Category Health/Medical

Aerobic exercise training rescues cardiac protein quality control and blunts endoplasmic reticulum stress in heart failure rats. ie AET blunted MI-induced ER stress by reducing protein levels of UPR markers, and accumulation of both misfolded and polyubiquinated proteins, which was associated with restored proteasome activity

Heart failure is a common endpoint for many cardiovascular diseases and is characterized by having reduced cardiac output that leads to dyspnea, exercise intolerance and later death. >20 million people worldwide have heart failure and this will get worse since the prevalence of heart failure will rise as the mean age of the population increases.

Despite heart failure seems to be a multifactorial syndrome, a common point observed by several studies was the accumulation...

Rendering of bacteria and viruses. The chaotic swarming effect of dense active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source, according to new research. Credit: © Jezper / Fotolia

A team of scientists from Oxford University has shown how the natural movement of bacteria could be harnessed to assemble and power microscopic ‘windfarms’ – or other human-made micromachines such as smartphone components. The study uses computer simulations to demonstrate that the chaotic swarming effect of dense active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source.

Researchers say these biologically driven power plants could someday be the microscopic engines for tiny, human-made devices that are sel...

The structure of rapamycin. (Fvasconcellos/Wikimedia Commons)

New research in mice indicates that a drug commonly used to suppress the immune system in recipients of organ transplants may also reduce tissue damage and neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury. Rapamycin, which is an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, has a variety of cellular functions and is known to possess both immunosuppressant and anti-tumor properties. In their previous work, investigators at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan found that rapamycin treatment can reduce nerve damage and locomotor impairment after spinal cord injury...

The green-labelled cells show a basal cell carcinoma in mouse tail epidermis derived from a single mutant stem cell and expanding out of the normal epidermis stained in red. Credit: Adriana Sánchez-Danés

Scientists have identified for the first time the ‘cell of origin’ – in ie the first cell from which the cancer grows – in basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer, and followed the chain of events that lead to the growth of these invasive tumours. Our skin is kept healthy by a constant turnover. The process is maintained by ‘progenitor’ cells – the progeny of stem cells – that divide and ‘differentiate’ into fully-functional skin cells to replenish dying skin...