing

University Georgia researchers have developed an anti-microbial treatment that adheres to the skin without being toxic. The researchers envision a human application for the technology, which they're currently seeking to...

A Jekyll and Hyde of cytokines: IL-25 both promotes and limits inflammatory diseases

The same signal responsible for promoting the type of immune responses that cause asthma and allergy can also limit the type of inflammation associated with debilitating diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and multiple sclerosis, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The researchers discovered how IL-25, a signaling protein kn...

Free-radical busting antioxidants might not promote healthy hearts

Antioxidants, such as beta-carotene and Vitamin E, have been touted for their ability to protect against heart disease. This protective effect is attributed to their ability to prevent the oxidation of bad cholesterol by free radicals—a process thought to contribute to the build-up of disease-causing fatty deposits on artery walls. But a new study, published online on April 10 in The Journal of E...

Meth promotes spread of virus in HIV-infected users

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have presented the first evidence that the addictive drug methamphetamine, or meth, also commonly known as "speed" or "crystal," increases production of a docking protein that promotes the spread of the HIV-1 virus in infected users. The investigators found that meth increases expression of a receptor called DC-SIGN, a "virus-attachment factor,"...

Serotonin, acting in a specific brain region, promotes sleep in fruit flies

Researchers have found that the neurotransmitter serotonin, known to affect many behaviors, also appears to promote lasting, quality sleep in an animal model for understanding how sleep is regulated. While central to the lives of most animals, the proper regulation sleep remains a largely enigmatic process. The findings are reported by Quan Yuan, William Joiner, and Amita Sehgal at the Un...

Two-faced protein can stop metastasis or promote it, researchers say

A protein known to be a key component of the glue that holds cells together also is involved in breaking them apart and promoting their movement when tumors begin to spread to other parts of the body, researchers at Mayo Clinic have found. The study, published in the Sept. 18 online issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, helps illuminate the very first steps involved in metastasis, the spre...

Pheromone from mother's milk may rapidly promote learning in newborn mammals

By studying the ability of newborn rabbit pups to learn the significance of new odors, researchers have found that a mammary pheromone secreted in mother's milk may act as a chemical booster that facilitates the ability of pups to quickly associate environmental odors with the opportunity to nurse. The findings, which deepen our understanding of pheromone function and how learning occurs...

Signal protein shows promise for blocking tumor promoters in skin cells

A protein with the ironic name "Srcasm" can counteract the effects of tumor-promoting molecules in skin cells, according to new research by investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Using animal models, the researchers discovered that Srcasm acts like a brake in epithelial cells, preventing uncontrolled cell growth caused by a family of proteins called Src kinases. This...

Swimming 'to the left' gets bacteria upstream, and may promote infection

Yale engineers who study both flow hydrodynamics and how bacteria propel themselves report that one reason for the high incidence of infections associated with catheters in hospital patients may be that some pathogenic bacteria swim "to the left," in a study published in Physical Review Letters. "Escherichia coli (E. coli) and some other pathogenic bacteria with flagella interact with th...

Machine preservation may promote more organ sharing

Preserving the kidneys of deceased older donors on a pump ?as opposed to the conventional method of storing and transporting organs in a cooler ?may lower hospital costs, improve initial organ function, and promote greater use and more sharing of organs, according to new research by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. "By placing kidneys on a portable pump, preservation times ca...

Salk scientists hammer out a pathway that promotes muscle cell survival in mice

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified an enzyme that pumps up a cell’s ability to maintain healthy muscle and restores normal muscle function in genetically engineered mice with weak muscles. The study, published online in Nature Medicine, is the first to explore the part this enzyme plays in a cascade of events triggered by exercise-induced hormones and other si...