Category Health/Medical

Highlights •In vivo tracing of parent-specific DNA methylation dynamics at single-cell resolution •Cell-type-specific methylation signatures at the Dlk-Dio3 IG-DMR during development •Dynamic parent- and cell-type-specific DNA methylation changes in the adult brain

Parental imprinting – a form of gene control passed down from parents to offspring – is far more dynamic than previously thought and may contribute to changes in the brain and other tissues over time. This finding by Whitehead Institute scientists challenges current understandings of gene regulation via DNA methylation, from development through adulthood. Methylation – attachment of methyl groups to DNA – is an epigenetic phenomenon that affects gene expression...

Neuroglobin expression in the human brain, from the Allen Human Brain Atlas. Credit: brain-map.org

A team at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre (CSC), Imperial College London, has found an important part of the machinery that switches on a gene known to protect against Alzheimer’s Disease. Working in collaboration with scientists at the Hong Kong University (HKU) and the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, CSC associate professor Richard Festenstein explored the steps by which this Neuroglobin gene is gradually switched on, or up-regulated. Neuroglobin has previously been shown to protect against Alzheimer’s disease in mice in which it makes the protective Neuroglobin...

Salk Institute researchers and collaborators develop novel cancer treatment that halts fat synthesis in cells. Placebo-treated cells (left) have far more lipid (red) production compared to ND-646 treated cells (right). Credit: Image courtesy of Salk Institute

Cells create their own fat molecules to build their plasma membranes and other critical structures. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute, along with academic and industry collaborators, have found a way to obstruct this instrumental process to stifle cancer’s growth. The approach stalls the molecular building blocks cancer needs to grow. “Cancer cells rewire their metabolism to support their rapid division,” says Salk Professor Reuben Shaw...

Left, the P domain on human norovirus attaches to human cells via binding to HBGA. Human IgA antibody 5I2 interferes with this attachment by physically blocking the HBGA recognition site on the P domain. Courtesy of S. Shanker, B.V.V. Prasad and M. Estes

A mechanism by which human antibodies target and block noroviruses has been found. It opens the possibility of developing therapeutic agents against this virus that causes the death of about 200,000 children every year. “Some people infected with norovirus do not get sick,” said Dr. B V Venkataram Prasad, professor of virology and the Alvin Romansky Chair in biochemistry at Baylor. “We wanted to understand how
these protective human antibodies work.”

The researchers screened and isolated protective antibodies from human blood and discovere...