news archive August 2006

• Cardioprotective Action Of Statins
  A novel beneficial action of statins is reported in a study.
  
• Glia Contribute To Neurodegeneration
  Glia contribute to neurodegeneration in the progressive disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) because a mutation they express interferes with the transport of a neurotransmitter.
  
• Fatherhood Changes Brain Anatomy
  Marmoset fathers show changes in brain structure and hormone receptors in a region called the prefrontal cortex when compared with non-fathers.
  
• Fighting Lyme Disease
  A specific type of immune cell can attack the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
  
• Genetic Susceptibility To Age-Related Macular Degeneration
  The genetic factors influencing susceptibility to a degenerative eye disorder are explored.
  
• Patient-Specific Cancer Treatment
  Scientists have discovered a way to cause some cancerous cells to self-destruct.
  
• New Compounds Give Voice To Silenced Neural DNA
  A potential therapy for Friedreich's ataxia, a neurodegenerative disease that is caused by gene activation, is described.
  
• Understanding Leukaemia
  Important insights into the process underlying two kinds of leukaemias associated with the CALM-AF10 translocation are reported.
  
• Cystic Fibrosis: Explaining Persistent Lung Infections
  Scientists show that CFTR - cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator, the protein that malfunctions in cystic fibrosis - can control the acidity of digestive compartments in the cell, causing a defect in their ability to kill bacteria.
  
• How The Brain Sorts The World
  One way of assigning meaning and behavioural relevance to sensory stimuli is to categorize them.
  
• A Role For Synaptic Inhibition In Sight Loss
  Report helps to explain how briefly depriving the brain of visual stimulation has profound effects on its ability to process visual information.
  
• How Learning Can Be Rewarding
  Neuroscientists have found that raising the brain's levels of dopamine can enhance our ability to learn by trial and error.
  
• Sour Taste Receptor Found
  Researchers have identified a protein that detects sour taste on the tongue and may help to warn mammals of acidic, spoiled and unripe food.
  
• New Technique For Generating Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
  By plucking single cells from human embryos, scientists have been able to generate new lines of cultured human embryonic stem (ES) cells.
  
• Tired T Cells Get A Boost To Fight HIV
  Blocking a protein called PD-1 (programmed death 1) might provide a way to boost the function of T cells crippled by HIV.
  
• Avian Flu's Achilles' Heel
  The molecular structure of a key avian influenza protein reveals a quirk that could be used to design more potent drugs against pandemic flu.
  
• Gene That Might Have Driven The Evolution Of Human Brain Revealed
  Scientists have found that the genetic region called the neocortex contains a gene, called HAR1F, which is expressed during brain growth before birth.
  
• Rett Syndrome: New Clinical And Molecular Insights
  Scientists provide a framework for clinical and molecular approaches to the diagnosis of this severe neurodevelopmental disorder.
  
• Focus on RNAi
  Selection of Recently Published Reviews Perspectives and Highlights on RNAi is available free till October 2006.
  
• ADAM33 Haplotypes Are Associated With Asthma In A Large Australian Population
  A likely role for the ADAM33 gene in the asthma phenotype.
  
• Rapid Genotyping Of Common Deficient Thiopurine S-Methyltransferase Alleles Using The DNA-Microchip Technique
  A new molecular approach developed to detect point mutations in the thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) gene that cause the loss of TPMT activity.
  
• Pigmentary Diversity: Identifying The Genes Causing Human Diversity
  Commentary on scientific research beginning to reveal how evolution has shaped the diversity of the human race.
  

• NIH Researchers Complete Unprecedented Genetic Study That May Help Identify People Most at Risk for Alcoholism
  Scan of human genome may provide important new tools for prevention and treatment
  
• Autism Affects Functioning of Entire Brain
  New evidence challenges previous view that autism affects only brain areas involved with social interactions, communication behaviors, and reasoning abilities.
  

• Prediction of Metastasizing Liver Cancer
  A unique immune response signature of the liver microenvironment helps to predict the potential for liver tumor metastasis.
  

• The worlds biggest genetic experiment
  Approval for a project to collect DNA samples from half a million Britons was given today, marking the start of the worlds largest genetic disease search.
  

• Clues to cardiomyopathy's origins revealed in mice
  A genetic discovery sheds new light on the cause of cardiomyopathy and sudden death in young adults, which originates in the previously overlooked right ventricle of the heart
  

• Hunt For DNA Amplified In Cancers Uncovers Important Target Gene
  Gene amplification links growth controlling pathway from Drosophila to human cancers
  
• Scientists Reverse Evolution
  Half-Billion-Year-Old Gene is Reconstructed from Two Descendants
  
• Linkage Analysis Identifies a Novel Locus for Restless Legs Syndrome on Chromosome 2q in a South Tyrolean Population Isolate
  Research report of a genome-wide linkage scan of patients with Restless Legs Syndrome assessed in a population isolate of South Tyrol (Italy).
  
• Peters Plus Syndrome Is Caused by Mutations in B3GALTL, a Putative Glycosyltransferase
  Research show that Peters Plus is a monogenic, primarily single-mutation syndrome.
  
• Navajo Neurohepatopathy Is Caused by a Mutation in the MPV17 Gene
  Infantile, childhood, and classic forms of NNH have been described.
  
• New Autosomal Recessive Form of Stickler Syndrome Is Caused by a Mutation in the COL9A1 Gene
  Scientists describe a family of Moroccan origin that consists of four children with Stickler syndrome, six unaffected children, and two unaffected parents who are distant relatives (fifth degree).
  
• Mouse Study Finds That Mutant Enzyme Is Able To Help Protect DNA From Damage
  Research has shown that when DNA damage occurs, a key enzyme -- called ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein, or ATM -- becomes activated.
  
• Researchers Discover A Unique Pattern Of Gene Activity That Can Predict Liver Cancer Spread
  Researchers have found that a unique pattern of activity for genes in cells located in the tissue surrounding a liver tumor can accurately predict whether the cancer will spread to other parts of the liver or to other parts of the body.
  
• Tumors Use 'Hijacking' Trick To Evade Attack By Immune Cells
  Researchers have identified a potential mechanism by which tumors in mice escape attack from antitumor immune cells.
  
• New Findings Offer More Complete View Of Breast Cancer Gene Mutations In U.S. Population
  A large study funded by the National Institutes of Health today provided the clearest picture yet of the prevalence in the U.S. population of mutations in two genes associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
  
• A Potential New Target For Antidepressants
  A potassium channel called TREK1 may represent a new target for antidepressant drugs.
  
• High-Resolution Fluorescence Imaging
  Two developments, expanding the potential applications of high-resolution fluorescence imaging, are published.
  
• Antiviral Protein Linked To Healthier Lungs
  Failure to produce enough of an antiviral protein called interferon-lambda may be linked to increased susceptibility to infection with rhinovirus - a common trigger for asthma exacerbations.
  
• Blocking Autoimmune Brain Inflammation
  A key factor that controls the development of brain inflammation is reported in two studies.
  
• Feeding immunity
  A link between zinc and a critical aspect of normal immune cell function is identified.
  
• Fighting Flies
  The first comprehensive molecular analysis of aggressive behavior in any laboratory species is reported in a study.
  
• One Recurrent Cause Of Mental Retardation Found
  Three papers describe a recurrent cause of mental retardation, which results from the deletion of a large segment of DNA from chromosome 17.
  
• How Neurons Sprout Like Trees
  Study reveals how some neurons establish and maintain a precise tree-like pattern of dendrites, the slim projections that carry electrical signals to and from neighbouring cells.
  
• Protein Folding Lost In Translation
  Scientists describe a new mechanism that could underlie certain neurodegenerative diseases.
  
• Survival Of The Well-Connected
  The survival of newly formed brain cells in the adult mouse depends on the input activity they receive.
  

• Arthritis Drug Helps Debilitating Inflammatory Disease
  A drug called anakinra brings marked improvement for neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease.
  
• Imaging Study May Help Point Toward More Effective Smoking Cessation Treatments
  PET and MRI Scans show how even small amounts of nicotine can be addictive.
  
• Online Interventions as Medically Viable Options for Treatment
  A study has found that an Internet-based intervention program may prevent some high risk, college-age women from developing an eating disorder.
  
• Experimental Medication Kicks Depression in Hours Instead of Weeks
  Intravenous ketamine has the ability to relieve depression in as little as two hours.
  
• Are Air Freshners Hurting our Lungs?
  Chemical compound found in many air fresheners, toilet bowl cleaners, mothballs and other deodorizing products, may be harmful to the lungs.
  

• Promising Therapy For ALS Delivers Antisense Drug Directly To Nervous System
  Delivering agents across the blood-brain barrier likely to be effective treatment for other neurodegenerative diseases
  
• Cheap fast way to crack genome code
  US and Australian scientists have pioneered a new hybrid method for genomic sequencing that is faster and cheaper than state of the art technologies.
  
• Neutralizing HIV
  Study reveals the interaction between a human antibody and a protein found on the surface of the HIV-1 virus.
  
• Gleevec May Cause Heart Problems
  Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), a drug used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), can kill heart cells.
  
• Inhibiting Inflammation In Multiple Sclerosis
  T cells, a type of immune cell, can impede the development and progression of multiple sclerosis in mice.
  
• Mouse Model Suggests Treatment Strategy For Muscular Dystrophy
  Study reports a reversible mouse model of myotonic dystrophy, the most common form of muscular dystrophy in adults.
  
• Receptors In The Mouse Nose May Be Pheromone Detectors
  Biologists have discovered a second set of olfactory receptors in the mouse nose, including ones that may detect pheromones and might therefore aid in the mating game.
  
• Choosing Face
  Study clarifies the role of particular neurons in a region of monkeys' brains known to be important for object recognition.
  
• Active Sites Of A Hepatitis C Virus Enzyme Revealed
  The crystal structure of one of the hepatitis C viral proteins could offer new opportunities for antiviral drug design.
  
• Unexpected Inheritance
  Research supports the idea that RNA partly determines the inherited characteristics of plants and animals.
  
• Melanoma Risk Linked to the Gene for the Melanocortin-1 Receptor and Sun Exposure
  MC1R gene variants are correlated with BRAF mutations and the risk of melanoma with intermittent exposure to sunlight.
  

• A Full Pipeline of Follow-on TNF-Antagonists
  The US$ 7.6 bln market of TNF-antagonists attracts numerous follow-on compounds including improved TNF-antagonists and molecules originating from new technologies
  

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