St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have revealed new details about how a promising class of anti-influenza drugs blocks the virus from replicating.
In a search for new antiviral drugs, University of Utah scientists found that a common heart failure medicine, spironolactone, has an unexpected ability to block Epstein Barr virus (EBV), a herpesvirus that causes mononucleosis. The drug blocks a key step in viral infection common to all herpesviruses, revealing that it could be developed into a new class of drug to treat herpesvirus infections including herpes, shingles, and mono. The research was published in PNAS.
Children with a severe type of spina bifida have excess fat accumulation in their lower extremities. Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles determine that this excess fat tissue is within the muscle boundary may signify increased risk for metabolic disorders such as diabetes.
One in four seniors is bringing along stowaways from the hospital to their next stop: superbugs on their hands. Moreover, seniors who go to a nursing home or other post-acute care facility will continue to acquire new superbugs during their stay, according to findings made by University of Michigan researchers published in a JAMA Internal Medicine research letter.
Whites living in areas where they are less exposed to those of other races have a harder time categorizing mixed-race individuals than do Whites with greater interracial exposure, a condition that is associated with greater prejudice against mixed-race individuals, a new experimental study shows.
A team of investigators from Houston Methodist Research Institute may have transformed the treatment of metastatic triple negative breast cancer by creating the first drug to successfully eliminate lung metastases in mice. This landmark study appears today in Nature Biotechnology (early online edition).
Researchers at SBP have identified a new combination therapy for the most aggressive form of medulloblastoma, a fast growing pediatric brain cancer. These results are expected to lead to a clinical trial.
A protein called ROBO1 may delay the progression of breast cancer, according to a paper published in The Journal of Cell Biology. The study, “Loss of miR-203 regulates cell shape and matrix adhesion through ROBO1/Rac/FAK in response to stiffness” by Lily Thao-Nhi Le and colleagues, identifies a signaling pathway that may protect breast cells from the tumorigenic effects of stiff extracellular matrices.
A small peptide generated from a collagen protein may protect the brain from schizophrenia by promoting the formation of neuronal synapses, according to a paper published in The Journal of Cell Biology. The study, “Collagen-Derived Matricryptins Promote Inhibitory Nerve Terminal Formation in the Developing Neocortex” by Jianmin Su and colleagues, may lead to new approaches to treating the mental disorder.
Ajay Jain, M.D., a pediatric hepatologist and gastroenterologist, received a $703,620 grant from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to continue studying strategies for PN-associated injury.
A research team led by Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Raymond L. Ownby, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., recently received a prestigious R01 grant totaling $2,756,300 over five years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to combat this major challenge to develop a user-friendly computer application (app) to help educate people on a variety of chronic health concerns at a level appropriate for them.
Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Texas, Dallas are beginning a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study to determine whether treating a depressed caregiver will improve the child’s asthma.
In a large-scale study involving more than 6,000 fifth graders, an innovative science curriculum was found to have a positive impact on science learning for students with different levels of English proficiency.
An international team that includes NIH-funded researchers at Stanford University has developed a therapeutic compound that is effective in inhibiting Plasmodium falciparum, one of five species of parasite that infects people with malaria, and the strain which causes the highest number of malaria deaths.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles studied 11 biomarkers associated with inflammation, bone loss and/or bone formation in about 450 individuals – assessed by sex and HIV status – to try to determine causes of this differential bone loss.
University of Florida Health researchers have identified a new strain of bacteria in the mouth that may keep bad bacteria in check — and could lead to a way to prevent cavities using probiotics.
Cancer clinical trials with negative results don’t make an immediate splash in the scientific literature, but they do have a long-term impact on cancer research, according to a new study by SWOG, the federally funded international clinical trials network.
A 10-year follow-up study of more than 6,000 people who underwent heart CT scans suggests that a high coronary artery calcium score puts people at greater risk not only for heart and vascular disease but also for cancer, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute, with colleagues in China, have developed a new, regenerative medicine approach to remove congenital cataracts in infants, permitting remaining stem cells to regrow functional lenses.
An Indiana University biologist has been awarded $750,000 to identify the genetic mechanism that makes up a "switch" allowing some genetically identical species to develop strikingly different physical characteristics based on their environment, a phenomenon known as "polyphenism.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a mechanism that might explain the link between maternal infections during pregnancy and cognitive problems in children; findings may impact clinical care.
If you want to beat a fearsome enemy, you must first learn to think like them. If you do, you can predict their next move – and block it. This advice may work on the battlefield. But scientists also think it will work in the battle against one of the most dangerous bacteria our bodies can face: Clostridium difficile.
Published in the upcoming March 10, 2016 issue of the authoritative Journal of Clinical Oncology, this new study is likely to change the standard of cardiac care during treatment of many childhood cancer patients.
Fifty-six million years ago, just before earth’s carbon dioxide levels and average temperatures soared, many species of primitive primates went extinct in North America for reasons unclear to scientists. Now, a study of fossilized molars appears to exonerate one potential culprit in the animals’ demise: competition with primitive rodents for food.
Understanding non-homeostatic eating — or eating that is driven more by palatability, habit and food cues — and how it works in the brain may help neuroscientists determine how to control cravings, maintain healthier weights and promote healthier lifestyles. Scientists at the University of Missouri recently discovered the chemical circuits and mechanisms in the brain that separate food consumption from cravings. Knowing more about these mechanisms could help researchers develop drugs that reduce overeating.
A new study on family technology rules is among the first to explore children's expectations for parents' technology use -- revealing kids' feelings about fairness and "oversharing" and the most effective types of household technology rules.
Research from an investigator at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and colleagues from other facilities across the country, shows a social-cognitive intervention designed for parents of children undergoing a stem cell transplant had beneficial effects in reducing caregiver distress during the hospitalization period as compared with current best-practice psychosocial care.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have been awarded $2.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to identify the brain circuits involved in weight control and to develop novel strategies to fight obsessive eating and obesity.
In the largest analysis of its kind, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute and other top cancer centers have found that the organ site where prostate cancer spreads has a direct impact on survival.
Analyzing the immediate neighborhood surroundings of teenaged homicide victims, Philadelphia researchers found that neglected conditions--vacant lots, poor street lighting, fewer parks and less-traveled thoroughfares—were in much greater abundance compared to neighborhoods where adolescents were safer.
Using a new approach, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and collaborating institutions have discovered a novel drug candidate that could be used to treat certain types of breast cancer, lung cancer and melanoma.
Neuroblastoma accounts for the most pediatric deaths for any tumor outside of the brain. The most lethal form of this tumor is often associated with amplification of the gene MYCN, and now VCU scientists may have developed a combination therapy that uses this gene to kill the cancer, instead of making it grow.
The Black Death swept Europe in the 14th century eliminating up to half of the population but it left genetic clues that now may aid a University of Cincinnati (UC) researcher in treating HIV patients co-infected with hepatitis C using an anti-retroviral drug therapy. Kenneth Sherman, MD, PhD, Gould Professor of Medicine, says he will look at the blood samples of nearly 3,000 patients, primarily individuals with hemophilia, who were exposed to HIV during the early 1980s and late 1990s, to see if an inherited genetic variant that protects against HIV might also help prevent injury from Hepatitis C and other liver diseases.
Working with lab-grown human stem cells, a team of researchers suspect they have discovered how the Zika virus probably causes microcephaly in fetuses. The virus selectively infects cells that form the brain’s cortex, or outer layer, making them more likely to die and less likely to divide normally and make new brain cells.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists show that BCL-2 ovarian killer or BOK triggers mitochondrial cell death; process regulated by stability of the BOK protein
BOSTON – While the protective connection between moderate alcohol consumption and heart health has been well-studied, new research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health suggests that the association is more complicated than is widely accepted. Researchers found that in the hour following even moderate consumption of alcohol, the risk of heart and stroke doubled.
Researchers at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear have shown a link between mitochondrial dysfunction in corneal endothelial cells and the development of Fuchs’ Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy. This study, published today in the journal, Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, is the first study to demonstrate that lifelong accumulation of oxidative DNA damage leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent cell death in the tissue of the corneal endothelium. These changes are the result of free radical-induced molecular changes that are characteristic of FECD.
In a finding with enormous implications for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered that breaches in looping chromosomal structures known as “insulated neighborhoods” can activate oncogenes capable of fueling aggressive tumor growth.
Roughly eight percent of our DNA comes from viruses that infected our ancestors millions of years ago. New research by University of Utah geneticists shows that more than an oddity, the viral DNA switches on genes responsible for initiating an immune response. When removed, the innate immune system –a first-responder to infection by pathogens including viruses- does not function properly. The study shows that viral DNA functions in our body by helping us fight infections.
A research collaboration that combines novel “big-data” informatics tools with expertise in basic biology has uncovered details of an essential process in life: how a crucial enzyme locates the site on DNA where it begins to direct the synthesis of RNA. The finding may help scientists discover antimicrobial medicines, and shed light on other important cellular processes.
One of the most crucial and elusive goals of an effective HIV vaccine is to stimulate antibodies that can attack the virus even as it relentlessly mutates. Now a research team, led by investigators at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has tracked rare potent antibodies in an HIV-infected individual and determined sequential structures that point to how they developed.
P53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated and inactivated in the vast majority of cancers, has often been described as the “guardian of the genome” because of its protective effects against cancer. Now, researchers at The Wistar Institute are also making the case for p53 as the “guardian of obesity,” having found that a variant of the gene is heavily implicated in metabolism, which may lead to obesity and the development of type 2 diabetes.
Inhibiting the transfer of calcium ions into the cell’s powerhouse is specifically toxic to cancer cells, suggesting new ways to fight the disease.
PGK1, a glycolytic enzyme, has been found to play a role in coordinating cellular processes crucial to cancer metabolism and brain tumor formation, according to results published in today’s online issue of Molecular Cell.
Chung-Tse Michael Wu of the Wayne State University College of Engineering has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award that aims to develop antennas made of novel transmission-line-based metamaterials that would enable a high-speed, microwave panoramic camera (MPC).
Neuroscientists at Duke Health have developed a brain-machine interface (BMI) that allows primates to use only their thoughts to navigate a robotic wheelchair.
Most doctors and nurses review a patient’s family history to identify risk factors for heart disease and cancer, often through a paper checklist or brief interview. But more deliberate efforts to map a patient’s family tree could identify additional risks and drive patients to timely screenings for illnesses that may unknowingly affect them, according to a new study from Duke Health.
Jianlin Cheng has been in the business of protein structure prediction since before coming to the University of Missouri College of Engineering in 2007. And thanks to new funding from the National Institutes of Health, he’s looking at ways to take his research even further. Cheng, an associate professor of computer science, and his co-PI — John Tanner, professor of biochemistry at MU — recently received a four-year, $1.3 million grant from NIH (project number 2R01GM093123-05A1) to continue their research on integrated prediction and validation of protein structures.
A new study shows that patients, who undergo elective hip and knee surgery in hospitals with inadequate nurse staffing and poor nurse work environments, are more likely to require re-hospitalization.
Children with brain cancer may soon get some help from mice with the same disease, thanks to new brain tumor model that could act as a testbed for potential treatments.
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