science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τετάρτη 16 Απριλίου 2014

Science News SciGuru.com

New cMethDNA blood test accurately predicts breast cancer recurrence and treatment responsiveness
Floating nuclear plants could ride out tsunamis
Increased Islet Amyloid Polypeptide Level in the Blood of Type 1 Diabetes Patients
Humanized liver mouse model would have predicted fatal fialuridine toxicity in 1993 trial
Breaking Bad Mitochondria: Explains Persistence of Hepatitis C Virus
Research uncovers DNA looping damage tied to HPV cancer
Nanosensors to Visualize Movements and Distribution of Plant Stress Hormone

New cMethDNA blood test accurately predicts breast cancer recurrence and treatment responsiveness

Posted: 16 Apr 2014 06:43 AM PDT

A new blood test designed to detect hypermethylation of ten key breast cancer genes accurately detects advanced breast cancer. It has great potential as a method to detect recurrence in asymptomatic patients and monitor treatment response. These are the findings of a study led by researchers in Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center published on 15th April in the journal Cancer Research.

Floating nuclear plants could ride out tsunamis

Posted: 16 Apr 2014 06:35 AM PDT

When an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex in 2011, neither the quake nor the inundation caused the ensuing contamination. Rather, it was the aftereffects — specifically, the lack of cooling for the reactor cores, due to a shutdown of all power at the station — that caused most of the harm.

Increased Islet Amyloid Polypeptide Level in the Blood of Type 1 Diabetes Patients

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 07:25 PM PDT

A new study demonstrates very high plasma levels of a protein called islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) in type 1 diabetes patients of recent onset. The study was conducted on serum or plasma samples obtained from a nationwide Swedish prospective cohort study that recruits new-onset Type 1 diabetes children.

IAPP is a secretory product of beta-cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and has been shown to have physiological role in the control of insulin and glucagon secretion. The hormone insulin is also produced in the beta cells of the islets.

Humanized liver mouse model would have predicted fatal fialuridine toxicity in 1993 trial

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 02:00 PM PDT

A chimeric mouse model called TK-NOG which has a humanized liver would have predicted liver toxicity that developed in humans during the 1993 clinical trial of fialuridine. That is the major finding of a new study from researchers in Stanford University, the Center for the Advancement of Health and Biosciences and the Ely Lilly Department of Drug Disposition, all in California. The study is published on 15th April 2014 in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Breaking Bad Mitochondria: Explains Persistence of Hepatitis C Virus

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 12:52 PM PDT

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a mechanism that explains why people with the hepatitis C virus get liver disease and why the virus is able to persist in the body for so long.

The hard-to-kill pathogen, which infects an estimated 200 million people worldwide, attacks the liver cells’ energy centers – the mitochondria – dismantling the cell’s innate ability to fight infection. It does this by altering cells mitochondrial dynamics.

Research uncovers DNA looping damage tied to HPV cancer

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 12:43 PM PDT

It’s long been known that certain strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) cause cancer. Now, researchers at The Ohio State University have determined a new way that HPV might spark cancer development – by disrupting the human DNA sequence with repeating loops when the virus is inserted into host-cell DNA as it replicates.
illustration of cancer-causing genes being amplified.

Nanosensors to Visualize Movements and Distribution of Plant Stress Hormone

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 10:34 AM PDT

Biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in visualizing the movement within plants of a key hormone responsible for growth and resistance to drought. The achievement will allow researchers to conduct further studies to determine how the hormone helps plants respond to drought and other environmental stresses driven by the continuing increase in the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide, or CO2, concentration.

A paper describing their achievement appears in the April 15 issue of the scientific journal eLife and is accessible here.