REPLI

Scientists Replicate Hepatitis C Virus in Laboratory

For the first time, scientists have replicated hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the laboratory. The ability to replicate HCV in cell culture will allow researchers to better study the life cycle and biology of this virus and to test potential antiviral compounds, which may lead to new therapies for the liver disease that results from infection with HCV. Scientists at the National Institute of Diabetes...

Unchecked DNA replication drives earliest steps toward cancer

Although not widely appreciated as a disease of the genes, cancer is always rooted in genetic errors or problems in gene regulation. Scientists have identified some of the first genetic triggers for cancer as mutations in specific oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. Full-blown tumors and metastatic cancers, however, often exhibit many genetic mutations, sometimes dozens in a given tumor. An impo...

Study finds adult stem cells can replicate

Scientists have found a new role for a previously identified enzyme that may make it a target for anti-inflammatory treatments. The finding by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that an enzyme known as cathepsin G regulates the ability of immune cells known as neutrophils to secrete chemicals that attract other immune cells and start the local infla...

Novel mechanism for DNA replication discovered

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers first to discover that a protein can provide the coding information for DNA replicationSince the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, the paradigm for DNA replication has stated that the DNA itself codes for the appropriate pairings for replication. In other words, if a guanine base is on the original strand...

UW scientists unravel critical genetic puzzle for flu virus replication

Like any other organism, an influenza virus's success in life is measured by its genetic track record, its ability to pass on genes from one generation to the next. Now, with the...

Enzyme inhibitors block replication of SARS virus

The study was conducted by researchers from Scripps Research; the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; and the National Taiwan University. It is being published today in the journal Chemistry and Biology (Vol. 13, No. 3). Chi-Huey Wong is currently the Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry at the Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology and directs the Scripps Research lab heading th...

ANU scientists crack DNA replication mystery

A team of scientists led by Professor Nick Dixon at the Research School of Chemistry at The Australian National University have cracked one of the great DNA mysteries. For more than 20 years scientists have tried in vain to understand the last step in the copying of DNA in cells that are about to divide. The research findings were published in the prestigious international journal Cell th...

Statins stop hepatitis C virus from replicating

A new study shows that statins, which are typically used as anti-cholesterol medications, can inhibit the replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). They could replace ribavirin in combination therapy with interferon. These findings are published in the July 2006 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Published by John Wiley...

U of S Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization team discovers key step in flu virus replication

As public health officials around the world keep a nervous eye on the spread of avian influenza, the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) has uncovered a key step in how the influenza virus causes infection. Yan Zhou and her team have discovered how a crucial pathway that supports the influenza A virus's ability to reproduce itself is activated, a...

A first glimpse of the influenza replication machine

In 1918, 50 million people died during a worldwide influenza pandemic caused by mutation of a bird-specific strain of the influenza virus. Recently H5N1, another highly infectious avian strain has caused outbreaks of bird flu around the world. There is great concern that this virus might also mutate to allow human-to-human transmission and cause another catastrophic pandemic. Specific mutations i...

Common mechanisms for viral DNA replication

How DNA replicates is a critical question for understanding life. DNA replication remains difficult to investigate in eukaryotes,where it occurs within the confines of the double-membrane nucleus. However, the process is far easier to study in the much simpler virus. In simian virus 40 (SV40), the large T-antigen protein (T-ag) is responsible for recognizing DNA sequences required to start replic...