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    Category Biology/Biotechnology

    Mutation-free lines of Stem cells from Mitochondrial diseases created

    July 17, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Salk researchers have generated disease-free stem cells from patients with mitochondrial disease that can be converted into any cell type including neuronal progenitors (left) or heart cells (right). These could potentially be used for future transplantation into patients. Credit: Salk Institute

    Salk researchers have generated disease-free stem cells from patients with mitochondrial disease that can be converted into any cell type including neuronal progenitors (left) or heart cells (right). These could potentially be used for future transplantation into patients.
    Credit: Salk Institute

    Healthy stem cells differentiate into any cell type for potential cures including brain, muscle, eye and heart cells which would improve the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world with debilitating mitochondrial diseases. “Right now, there are no cures for mitochondrial diseases,” says Prof Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from Salk’s Gene Expression Lab. “Very recently, we’ve developed ways to prevent these diseases, so it was natural to next ask how we could treat them.”

    Mitochondria...

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    Existing Anti-Malaria Drugs could be a Potential Rx for Parkinson’s disease

    July 17, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Scientists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States have found that existing anti-malaria drugs could be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

    Scientists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States have found that existing anti-malaria drugs could be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

    Currently, there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, which affects 10 million people worldwide. Prof Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School and A/Prof Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences, showed that by activating Nurr1, a class of proteins found in the brain, it protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine neurons, for dopamine products for motor control and movement of muscles in the body.

    In lab tests, the scientists found that by activating Nurr1, the rats which had Parkinson’s disease appeared to...

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    Defective Telomeres are now being linked to Dozens of Diseases, including many types of Cancer

    July 16, 2015, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    Shelterin recruits accessory proteins to the telomeres that facilitate the complex process of telomere copying and maintenance associated with cell multiplication.

    Shelterin recruits accessory proteins to the telomeres that facilitate the complex process of telomere copying and maintenance associated with cell multiplication.

    Telomere length related to ageing and cancer, has led to the intense study of telomere-based strategies to combat cancer and diseases associated with ageing. Blasco’s group has recently shown that it is possible to make cancer cells mortal by acting on the telomeres.

    We now know that there is a protective structure enveloping telomeric DNA consisting of 6 proteins known as shelterins, which are crucial. Another more recent discovery is there are proteins that, although not in telomeres themselves, interact with them at specific times to enable them to perform their functions...

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    How Loss of Bacterial Symbionts Promotes Development of Allergies & acts on Immune System Balance

    July 13, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology


      
    The presence of microbes specifically blocks the immune cells responsible for triggering allergies. It is well known the microbiota is involved in many mechanisms, including digestion, vitamin synthesis and host defense.The hygiene hypothesis suggests a link between a decline in infectious diseases and increase in allergic diseases in industrialized countries. Improvements in hygiene levels lead to reduced contact with microbes that is paralleled by an increased incidence in allergic and autoimmune diseases, eg type 1 diabetes.

    Epidemiological studies have substantiated this hypothesis, by showing children living with farm animals – and thus with more microbial agents – develop fewer allergies during their lifetime...

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