#Wood instead of petroleum: Producing chemical substances solely from renewable resources Petroleum might well be replaced by wood soon
Research has made now significant progress towards using sustainable biomass, like wood, as an alternative raw material for chemical production.
Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany and at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in the USA recently managed to synthesize two complex chemical substances from wood-based starting materials.
and is less damaging to the environment.""Our aim is to manufacture everyday products from renewable resources without an impact on the environment
while at the same time ensuring that the process is explained economically competitive Professor Till Opatz of Mainz University.
The results of their research have been published in the prominent journal Angewandte Chemie. The German research team led by Professor Till Opatz at JGU's Institute of Organic chemistry participates in the interdisciplinary research consortium Chemical Biomedicine (Chembiomed) funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation
and works on the synthesis of substances that can inhibit tumor cell growth. The US research group under Professor Anthony J. Arduengo III is interested particularly in developing industrially applicable methods for using materials derived from wood biomass for the sustainable manufacture of a broad array of basic chemicals such as, for example,
substances used to produce automotive coatings, plastics, adhesives, and other commodity materials. At a conference in Goslar in Germany about two years ago, the two researchers realized that their experience
and expertise complemented each other perfectly for addressing issues surrounding sustainability of a modern chemical industry. Since then, a vigorous exchange of researchers and students between Mainz and Tuscaloosa has fueled the collaboration.
The two teams have now been able to demonstrate wood-based, or xylochemical, syntheses of substances for which petroleum products are employed usually as starting materials.
This new work shows that the relevant carbon skeletons can be created solely from wood-based starting materials.
In the case of one target compound the natural product ilicifoline B, no comparison with a petrochemical route was possible as this substance had never before been synthesized in a laboratory.
But when it came to derivatives of the natural painkiller morphine, the new xylochemical synthesis turned out to be significantly more efficient than any previously known route based on petrochemistry."
"This shows that the implementation of a wood-based chemical economy is associated not necessarily with decreased cost-efficiency,"added Daniel Stubba, JGU first author of the publication."
"Xylochemistry could represent an important alternative to the climate-damaging use of the earth's finite resources of natural oil and gas in the production of chemicals."
For this latter purpose, an international research consortium called Stance (Sustainable Technology for a new Chemical Economy) has been established.
Its composition is like a box of varied building blocks from which products for today's modern world can be manufactured,
and young adults with rare blood disorders Hematology researchers have safely and effectively treated children and young adults for autoimmune blood disorders in a multicenter clinical trial.
In children with one of those conditions, autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS), all the patients showed a durable, complete response, with normal blood cell counts and rapid improvements,
""Patients with ALPS and similar autoimmune disorders have had few long-term treatment options for managing their disease,
"said study leader David T. Teachey, M d.,a physician-researcher in hematology and oncology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)."
Collaborators from 15 medical centers contributed to the research; Teachey and Bride had study co-authors from four institutions.
ALPS is one of the autoimmune cytopenias, a group of diseases in which the immune system inappropriately destroys blood cells.
Patients may suffer anemia, uncontrolled bleeding and vulnerability to infections. Parents often see their children struggle with swollen lymph nodes, painful enlarged spleens, fatigue and anxiety.
Because autoimmune cytopenias are relatively rare, families often experience a"diagnostic odyssey"--years of testing,
bleeding and unsuccessful treatments before receiving an accurate diagnosis. Conventional treatment for autoimmune cytopenias uses corticosteroids to suppress the immune system.
Moreover, over the long term, corticosteroids increase the risk of osteoporosis and vulnerability to infection. The current study builds on preliminary results published by Teachey
and 12 others had caused secondary cytopenias by other underlying autoimmune diseases. All were intolerant of or resistant to corticosteroids.
Patients also had improvements in spleen and lymph node abnormalities. All 12 patients were able to discontinue steroids
Sirolimus, an immunosuppressant also known as rapamycin, has long been used to prevent rejection after a solid organ transplant.
Based on the new findings, the study team recommended that doctors should consider using sirolimus early in the management of patients with autoimmune blood disorders that require ongoing treatment.
He added that because many ALPS cases result from underlying gene mutations, future studies could also test
whether sirolimus can treat other ALPS-like disorders with mutations in similar genes.""More research remains to be done,
#UT Southwestern researchers identify an enzyme as a major culprit of autoimmune diseases Activating an enzyme that sounds an alarm for the body's innate immune system causes two lethal autoimmune diseases in mice,
while inhibiting the same enzyme rescues them, UT Southwestern Medical center researchers report. The findings, published in the Oct 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),
could someday lead to new therapies for autoimmune diseases.""These results suggest that inhibition of the enzyme cgas may be an effective therapy for autoimmune diseases such as Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome (AGS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),
which are linked to the same inflammatory pathway, "said senior author Dr. Zhijian"James"Chen, Professor of Molecular biology and a Howard hughes medical institute (HHMI) investigator at UT Southwestern.
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system turns against the body instead of protecting it. AGS is a rare genetic disorder that mainly affects the brain,
while SLE can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. Neither disease has a cure
only treatments to control symptoms. Dr. Chen said cgas is likely amenable to inhibition by small-molecule drugs
and that the recent determination of the high-resolution structures of cgas should facilitate development of such inhibitors.
The work builds on two back-to-back studies the Chen lab published in Science in late 2012 that identified cgas as a sensor of innate immunity-the body's first line of defense against invaders.
A commentary in the same issue of PNAS refers to the Chen lab's identification of that long-sought sensor of DNA in the cytoplasm
The same elegant system can trigger autoimmune disease when self-DNA is inappropriately present in the cytoplasm,
Loss-of-function mutations in the gene that codes for the TREX1 protein are linked to AGS and SLE in humans.
"Even deletion of just one of the two genes for cgas largely rescued the mice from the autoimmune disease,
who also is an investigator in the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and holder of the George L. Macgregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical science.
While the resulting inability to degrade lysosomal DNA led to lethal autoimmunity, once again cgas inhibition rescued the mice, the researchers report t
#New finding offers clues for blocking cancer gene A new study suggests a potential new way to block one of the most common cancer-causing genes, without causing severe side effects.
The Notch gene plays a role in many types of cancer. It's the most common cancer-causing gene in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
About 60 percent of children and adults with T-cell leukemia harbor a Notch mutation. But drugs designed to block Notch have caused serious side effects such as severe diarrhea or skin cancers.
Now a team from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center offers a potential new target to block Notch without the toxic effects.
Researchers found that a protein called Zmiz1 sticks to Notch triggering the gene to turn on its cancer function.
But Zmiz1 does not impact normal healthy Notch functions.""Notch controls the genes that cause cancer,
but it's also important for normal health. The challenge is to knock out the cancer function of Notch
but preserve its normal function,"says Mark Chiang, M d.,Ph d.,assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical school."
"If you unstick Zmiz1 from Notch, the cancer cells die. And Zmiz1 seems to be selective in turning on the cancer functions of Notch,
"Chiang adds. The researchers found mice lived longer when Zmiz1 was deleted. The mice had normal body weight and no severe side effects from blocking Zmiz1.
Results of the study are published online in the journal Immunity.""Our goal is to develop a drug to sit right between Notch
and Zmiz1 that could break apart the bond. We think this would block the Notch cancer pathway without causing toxic side effects,
like we see with current Notch inhibitors, "Chiang says. While the majority of kids with T-cell leukemia are cured,
about 20 percent will relapse. Those kids face a grim prognosis. To date, no targeted therapies exist for these kids."
"We need to develop therapies against Notch to help kids with relapsed cancer and to cure kids with fewer toxicities or long-term effects,
"Chiang says.""Our current treatments may often be curative, but there can be a huge price to pay in late effects."
"More research is needed before getting to this point with patients. Chiang and his colleagues plan next to use X-ray crystallography to create a three-dimensional image of Notch
and Zmiz1 in an effort to understand how they are sticking together. This would allow them to design a drug to separate the two proteins s
#Bottlebrush design enhances cellular imaging The bottle brush, with its long stalk and dense spray of plastic bristles, is the unsung hero of kitchens everywhere,
fitting through the narrow necks of water bottles and vases and into the hard-to-reach interiors of mugs and tumblers.
With the gadget's unique design as inspiration, researchers now report in ACS Central Science the development of bottlebrush nanotags that can contain thousands of fluorophores,
greatly enhancing the detection and analysis of cells. Fluorescent probes help researchers see particular cells or proteins.
The most common approach is to make a sandwich of a"primary"antibody specific for a certain protein on a cell
and a"secondary"antibody connected to fluorophores. But if a protein is expressed at a low level,
In those cases, many fluorophores are attached to the secondary antibody to amplify the signal. However, there's a limit to that strategy
The groups created brush-shaped polymers with side chains that resemble bristles. From there they attached DNA to the tips of these bristles
The bottlebrush structure could then serve as a new type of secondary antibody that could bind to thousands of fluorophores,
so that a wide range of colors of these fluorescent nanotags can be obtained readily. The authors note that,
the brushes also could someday deliver cancer therapeutics s
#Researchers want to turn acid-loving microbes into safe drug-carriers Usually the microbe S. islandicus is found in hot and acidic volcanic springs,
but now the microbe has also found its way to the labs of University of Southern Denmark.
The microbe S. islandicus has a strange and unique talent for thriving in acidic environments.
and protect drugs on their passage through the stomach. Many drugs may be absorbed through the intestines,
"explains Sara Munk Jensen, Ph d. student at both the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (Nordcee), Department of biology and the Department of physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).
This is relevant for different drugs as growth hormones, vaccines and insulin. Many diabetics need to daily inject insulin directly into their body,
and they would benefit greatly by taking insulin in a tablet instead. Not only is it easier to take a tablet than inject;
when insulin is absorbed from the small intestine it is released into the body in a more natural way than
when injected, and this has the potential to improve the patient's treatment. They love it hot Here enters the acid-loving microbe S. islandicus the scene.
Some extremophile archaea love to live in oxygen-free environments, others in saline environments, and S. islandicus requires an environment that is 75-80 degrees Celsius hot
and has a ph of 2-3. These living conditions are found in volcanic springs in places like Iceland Italy, Russia and North america.
Jensen and her colleagues now report in the journal International Journal of Pharmaceutics that they have managed to use S. islandicus to construct a nanocapsule that can transport drugs safely through the stomach.
and placed in solutions equivalent to the acidic environment in the stomach. After one and a half hours it was time to see
One and a half hours app. equals the time that a tablet must be able to withstand the hostile environment of the stomach before natural peristaltics pushes it forward to the intestines.
vaccines, etc. What did the researchers do in the lab? S. islandicus was grown for four days at 75 degrees Celsius.
#A better way to read the genome UCONN researchers have sequenced the RNA of the most complicated gene known in nature,
using a hand-held sequencer no bigger than a cell phone. If DNA is the blueprint of life,
and graduate student Gopinath Rajadinakaran teamed up with UK-based Oxford Nanopore technologies to show that the company's Minion nanopore sequencer can sequence genes faster,
They published their findings on Sept. 30 in Genome Biology. If your genome was a library
and each gene was a book, some genes would be straightforward reads -but some would be more like a"Choose Your Own Adventure"novel.
Oxford Nanopore, a company based in the UK released its new nanopore sequencer, and offered one to Graveley's lab. The nanopore sequencer,
called a Minion, works by feeding a single strand of DNA through a tiny pore.
The pore can only hold five DNA bases-the'letters'that spell out our genes-at a time.
There are four DNA bases, G, A t, and C, and 1, 024 possible five-base combinations.
Each combination creates a different electrical current in the nanopore. GGGGA makes a different current than AGGGG,
which is different again than CGGGG. By feeding the DNA through the pore and recording the resulting signal
they chose the most complex one known, Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule 1 (Dscam1), which controls the wiring of the brain in fruit flies.
No one had used yet a Minion to sequence copies of RNA, and though it was likely it could be done,
and then ran them through the Minion's nanopores. In this one experiment, they not only found 7,
"A lot of people said'The Minion will never work, '"Graveley says, "but we showed it works using the most complicated gene known."
"The study demonstrates that gene sequencing technology can now be accessed by a much broader range of researchers than was previously possible,
since the Minion is both relatively inexpensive and highly portable so that it requires almost no lab space."
"Also, thanks to the investments in genomics through the University's Academic Plan, Brent Graveley can leverage his expertise
so that faculty and students across our campuses will successfully compete for grant dollars and launch bioscience ventures."
"Graveley will speak about the research at the Oxford Nanopore Minion Community Meeting at the New york Genome Center on Dec 3.
"This technology has amazing potential to transform how we study RNA biology and the type of information we can obtain,
"Plus the fact that the Minion is a hand-held sequencer that you plug into a laptop is simply unbelievably cool
#Researcher develops vaccine for fatal disease Over 200 million people in 74 countries suffer from schistosomiasis
and four times that many are at risk for the disease since they do not have access to clean water.
A recent discovery in the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) research laboratory may make it possible to reduce the number of infections from this disease.
Afzal A. Siddiqui, Ph d.,has tested his new vaccine in animals and is now planning human trials.
Siddiqui, a Grover E. Murray Distinguished Professor at the TTUHSC School of medicine, received a patent from the U s. Patent and Trademark Office for his schistosomiasis vaccine.
The vaccine""Schistoshield"potentially can impact up to one billion people. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National institutes of health have supported Siddiqui's research."
"We worked to get the patent to deter others from making money off this vaccine,
"Siddiqui said.""This way, it can be made for $1 per vaccination and distributed to those in need.
An effective schistosomiasis vaccine has the potential to impact one billion people.""Praziquantel, a drug developed over 40 years ago,
is the only effective treatment available for schistosomiasis. However, re-infection frequently occurs following drug treatment.
An effective vaccine is critical toward providing long-term treatment. This schistosomiasis vaccine offers unique opportunities for organizations to market it as a method for completely eliminating this disease.
The vaccine's advantages make it easy to sell because it eliminates the instances of re-infection common with the current chemotherapeutic drug,
is easier and less expensive to distribute and can be administered with current chemotherapy regimen. Long-term vaccine efficacy will effectively reduce the transmission of schistosomiasis in endemic areas.
According to the World health organization there are no commercially available vaccines against schistosomiasis, which afflicts people in countries primarily in Asia, Africa and South america.
Symptomatic schistosomiasis can result in increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections including HIV, which is prevalent in many countries plagued by schistosomiasis.
A person gets a schistosoma infection through contact with contaminated water. The parasite swims freely in open bodies of water.
Once contact is made with humans, the parasite burrows into the skin, matures into another stage,
and then migrates to the lungs and liver, where it matures into the adult form.
Siddiqui said detection of calcified schistosome eggs in Egyptian mummies from the 20th dynasty (1250 to1000 BC) tells us that schistosomiasis is an ancient disease."
"Major pathology of schistosomiasis is due to immunological reactions to schistosome eggs trapped in tissues, "Siddiqui said."
"Continuing infection causes enlargement of the liver and blood in urine. We see pictures of children from Africa with bulging bellies because of this disease."
"Despite mass treatment with drugs, infection rates continue to rise. An additional 800 million people are at risk of contracting schistosomiasis.
Durable and sustained reduction in the disease spectrum and transmission can only be obtained by long-term protection through vaccination.
Siddiqui has studied schistosomiasis for over 20 years working to develop this vaccine n
#Three-minute test detects common form of dementia that's hard to diagnose Although Lewy Body disease (LBD) is the second-most-common degenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease,
it's not exactly a household name. It affects more than 1. 3 million Americans, is recognized poorly,
and diagnosis is delayed often significantly. Patients with LBD simultaneously experience losses in cognitive function, mobility and behavior.
The late Robin williams had this form of dementia as did legendary NHL coach Alger Joseph"Radar"Arbour,
which also can cause visual hallucinations and make depression worse. Until now, there has been no way to assess or operationalize many of the cognitive and behavioral symptoms of LBD in clinical practice.
A leading neuroscientist at Florida Atlantic University has developed the"Lewy Body Composite Risk Score"(LBCRS) to quickly
and effectively diagnose LBD and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) in about three minutes. The LBCRS is a brief rating scale that can be completed by a clinician to assess clinical signs
and symptoms highly associated with the pathology of this disease. With this important tool, a clinician can assess
whether the patient has bradykinesia, rigidity, postural instability, or rest tremor without having to grade each extremity.
This simple, one-page survey provides structured yes/no questions for six non-motor features that are present in patients with LBD
but are much less commonly found in other forms of dementia. The LBCRS study,"Improving the Clinical Detection of Lewy Body Dementia with the Lewy Body Composite Risk Score,
"recently published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, involved 256 patients who were compared with the clinical dementia rating
and gold standard measures of cognition, motor symptoms, function and behavior. The test was administered in a"real-world"clinic setting with patients who were referred from the community rather than in a research sample.
The clinic sample had a mixture of gender education, comorbidities, behavioral, affective, motor symptoms, and diagnoses.
The LBCRS was able to discriminate between Alzheimer's disease and LBD with 96.8 percent accuracy, and provided sensitivity of 90 percent and specificity of 87 percent.
For the study, caregivers completed evaluations to determine the presence and severity of non-cognitive symptoms observed in the patient and their impact on the caregiver.
Each patient was administered a 30-minute test battery at the time of the office visit to assess their cognitive status. The LBCRS was completed after all other rating scales were scored
and the diagnosis was presented to the patient and family.""Most patients never receive an evaluation by a neurologist skilled in the diagnosis of Lewy body dementia,
and significant delays and misdiagnoses occur in most patients with this disease, "said James E. Galvin, M d.,M p h,
. one of the most prominent neuroscientists in the country who developed the LBCRS, and a professor of clinical biomedical science in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and a professor in FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing."
"This new tool has the potential to provide a clearer, more accurate picture for those patients who are unable to be seen by specialists,
hastening the correct diagnosis and reducing the strain and burden placed on patients and caregivers."
"Another important aspect of the LBCRS is its ability to improve the sensitivity of diagnosis,
thereby reducing the risk of exposure to patients with LBD to medications that can have potentially serious adverse consequences.
The survey also increases the potential opportunity to receive appropriate symptomatic therapies in a timely fashion,
and lessens the inappropriate exclusion from and inclusion into clinical trials.""Early detection of Lewy body dementias will be important to enable future interventions at the earliest stages
when they are likely to be said most effective Galvin.""Our study provides evidence-based methodology that will have applications in clinical practice, participation in clinical trials, prevention studies, community surveys, and biomarkers research."
"Galvin is one of the leading international experts on LBD, and has been working to improve clinical detections by combining biomarkers including high density EEG, functional and structural MRI,
PET scans and CSF biomarkers to characterize and differentiate LBD from healthy aging and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Galvin has led efforts to develop a number of dementia screening tools, including the Quick Dementia Rating system (QDRS), AD8,
a brief informant interview to translate research findings to community settings. He has done cross-cultural validation of dementia screening methods in comparison with Gold standard clinical evaluations and biomarker assays.
His team also has developed sophisticated statistical models to explore transition points in clinical cognitive, functional, behavioral and biological markers of disease in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease,
and Parkinson's disease e
#A molecular switch to stop inflammation Our immune system is vital to us and can sometimes overreact causing chronic illnesses,
such as for instance rheumatism and allergy. Now, researchers from Umeå University and University of Gothenburg have identified a molecular switch-MYSM1-that can suppress such an overreaction
and avoid inflammation. The study is published in the prestigious journal Immunity.""The discovery of MYSM1 is a major milestone in our understanding of how our immune system works,
and how its response could be controlled in order to prevent inflammatory diseases such as sepsis, "says Nelson O. Gekara,
research leader at MIMS, Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden at Umeå University. Our innate immune system is activated
when our body needs to protect itself against pathogens, for instance bacteria and viruses, as well as for tissue healing.
In some people, the immune system overreacts which can cause chronic inflammatory diseases and result in tumour development.
The innate immune system is activated by receptors that recognise certain molecular patterns found on microbes or dead cells.
These receptors are called pattern-recognition receptors (PRRS.""Most infectious or inflammatory situations are associated with the simultaneous or sequential activation of multiple PRR pathways.
Therefore, it is essential to avert a disproportionate self-destructive immune response in a synchronised fashion once activated.
How this is accomplished has been unclear, "says Nelson O. Gekara. Nelson O. Gekara's at Umeå University and his doctoral student Swarup Panda are now closing in on a solution.
For years, they have been searching for possible genes required for the regulation of the immune system.
Together with Professor Jonas A Nilsson at Sahlgrenska Cancer Center at the University of Gothenburg
the Umeå researchers have identified now MYSM1-a molecule in the cell core (nucleus) of resting cells.
For the first time, the researchers are now able to show that during infection or inflammation MYSM1 accumulates outside of the nucleus,
in the cytoplasm where it disrupts the function of signalling molecules involved in activation of PRR pathways,
thereby terminating inflammation.""MYSM1 can be said to act like a molecular switch that can turn off several inflammatory pathways.
Therefore lack of MYSM1 in animal results in unrestrained activation of the innate immune system, leading to inflammatory diseases"says Nelson O. Gekara.
His research team is now screening for small molecule compounds that are able to modulate the MYSM1 molecule activity.
The hope is to find new therapeutics against infections and other inflammatory diseases e
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