whose speed and precision make them useful for cataract and other eye surgeries. A femtosecond is one-quadrillionth,
#Disrupting tumor cell'microenvironment'suggests a new way to treat a prevalent childhood leukemia Researchers at NYU Langone Medical center
and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center are reporting a potentially important discovery in the battle against one of the most devastating forms of leukemia that accounts for as many as one in five children with a particularly aggressive form of the disease
and attracts blood cells to the bone marrow--halted disease progression in bone marrow and spleen tissue within two weeks.
The experiments also left white blood cells cancer free for more than 30 weeks in live mice. Further, the research team found that in mice bred to develop T-ALL
Researchers say their study results for the first time"clearly establish CXCR4 signaling as essential for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell growth and disease progression.""
""Our experiments showed that blocking CXCR4 decimated leukemia cells, "says co-senior study investigator and NYU Langone cell biologist Susan Schwab, Phd.
Schwab, an assistant professor at NYU Langone and its Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, says similar laboratory test plans are underway for more potent CXCR4 antagonists, most likely in combination with established chemotherapy regimens.
Schwab says T-ALL is"a particularly devastating cancer "because there are not many treatment options.
Co-senior study investigator and cancer biologist Iannis Aifantis, Phd, says the study offers the first evidence that"drugs targeting
and disrupting leukemia cells'microenvironment--or what goes on around them--could prove effective against the disease."
"Aifantis, the chair of the Department of Pathology at NYU Langone and a member of its Perlmutter Cancer Center,
and an early career scientist at the Howard hughes medical institute, says experiments in his laboratory had shown that leukemia-initiating cells concentrate in the bone marrow near CXCL12-producing blood vessels.
This finding prompted a collaborative effort to investigate expression and function of CXCR4 because it binds to CXCL12,
which in turn led to the researchers determining the vital role played by CXCR4-CXCL12 molecular signaling in disease growth.
Disease progression in the bone marrow stalled within three weeks and tumors were smaller than in similar mice that retained CXCL12 production.
Deletion of the CXCR4 gene led to sustained T-ALL remission within a month in similar mice,
Subsequent transplant of millions of human T-ALL cells into normal mice that were treated then with an anti-CXCR4 drug induced remission within two weeks,
#Researchers boost body's inflammation-reduction mechanism to combat obesity-fueled disease"This is a new way of reducing inflammation
"said co-senior author Kumar Sharma, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Renal Translational Medicine at UC San diego School of medicine."
"Essentially, we're boosting the body's natural response for reducing inflammation and showing the benefit in obesity-driven diseases."
"Catherine Godson, Phd, co-senior author and director of the UCD Diabetes Complications Research Centre in UCD School of medicine and UCD Conway Institute, said the study's findings demonstrate the value
"Drawing on collaborative expertise in synthetic chemistry, molecular biology and translational medicine, the team has produced findings with significant potential to reduce inflammation, a critical driver of the devastating consequences of obesity-related diseases,
In the body, inflammation is normally a natural healing response to infection or injury.""You get a recruitment of white blood cells that fight off the infection
or work to heal the injury, "explained first author Emma Borgeson, Phd, a postdoctoral fellow at UC San diego and UCD."
"It is a good thing. It's only when the inflammation becomes chronic that it can cause disease to occur."
"Borgeson said that a family of lipids, known as specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMS), are the body's natural shut off mechanism for inflammation."
The results showed significant disease improvement, primarily by affecting fat tissue.""The mice had been on a high-fat diet for three months
We found that it significantly reduced inflammation in the fat tissues and improved kidney and liver disease.
who has started already this work as a guest researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy Hospital in Sweden."
"Our ultimate hope would be to use these findings to create a lipoxin-based drug for obese people to help protect them against associated illnesses, such as kidney and liver disease,
#How a gut feeling for infection programs our immune response An unexpected finding by an international team of scientists based at The University of Manchester
It's hoped the discovery will inform the development of better treatments for a range of conditions from inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) to certain cancers.
and Dr Yasmine Belkaid from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases (NIAID) in the USA will be published in the journal Immunity.
These cells are called rapidly to sites of infection and injury and have an amazing ability to change
what they do to suit the situation in which they find themselves. This either involves them protecting the body from an attacking infection
or acting as a repair agent to aid wound healing. However, when these cells choose the wrong function this can result in severe inflammation leading to conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases and even cancer.
What scientists haven't been able to do is identify how the cells decide which function to fulfil.
It has always been assumed that the programming takes place once the cells arrive at the point of injury
or infection but this has not been investigated well. Using mouse models Dr Grainger and his team looked at how
and where monocytes are programs in response to toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by a common parasite called Toxoplasma gondii.
The parasite infects the gut and is most commonly found in undercooked meat. Pregnant women are advised also to avoid cat faeces due to the risk of infection.
Dr Grainger, a Wellcome Trust and Royal Society Fellow, explains what they found:""Our work shows that very soon after the toxoplasma invades the gut the tissue starts to communicate with other parts of the body to alter the immune system.
Your initial gut feeling about the infection is literally telling the rest of the system what to do."
At the moment a lot of therapies are focused on the site of infection or injury itself but this data suggests that it's the signals that are being sent out from the gut that are impacting the whole immune system.
It might even be possible to develop drugs to target the programming mechanisms within the bone marrow,
not only program the monocytes to protect against the infection, but also to change to a repair function
and are focused on identifying situations where this gut information system may have gone wrong such as in inflammatory bowel diseases s
#Stem cell discovery paves way for targeted treatment for osteoarthritis Researchers in the Departments of Biology and Physics at York,
working with colleagues at the Erasmus Medical centre in Rotterdam, have identified individual stem cells that can regenerate tissue, cartilage and bone.
or joint tissue opening the way for improved treatment for arthritis. The research which was funded by Arthritis Research UK is published in the latest issue of Stem Cell Reports.
The York team also isolated a rare subset of stem cells in bone marrow that while having no capability for tissue repair appeared to have a prominent role in immune function.
"While stem cell therapy is an exciting new development for the treatment for osteoarthritis, up to now it has been something of a lottery
It will help in the search to develop more targeted therapies for arthritis patients.""Co-Lead author Dr James Fox said"Working with colleagues across the Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre will help to bring our discovery closer to patient treatment."
"Director of research at the charity Arthritis Research UK Dr Stephen Simpson added:""There are 8 million people in the UK living with the pain
and disability caused by osteoarthritis. We are fighting to find better treatments and one day, a cure.
This research is exciting and promising. Identifying specific stem cells that could help the damaged joint to repair itself,
takes us a step closer to our aim of developing an injectable, safe, stem cell therapy for people with osteoarthritis
#Cellular mechanism for how the body regulates glucose transport discovered UT Southwestern Medical center scientists have gleaned a key cellular mechanism of how the body adjusts glucose levels,
an important process that when abnormal can promote diabetes, cancer, and rare genetic diseases. The researchers determined that an enzyme called Protein kinase c (PKC) can regulate
whether more or less glucose should be transported into cells, serving as a kind of thermostat to ensure that proper levels are maintained.'
'said senior author Dr. Richard Wang, assistant professor of dermatology and a member of UT Southwestern's Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.'
'This process is defective in a variety of diseases including diabetes and cancer.''Scientists have known how glucose is transported across cells,
The researchers further found that the regulation of GLUT1 by PKC was impaired in some patients with a genetic disease called GLUT1 Deficiency Syndrome (G1d.
Patients with G1d have seizures, movement disorders, speech disorders, and developmental delays as infants because insufficient glucose is transported to the brain.'
'With our ongoing studies on the regulation of GLUT1 by phosphorylation, we hope to identify pathways that may improve the diagnosis
and treatment of diseases, including G1d, diabetes, and cancer,'said Wang, whose lab focus includes non-melanoma skin cancer, in
which GLUT1 is expressed highly d
#First live birth after transplantation of ovarian tissue removed and frozen during childhood Arraythe patient, who was born in the Republic of congo,
was diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia when she was five. After emigrating to Belgium at the age of 11,
doctors decided that her disease was so severe that she should be treated with a bone marrow transplant,
the Belgian doctors removed the patient's right ovary when she was 13 years and 11 months old and froze tissue fragments.
-versus-host disease and had to continue with immunosuppressive drugs for 18 months after the transplant.
Her remaining ovary failed and when she was 15, doctors gave her hormone replacement therapy to induce the onset of menstruation.
Ten years later the patient received counselling after expressing a desire to become pregnant. In order to restore her fertility,
doctors led by Dr Isabelle Demeestere, a gynaecologist and research associate in the Fertility Clinic and Research Laboratory on Human Reproduction at Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels,
Belgium), stopped the hormone replacement therapy, thawed some, but not all of the frozen ovarian tissue and grafted four fragments on to the remaining left ovary,
and 11 other fragments at other sites in the body. The transplanted tissue started to respond to her hormones
When they are diagnosed with diseases that require treatment that can destroy ovarian function, freezing ovarian tissue is the only available option for preserving their fertility."
when hormone replacement therapy is an efficient, standard, and noninvasive alternative for inducing puberty? Should the procedure only be proposed for patients with a high risk of ovarian failure or for those at low risk as well?
and her doctors say there is no reason why she could not have more babies if she wants to."
many experts working on disease control and prevention have seized upon it as a key material in creating diagnostic tools for the developing world."
Germinal centers are a sign of infection and are not present in healthy immune organs.
the organ could be used to study specific infections and how the body produces antibodies to fight those infections--from Ebola to HIV.'
'You can use our system to force the production of immunotherapeutics at much faster rates,
and environmental factors that contribute to infections or organ malfunctions. The process of B cells becoming germinal centers is understood not well,
blood cancer can result.''In the long run, we anticipate that the ability to drive immune reaction ex vivo at controllable rates grants us the ability to reproduce immunological events with tunable parameters for better mechanistic understanding of B cell development and generation of B cell tumors,
as well as screening and translation of new classes of drugs,'Singh said d
#'Chromosome shattering'seen in plants, cancer Plants can undergo the same extreme'chromosome shattering'seen in some human cancers and developmental syndromes,
UC Davis researchers have found. Chromosome shattering, or'chromothripsis,'has until now only been seen in animal cells.
Although plants don't get cancer it might also allow cancer researchers to use the laboratory plant Arabidopsis as a model to study chromosome behavior in cancer.
Chromothripsis involves slicing chromosomes into apparently random pieces, and reassembling it like a broken vase,
although in one recently published case a woman was cured of a genetic disorder when the gene responsible was lost due to chromothripsis.
#Single protein causes Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy Typical of neurodegenerative disorders is disrupted the communication between brain cells together with a loss of cells in specific brain regions.
For some brain diseases this phenomenon is linked to a protein known as alpha-synuclein. The exact function of this protein remains unclear,
However, in the case of specific diseases, including Parkinson's disease, Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), this protein forms aggregates that cause neurodegeneration."
"When alpha-synuclein aggregates accumulate within a brain cell, they interfere with the normal functioning of the cell.
Up to now, nobody understood how aggregates of this single protein could induce different pathologies, "says Professor Veerle Baekelandt from the Research Group for Neurobiology and Gene therapy."
while the'cylinders'induced Parkinson's disease, the'ribbons'caused MSA symptoms.""This clearly demonstrates that distinct diseases result from alpha-synuclein fibres that are structurally different."
"We are gaining more insight into the differences between the diseases. But we suspect that more fibres with different shapes
and effects are waiting to be discovered, apart from the two that we examined in this study.
A drug that counteracts the development of aggregates could be used to treat a whole range of brain diseases
#Vitamin d shows promise for treating Crohn's disease Crohn's disease (CD) is a lifelong chronic relapsing and remitting gastrointestinal condition, characterised by inflammation,
CD is associated with abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue and in many cases can result in a reduction of quality of life, time off work, hospitalisations and surgery.
The exact causes are unknown; however, immune, genetic and environmental factors are thought to be involved. Incidence of CD varies across Europe, with up to 10 cases per 100,000 population per year.
In this new research, the authors aimed to determine changes in gut barrier function (as determined by intestinal permeability and antimicrobial peptide concentrations) as well as disease markers in CD, in response to Vitamin d supplementation.
UEG's inflammatory bowel disease expert, Dr Charles Murray of the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK comments;"
"This is an exciting development in the treatment of Crohn's disease and we welcome anything new that could potentially help patients with this debilitating condition
improve manufacturing and help develop therapies for disease. The need for this optics technology will grow with the construction of the next-generation of light sources
and localize proteins in tissues is essential for understanding disease mechanisms and for diagnostics. However, today very advanced instruments are needed often to study proteins
In order to use protein detection for diagnostic purposes, e g. in a clinic, new, less complicated methods to study proteins are needed.
and commonly available in hospital and research labs. Since two antibodies are bound in the first step alsesignals can be avoided,
so that electron and hole injection could be balanced, the constructed GQD LEDS exhibited luminance of 1, 000 cd/m2,
#New mechanism that attacks viral infections discovered An innovative mechanism that the innate immune system uses to control viral infections has been uncovered by researchers at the University Medical centers in Mainz and Freiburg.
but related elements of the immune system can act together in concert to fight, for example, rotavirus infections.
Infection with rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhea in children around the world.
The innate immune system is able to combat infective pathogens such as viruses bacteria, and parasites on several levels.
which are released quickly in response to a viral infection and which can trigger a relevant immune response against the cells under attack.
and thus participate in an early stage of the immune response to infection by viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
The researchers were able to use the example of the rotavirus to demonstrate how such an infection could be battled very effectively.
Rotaviruses are highly contagious pathogens which cause vomiting and diarrhea. Rotavirus infection is the most frequent cause of diarrhea in children
and is responsible for more than 500,000 deaths around the world each year. It attacks the epithelial cells that coat the intestine and damages them."
"We were able to show that interferon-lambda (IFN? -although a required factor, is not capable by itself to control rotavirus infection
but that the presence of interleukin-22 (IL-22) is also necessary to effectively combat rotavirus,
"explained Professor Andreas Diefenbach of the Department of Medical microbiology and Hygiene of the Mainz University Medical center.
such as, for example, defending the intestines and lungs against bacterial infections. In addition, interleukin-22 makes an important contribution to tissue repair processes in the intestines following damage to the intestinal epithelium following exposure to radiation."
Interferons are used, for example, in the immunotherapy of often refractory chronic viral infections such as hepatitis. The researchers postulate that the innovative mechanism in which two components of the innate immune system collaborate effectively in the epithelial cells may have developed in the course of evolution as a secondary line of immune defense in an environment in
#Scientists find genetic variants key to understanding origins of ovarian cancer New research by an international team including Keck Medicine of USC scientists is bringing the origins of ovarian cancer into sharper focus.
It remains a mystery where these cancers come from, 'said Simon Gayther, Ph d.,professor in preventive medicine, Keck School of medicine of USC, corresponding author of the international genome-wide association study (GWAS).'
'By finding these genetic markers, we begin to understand more about the biology of the disease itself.
This study tells us more about the biology of ovarian cancer from the early development stage than most research has.'
'Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer in American women and seventh most common cancer in women throughout the world (World health organization.
In 2015, more than 14,000 American women will die of ovarian cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
Most ovarian cancers have low survival rates, typically because of the misunderstanding of symptoms and discovery of the cancer in later, less treatable stages.'
'Although MOCS are a less common type of ovarian cancer with generally good prognosis when diagnosed in early stages,
they are twice as likely to be resistant to treatment at later stages, 'said Andrew Berchuck, M d.,director of gynecologic oncology at Duke university Cancer Institute,
and senior author of the study.''Our results will contribute to the identification of women at greatest risk of developing the disease with the long-term goal of prevention.'
'The association analysis was based on 1, 644 women diagnosed with MOC and more than 21,000 women without ovarian cancer.
The research was conducted as part of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS), launched in 2009 with the goal of determining risks of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.'
'A major strength of this study is the large number of women with MOCS, which was made possible by pooling data contributed by investigators from over 40 international studies of ovarian cancer within the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium,
'said Linda Kelemen, Sc. D.,associate professor and researcher at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South carolina,
and co-first author.''By using a genome-wide scan, we could identify genetic variants that were significantly more common in women with MOC compared to those without ovarian cancer.'
'Co-first author Kate Lawrenson, Ph d. of Keck Medicine of USC believes the research will lead the way to the development of risk prediction strategies followed by clinical interventions with the potential to prevent ovarian cancer altogether,
rather than treating the disease once it has taken already hold.''The five year survival rates for ovarian cancer have not changed much in the past 30 years
and is partly from viewing ovarian cancer as a single disease, 'she said.''Our results shed light on differences in genetic risk factors for the different ovarian cancers such as MOCS.
I'm hanging my hopes on prevention. My bet is that prevention approaches will be better than finding a cure for a disease that is often diagnosed late
#New type of gecko-like gripper created Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are developing a new kind of gripper,
motivated by the ability of animals like the gecko to grip and release surfaces, that is perfectly suited for the delicate work involved in semiconductor manufacturing.
Like the gecko, the gripper has"tunable adhesion, "meaning that, despite having no moving parts,
its effective stickiness can be tuned from strong to weak. Unlike the gecko and other artificial imitators that rely on structures with complex shapes,
you have a place that has higher stress, "Minsky said.""The reason the gecko's fibers stick so well is because the mushroom-shaped tip forces the high stressed region from edge to the center,
you concentrate the stress in the center when you're pulling straight up.""To detach the posts,
which shifts the stress back to the edge and allows the crack to easily start from there.
--and can perhaps be used to target unsavory antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial pathogens and occasionally in beneficial bacteria.'
or even prevent many of the blunt-force injuries we see today.""Seepersad led the work along with UT Austin research scientist Michael Haberman.
In a new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, researchers report successfully growing multiple brain structures
Mesencephalic dopaminergic (mda) neurons and their connections to other neurons in the brain are believed to be related to disorders including drug abuse, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease,
and perhaps eating disorders, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syndrome, and Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. However studying mda neurons and neocortical neurons in isolation does not reveal much data about how these cells actually interact in these conditions.
This new capability to grow and interconnect two types of neurons in vitro now provides researchers with an excellent model for further study."
and one of the world's highest rates of HIV-1 infection, peaking in young adults,
the winter blood samples had greater infection than those taken in summer. After six weeks of Vitamin d supplementation, the Xhosa blood sample levels of HIV-1 infection were the same as those during the summer."
"High-dosage oral vitamin D3 supplementation attenuated HIV-1 replication, increased circulating white blood cells and reversed winter-associated anemia,"the researchers reported."
"Vitamin D3 presents a low-cost supplementation to improve HIV-associated immunity
#Violence by teachers almost halved in primary schools An innovative program of activities used in Ugandan primary schools has succeeded in reducing violence by teachers against children by 42 percent, according to new research.
posters and guides for around 60 different activities. 1 To evaluate the Toolkit's effectiveness, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,
Dr Karen Devries from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:""What's notable about these results is that we found a very large reduction.
#Protein discovery fuels redesign of mosquito-based malaria vaccine A promising type of vaccine designed to eradicate malaria by blocking parasite transmission could be a step closer,
and Dr Rhoel Dinglasan from the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health in Baltimore, USA, focused on a protein in the Anopheles mosquito midgut called Anapn1.
Malaria is transmitted to humans by the bite of a mosquito infected with the Plasmodium parasite.
Malaria transmission-blocking vaccines are designed to prevent the spread of malaria by interrupting parasite transmission.
Vaccinated individuals in malaria-endemic countries produce antibodies to Anapn1. During routine disease transmission, when these same immunised individuals become infected with malaria parasites,
both antibodies and parasites are ingested by a mosquito during blood feeding. The antibodies block parasite development in the mosquito
The Anapn1 protein is a leading candidate for a mosquito-based malaria transmission-blocking vaccine that is being developed by Dr Dinglasan."
"This type of vaccine won't boost people's immunity to malaria, but instead it will provide a delayed benefit to the individual by protecting the entire community from parasite transmission,
"Ultimately it could lead to a reduced number of infected mosquitoes and the eventual elimination and eradication of the disease,
Dr Dinglasan said as a vaccine antigen, Anapn1 prompts people to make antibodies; however only some of these antibodies block parasite transmission,
To further improve vaccine immunogenicity at the preclinical stage, we need to immuno-focus the antibody response to only the critical,
#Extreme exercise linked to blood poisoning Researchers have discovered that extreme exercise can cause intestinal bacteria to leak into the bloodstream, leading to blood poisoning.
This then triggers a systemic inflammatory response from the body's immune cells, similar to a serious infection episode.
In extreme cases, it leads to sepsis induced systemic inflammatory response syndrome, which can be fatal
and the stress it may place on gut integrity.""Nearly all of the participants in our study had blood markers identical to patients admitted to hospital with sepsis.
That's because the bacterial endotoxins that leach into the blood as a result of extreme exercise, triggers the body's immune cells into action."
"The 24-hour ultra-marathon study, published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine and the multi-stage ultra-marathon study, published in Exercise Immunology Reviews,
and heat stress s
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