Category Health/Medical

SAF-A Regulates Interphase Chromosome Structure through Oligomerization with Chromatin-Associated RNAs

Researchers have identified properties in DNA’s protective structure that could transform the way scientists think about the human genome. Molecules involved in DNA’s supportive scaffolding – once thought to be fixed – go through dynamic and responsive changes to shield against mutations, the research shows. Experts say this finding is crucial to understanding DNA damage and genome organisation and could impact current thinking on DNA-linked diseases, including cancers.
In human cells, DNA is wrapped around proteins to form chromatin. Chromatin shields DNA from damage and regulates what genetic information can be read, ie transcription.

Researchers—led by the University of Edinburgh—showe...

Broccoli sprouts. Credit: © dariaren / Fotolia

Concentrated broccoli sprout extract may help type 2 diabetes patients manage their blood sugar, according to a new study. The findings could offer a much needed alternative to address the condition, which has become a worldwide epidemic. Type 2 diabetes afflicts more than 300 million people globally, and as many as 15% of those patients cannot take the first-line therapy metformin because of kidney damage risks. Seeking a more viable path forward, Annika Axelsson and colleagues used a computational approach to identify compounds that might counter the disease-associated gene expression changes associated with type 2 diabetes.

The researchers constructed a signature for type 2 diabetes based on 50 genes, then used publicly available expressio...

An image of tissue from a human colon uses fluorescent staining to show the presence of the protein alpha-synuclein (red) inside gut endocrine cells (green).
Credit: 2017, JCI Insight

Protein linked to Parkinson’s could spread from gut to nervous system. Recent research on Parkinson’s disease has focused on the gut-brain connection, examining patients’ gut bacteria, and even how severing the vagus nerve connecting the stomach and brain might protect some people from the debilitating disease. Duke University researchers have identified a potential new mechanism in both mice and human endocrine cells that populate the small intestines...

ZBTB48 binds through the last of its 11 zinc fingers directly to telomeric DNA (TTAGGG, in red) as well as subtelomeric variant repeats (TTGGG/TCAGGG, grey), which represent the protective caps at the end of chromosomes. In addition, it binds to the promoter sequences (dark blue) of specific target genes including mitochondrial fission process 1, MTFP1. In the absence of ZBTB48 (right panel) telomeres become longer whereas the expression of ZBTB48 target genes is strongly reduced. For instance, ZBTB48 KO (knock-out) cells loose the expression of MTFP1 leading to defects in the mitochondrial network with mitochondria clustering around the nucleus instead of being widely spread throughout the cell. Credit: National University of Singapore

Medical researchers have discovered the role of the p...