Molecular switch tagged posts

Scientists from the Antibody and Vaccine group at the University of Southampton have discovered a way to transform antibody drugs previously developed to treat autoimmunity into antibodies with powerful anti-cancer activity through a simple molecular “switch.”

This work, published in the journal Cancer Cell, focuses on a molecule called CD40 which is present on the surface of immune cells and controls both autoimmunity and cancer. In autoimmunity, CD40 is thought to be over-stimulated, increasing the chance of the immune system attacking healthy tissues; whereas in cancer, CD40 is believed to be under-stimulated, enabling tumour cells to evade the immune system. Targeting of CD40 with antibody drugs is ongoing in therapeutic interventions for both diseases.

Accordingly, antibody...

Chronic inflammation, which results when old age, stress or environmental toxins keep the body’s immune system in overdrive, can contribute to a variety of devastating diseases, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to diabetes and cancer.

Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a molecular “switch” that controls the immune machinery responsible for chronic inflammation in the body. The finding, which appears online Feb. 6 in the journal Cell Metabolism, could lead to new ways to halt or even reverse many of these age-related conditions.

“My lab is very interested in unde...

A molecular switch has the ability to turn on a substance in animals that repairs neurological damage in disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Mayo Clinic researchers discovered. The early research in animal models could advance an already approved Food and Drug Administration therapy and also could lead to new strategies for treating diseases of the central nervous system.

Research by Isobel Scarisbr...

Highlights •CK2 is preferentially activated in white fat by norepinephrine and under obesity •CK2 inhibition in white fat activates thermogenesis in response to cAMP stimuli •CK2 inhibition increases UCP1-dependent energy expenditure in vivo •CK2 inhibition ameliorates diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance

Drugs that flip this switch rapidly reduced obesity and diabetes risk factors in mice fed a high fat diet. The results suggest that drugs capable of targeting similar molecular pathways in human fat cells could one day become major tools for fighting the growing worldwide epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

All mammals, including humans, have two types of fat with completely opposite functions: white, which stores energy and is linked with diabetes and obesity; and br...