An important cancer-related gene may play a critical role in the development of the placenta, the organ that controls nutrient and oxygen exchange between a mother and her fetus during pregnancy, and perhaps in miscarriages. Those conclusions come from a new study of the retinoblastoma (Rb) gene in mice. In humans, this gene, when mutated, raises the risk of a rare cancer of the eye called retinoblastoma.
Chemists at Ohio State University have probed an unusual high-energy state produced in single nucleotides — the building blocks of DNA and RNA — when they absorb ultraviolet (UV) light. This is the first time scientists have been able to probe the “dark” energy state — so called because it cannot be detected by fluorescence techniques used to study other high-energy states created in DNA by UV light.
A research team at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the University of Heidelberg has proven that a gene protects some people with diabetes from developing severe kidney failure or “end-stage renal disease.”
Tests on volunteers showed that black tea significantly improves the ability of the arteries to relax and expand, but adding milk completely blunts the effect. Supporting tests on rat aortas (aortic rings) and endothelial (lining) cells showed that tea relaxed the aortic rings by producing nitric oxide, which promotes dilation of blood vessels. But, again, adding milk blocked the effect.
A simple blood test for the protein NT-proBNP accurately predicts the risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke and death in patients with known cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) recently made significant strides toward settling a decades-old debate centering on the role played by stem cells in cancer development. According to the study’s findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of Nature Genetics and now available online, genes that are reversibly repressed in embryonic stem cells are over-represented among genes that are permanently silenced in cancers; this link lends support to the increasingly discussed theory that cancer is rooted in small populations of stem cells.
The longer Black Caribbean immigrants stay in the U.S., the poorer their mental health becomes. That?s one finding from a new study that examined the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among Black individuals in the U.S. The study appears in the January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Combining synthetic chemistry techniques with a knowledge of the properties and actions of enzymes, scientists have been able to produce an exciting class of anti-cancer drugs originally isolated from blue-green algae.
A preliminary study suggests there may be hope in the offing for some sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome with a new therapy being tested by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Unexplained chest pain after a heart attack might be more dangerous than many physicians originally think. In a case study to be published in the January issue of the international journal Clinical Cardiology, physicians at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia report on a seemingly healthy 55-year-old man who had a silent heart attack and subsequent unexplained chest pain.