Category Health/Medical

A new compound has been shown to block a protein essential for the growth of many cancers. Australian researchers who collaborated with industry partner Servier included (L-R): Dr Gemma Kelly, Professor Andrew Roberts (both Walter and Eliza Hall Institute), Associate Professor Andrew Wei (The Alfred Hospital), Professor David Huang, Dr Jianan Gong, Associate Professor Guillaume Lessene (all Walter and Eliza Hall Institute), and Dr Donia Moujalled (The Alfred Hospital)

A new compound, discovered jointly by international pharmaceutical company Servier, France, and Vernalis (R&D),UK, has been shown by researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Servier to block a protein that is essential for the sustained growth of up to a quarter of all cancers...

This is an electron micrograph of C. jejuni in chicken gut. Credit: Griffith University

Pathogenicity and host-bacterial interactions of bacteria Campylobacter jejuni. A team at Griffith’s Institute for Glycomics identified a unique sensory structure that is able to bind host-specific sugar and is present on particularly virulent strains of Campylobacter jejuni. A direct-sensing galactose chemoreceptor recently evolved in invasive strains of Campylobacter jejuni. The team explain that the ability to cause disease depends on the ability of bacterial cells to move towards their target host cells. This movement is determined by specialised structures on the bacterial cells called sensory receptors that sense chemicals in their environment.

It is the first known finding of a bacterial sensor t...

Highlights • REDD1 deletion enhances glucose uptake and glycolysis in hypoxic TAMs via mTOR • Enhanced glycolysis in REDD1 KO TAMs leads to glucose competition (GC) with tECs • GC by REDD1 KO TAMs stabilizes tumor EC junctions and vessels preventing metastasis • mTOR activation is antitumoral in hypoxic TAMs but protumoral in cancer cells

A team has demonstrated that then metabolism of macrophages can be attuned to prevent the spread of cancer. The key is in making these macrophages more prone to ‘steal’ sugar from the cells forming the tumor’s blood vessels. As a result, these blood vessels will be structured more tightly, which can prevent cancer cells from spreading to other organs...

Retro-inverso peptide inhibitor nanoparticles as potent inhibitors of aggregation of the Alzheimer’s Aβ peptide

New Alzheimer’s Rx could be delivered as nasal spray. A novel treatment could block the development of Alzheimer’s disease using microscopic droplets of fat, nanoliposomes, coated in protein fragments to carry drugs into the brain. This treatment approach, which is used to target drugs to cancer cells, has been successfully applied to Alzheimer’s disease for the first time, restoring memory loss in mice. The method stops amyloid protein accumulating into plaques, even at low concentrations.

Mice that were genetically altered to develop Alzheimer’s disease were injected with the nanoliposomes for three weeks...