Detector of DNA damage: Structure of a repair factor revealed
There are various types of damage to DNA, and DNA strand breaks are one of them, involving a cut in one or both DNA strands. Double-strand breaks in cellular DNA are especially dangerous and can trigger tumorigenesis, the process involved in the production of a new tumor or tumors.
Researchers from The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) have now determined the structure of a protein involved in the repair and signaling of DNA double-strand breaks. The work throws new light on the origins of neurodegenerative diseases and certain tumor types.
Agents such as radiation or environmental toxins can cause double-stranded breaks in genomic DNA, which facilitate the development of tumors or the neurodegenerative disorders ataxia telangiectasia (AT) and AT-like disease (ATLD). Hence efficient repair mechanisms are essential for cell survival and function. The so-called MRN complex is an important component of one such system, and its structure has just been elucidated by a team led by Professor Karl-Peter Hopfner of LMU's Gene Center.
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Hair reveals long-term stress
When you are getting closer to an important deadline or an exam, your heart starts running faster and you might feel hot and even begin to sweat. It is all about an environmental condition, stimulus or threat, called 'stressor'. When the brain detects a stressor, a physiological response is initiated, including a stress reaction (like the fast heart beat), a period of recovery and long-term adaptive responses, such as the enforcement of memories of stressful experiences.
Any stress reaction involves two sets of hormones: catecholamines and glucocorticoids. Catecholamines, like adrenaline and...
Any stress reaction involves two sets of hormones: catecholamines and glucocorticoids. Catecholamines, like adrenaline and...
Cancer drug works by recruiting tumor 'killer' cells
New research from the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammatory Research in the UK explains why the cancer drug Rituximab is so effective at killing cancerous cells.
Rituximab is a drug widely used in treatments of diseases where an excess of B white blood cells is produced, such as in many blood cell cancers and in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Rituximab acts by triggering the destruction of B cells by forcing them to commit suicide, or by recruiting so-called natural killer white blood cells to destroy them. Despite the efficacy of this important drug, it is not...
Brain cells made from skin raise hopes for new neurodegenerative disease treatments
A research team led by Dr Paul Tesar at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, USA, has transformed skin cells into a type of brain cells that is destroyed in neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.
These cells - oligodendrocytes - produce a protective layer of fat called myelin around nerve cells, ensuring accurate transmission of brain impulses. Loss of myelin in neurodegenerative diseases can have a devastating impact. For example, in multiple sclerosis, poor coordination is an indication that brain signals fail to transmit properly...
A mathematical window into schizophrenia
The Oscar-winning movie "The Beautiful Mind" shows the mathematical prodigy John Nash having many imaginary conversations with people. It was not until he realised that the little girl with whom he had been talking with never grew up, even though years had passed since their first encounter, did he finally admit to be schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is a life long brain disorder where patients usually reside in a "non-existent" alternative reality, similarly to John Nash. According to reports from the World Health Organisation, seven in a thousand adults are afflicted by this disorder. Overall,...
Cardiovascular disease: Leading cause of death in Germany
Wiesbaden (dapd) - Cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in Germany. According to reports by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Thursday, 40.2 percent of all deaths last year were due to diseases of the cardiovascular system.
Of the approximately 342,000 deaths, 145,500 were men and 196,600 women. The statistics show that 92 percent of them were at least 65 years old at the time of death, meaning that cardiovascular diseases often lead to death, especially in older people.
The second most common cause of death was reported to be cancer with 221,500 people...
Of the approximately 342,000 deaths, 145,500 were men and 196,600 women. The statistics show that 92 percent of them were at least 65 years old at the time of death, meaning that cardiovascular diseases often lead to death, especially in older people.
The second most common cause of death was reported to be cancer with 221,500 people...
Lung-on-a-chip: a human disease model that could revolutionize drug discovery
Scientists used a microchip that recreates a breathing lung to study pulmonary edema and test a new drug against this life-threatening disease, raising hopes that this organ-on-chip technology could speed up drug development and replace animal testing.
The lung-on-a-chip was first developed by Donald Ingber's team at the Harvard University Wyss Institute two years ago using technology from the computer microchip industry. The microdevice mimics the tiny air sacs in the lungs where gases from the air we breathe are exchanged with the blood.
About the size of a memory stick, the plastic microchip...
The lung-on-a-chip was first developed by Donald Ingber's team at the Harvard University Wyss Institute two years ago using technology from the computer microchip industry. The microdevice mimics the tiny air sacs in the lungs where gases from the air we breathe are exchanged with the blood.
About the size of a memory stick, the plastic microchip...
Does air pollution increase heart attacks and strokes?
The longer you live in a polluted city, the more quickly you develop risk factors for heart attack and stroke, researchers found. We have known that air pollution can be fatal since some 12,000 people died during the smog that choked London in 1952. Today, air pollution is suspected of killing 1.3 million people a year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated. Previously, researchers assumed that air pollution primarily caused lung disease and cancer, but in the past decade they began to realize that its larger impact is increased heart attack and strokes.
The evidence linking...
The evidence linking...
How breast cancer spreads into the brain
Cancer cells can escape from tumors, sneak through the bloodstream, and seed new tumors, or metastases, in distant organs. In a recent study of breast cancer, researchers captured the rogue individuals among these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that metastasized to the brain - a deadly kind of metastasis. They hope to use these cells to understand the fundamentals of brain metastasis, and eventually to detect the early stages of metastasis and prevent it.
Almost all cancer deaths are caused not by the patient's primary tumor but by metastasis, and a sizable portion of breast cancers...
Almost all cancer deaths are caused not by the patient's primary tumor but by metastasis, and a sizable portion of breast cancers...
Kidneys grown in the lab work in animals
Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US have grown rat kidneys in the laboratory that produced urine when transplanted into living animals. This is an important step towards the production of customised organs for transplantation into people with kidney failure, which could replace donor organ transplants.
Patients with kidney failure can be treated with dialysis, but can only be cured with a kidney transplant. About 8,000 people are waiting for a donor kidney in Germany, but only 3,000 kidney transplants take place each year. Patients may wait up to seven years for a...
Symptoms of diabetes
If you are constantly hungry, experience increased thirst and urination and have blurred vision, this may not be a very good sign as you may be suffering from type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that usually develops over a short period of time, meaning that the body's own immune system destroys its insulin-producing cells. The cells in the pancreas produce too little insulin or no insulin at all. A person who has type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day.
Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body cannot properly convert food into energy. There are three main...
Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body cannot properly convert food into energy. There are three main...
Antibiotics during pregnancy may lead to asthma in children
(Reuters) - According to a Danish study, children whose mothers took antibiotics while they were pregnant are slightly more likely than other children to develop asthma. There is however, no proof that antibiotics cause the higher asthma risk.
The results support a current theory that the body's own "friendly" bacteria have a role in whether a child develops asthma or not. Antibiotics tend to disrupt beneficial bacteria.
According to Hans Bisgaard, one of the study's authors and a professor at the University of Copenhagen, it is speculated that mothers' use of antibiotics changes the balance...
The results support a current theory that the body's own "friendly" bacteria have a role in whether a child develops asthma or not. Antibiotics tend to disrupt beneficial bacteria.
According to Hans Bisgaard, one of the study's authors and a professor at the University of Copenhagen, it is speculated that mothers' use of antibiotics changes the balance...
Antibiotic resistance and health
The spread of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic microbes poses a growing threat to health. A new study shows how one resistance factor evicts an antibiotic from its binding site. The findings could open a route to better anti-bacterial drugs.
Many bacterial infections can be cured by treatment with antibiotics, but overuse and inappropriate dosage have led to the rapid emergence of resistances, rendering several of our most valuable anti-bacterial agents ineffective. Antibiotics with novel modes of action are therefore urgently needed, and, to develop new drugs, one needs to understand...
Many bacterial infections can be cured by treatment with antibiotics, but overuse and inappropriate dosage have led to the rapid emergence of resistances, rendering several of our most valuable anti-bacterial agents ineffective. Antibiotics with novel modes of action are therefore urgently needed, and, to develop new drugs, one needs to understand...
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