Category Health/Medical

Each ribboning strand of DNA in our bodies is built from stacks of four molecular bases, shown here as blocks of yellow, green, blue and orange, whose sequence encodes detailed operating instructions for the cell. New research shows that tinkering with the order of these bases can also be used to tune the electrical conductivity of nanowires made from DNA. Credit: Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI

DNA nanowire improved by altering sequences. DNA molecules don’t just code our genetic instructions. They can also conduct electricity and self-assemble into well-defined shapes, making them potential candidates for building low-cost nanoelectronic devices...

A transmission electron micrograph image of the Zika virus. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Scientists potentially have found a way to disrupt Zika and similar viruses from spreading in the body. A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a single gene pathway that is vital for Zika and other flaviviruses to spread infection between cells. Further, they showed that shutting down a single gene in this pathway – in both human and insect cells – does not negatively affect the cells themselves and renders flaviviruses unable to leave the infected cell, curbing the spread of infection.

Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S...

Live cell imaging shows fluorescently labeled targeted ZnO nanoparticles (green) dissolving to release zinc ions (blue) within the intracellular environment of triple-negative breast cancer cells, activating cell death pathways (red). © 2016 KAUST

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles may help destroy difficult-to-treat triple-negative breast cancer tumors. Breast tumors that are so-called triple-negative are largely resistant to existing cancer drugs, giving patients an especially poor prognosis. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, and collaborators are now exploring a potential therapeutic option for such tumors that is based on the tumor-specific effects of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles.

Previous studies have shown ZnO treatment can kill c...

The livers of a normal mouse (left) and a mouse whose liver cells lack Cpt2 (right) after eating a high fat diet. Courtesy of Cell Press

Study in mice shows important role of liver in balancing fats and sugars. Sugar in the form of blood glucose provides essential energy for cells. When its usual dietary source – carbohydrates – is scarce, the liver can produce it with the aid of fat. But new research from Johns Hopkins now adds to evidence that other tissues can step in to make glucose when the liver’s ability is impaired, and that the breakdown of fats in the liver is essential to protect it from a lethal onslaught of fat...