Category Health/Medical

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...

Romosozumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds and inhibits sclerostin. This increases bone formation and decreases bone resorption

Romosozumab associated with rapid and large reductions in risk of vertebral fracture compared to placebo. The results of a study presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 press conference showed that, in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, 12 months treatment with romosozumab was associated with rapid and large reductions in their risk of a vertebral fracture compared to placebo.

In those women receiving romosozumab, all clinical vertebral fractures occurred in the first 2 months of treatment; overall, the risk of a vertebral fracture was more than 5 times greater in the group of women given placebo...

Anti-diabetic action of all-trans retinoic acid and the orphan G protein coupled receptor GPRC5C in pancreatic β-cells

A new study suggests that vitamin A improves the insulin producing β-cell´s function. The researchers initially discovered that insulin-producing beta-cells contain a large quantity of a cell surface receptor for vitamin A. “There are no unnecessary surface receptors in human cells. They all serve a purpose but which, in many cases, is still unknown and because of that they are called “orphan” receptors...