methylation tagged posts

Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association in Berlin have revealed how cells accelerate changes to their identity, a process known as cell fate conversion.

The study, published today in the journal eLife, has implications for cancer research as the disease often arises from errors in cell fate decisions. The study could eventually lead to new methods of accelerating or manipulating the molecular mechanisms involved in the formation of cancer.

Central to the study is C/EBPα...

Cervical cancer Signs & Symptoms, Prevention & Rx

Johns Hopkins Medicine specialists report they have developed a urine test for the likely emergence of cervical cancer that is highly accurate compared to other tests based on genetic markers derived directly from cervical tissue. The new urine test, they say, is different because it analyzes not only multiple sources of human cellular DNA altered by precancerous changes, but also DNA from HPV that is sexually transmitted and causes virtually all cases of the disease.

In a proof-of-concept study the investigators say their genetic markers test showed a “sensitivity” or accuracy rate of 90...

The Virginia Tech researchers discovered that pre-diabetic people who were considered to be insulin resistant – also had altered mitochondrial DNA. Researchers made the connection by analyzing blood samples taken from 40 participants enrolled in the diaBEAT-it program, a long-term study run by multiple researchers in the Fralin Translational Obesity Research Center and funded by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Participants did not have diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but were pre-diabetic and showed signs of insulin resistance.

Blood samples revealed participants had lower amounts of mitochondrial DNA with a higher amount of methylation – a process that can change the expression of genes and mitochondrial copy numbers in ...