Antagonizing Atherosclerosis

Antagonizing Atherosclerosis

France - Atherosclerosis or fatty plaque build up on the arterial wall is the source of mostcardiovascular diseases. While Bcells of the immune system were previously considered as elements of protection against the formation of these plaques, researchers from Inserm now refute this hypothesis. These findings were published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. 

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the arteries triggered by several factors, including increased cholesterol andcharacterized by an accumulation of lipids (fats) in the arterial wall in the form of plaques. The rupture of these plaques is responsible for the majority of cardiovascular diseases, like myocardial infarction or stroke. These diseases are the leading cause of death in industrialized countries. It is therefore essential to identify patients at risk and to understand the progression of the disease, to prevent and treat it. 

The immune response (macrophages, B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes) which varies among

individuals plays an important role in the progression of these plaques and thus in the development of complications of cardiovascular disease. To date, the role assigned to all B cells seemed protective of atherosclerosis. 

A New Technique Of Magnetic Detoxification Of Blood

A New Technique Of Magnetic Detoxification Of Blood

South Korea - Researchers at the Jinju have discovered a new way  the blood of some metal.

A team of researchers has identified a receiver that attaches securely and only lead in the body. She has designed a magnetic nanoparticlecontaining a nickel alloy, equipped with this receiver. By injecting these particles into the bloodstream and then performingto remove particulate matter and lead with a magnet, the blood is thoroughly cleaned.

Lead poisoning, lead infection, can cause memory loss, anemia, and even paralysis. Detoxification magnetic early and safe, because hemoglobin is not affected by magnetic fields. Tests on human blood are very satisfactory.

The magnetic approach could now look to other types of particles in the blood. The radioactive toxins, cholesterol, alcohol and even drugs could thus be eliminated from the blood, they are associated with good nanoparticle.

A clinical trial of a vaccine to combat high blood pressure yielding promising results.

vaccines against infectious diseases has become the rage. These include highblood pressure. The first human clinical trial of a vaccine directed against one of the proteins responsible for this physiological disorder, angiotensin II, has just been published in The Lancetby the team of Martin Bachmann (Cytos Biotechnlogy, Switzerland).

In fact, if there are new generation drugs very effective against the enzyme for

 the conversion of an-giotensine or capable of blocking this receptor molecule vital in controlling blood pressure, everything is not so simple in the real world. As against this silent killer, which causes no symptoms, the patient must take capsules and tablets every day without feeling any immediate benefit.

And that is where the shoe pinches, Swiss researchers argue. "Only one third of hypertensive patients in the United States have blood pressure well controlled." This means, because adherence to treatment ordered by the doctor is low. In addition, patients complain more side effects due to the medication they have no symptoms related tohypertension. The search for a vaccine antihypertensive did not yesterday! That Irvine Page, American physiologist of the Cleveland Clinic who, in 1958, had first raised the possibility of acting on small molecules to control blood pressure through a vaccine. Historically, said Professor Joel Menard (former Director General of Health) Immunization began with the simple injection of a slightly modified version of renin (also involved in controlling hypertension, Ed) to generate antibodies in the purpose of lowering blood pressure.

The target: the angiotensin II

The first publications date from the 1950s also. Closer to home, a preclinical test of Cytos vaccine, produced in 2007 on rats and mice (Journal of Hypertension) showed that it is immunogenic (ie the animal developed antibodies) were found safe and effective. The immunization target is chosen angiotensin II: a protein hormone that actually causes intense constriction of blood vessels, and therefore arterial hypertension and an adrenal gland stimulation and increased secretion of aldosterone, which also increases the pressure arteries.

In the study published last week by The Lancet, 72 patients with hypertension, low (but real) to moderate were randomly divided into three groups to receive three injections of 100 or 300 micrograms of the vaccine, or an equivalent dose of placebo over a period of one year. Blood pressure was measured during the 24 hours preceding the vaccine and then 14 weeks later. The researchers found a significant reduction in daytime blood pressure by almost 9 mm Hg (systolic pressure of a normal adult is 130 mm) in the group receiving the high dose vaccine.

Cloning

"Cloning means producing a cell or group of genetically identical individuals from a single cell." All clones have the same genetic heritage. Most single-celled organisms, many plants and some multicellular animals reproduce by cloning (asexual reproduction). In humans, identical twins are clones, because they develop after the separation of the first cells formed from a single fertilized ovum.

Cloning is not strictly speaking part of genetic engineering since the genome normally remains unchanged, but it is a practical method for multiplying organisms created by genetic manipulation.

Alta Genetics, Calgary, is a world leader in genetic engineering of livestock. This company uses artificial polyembryonnie combined with in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation. The manipulation of plant hormones in plant cells in culture can produce clones, namely the millions of seedlings that can be the seed artificial.

The cloning of animals produced by genetic engineering techniques is usually difficult. It has produced clones of frogs by transplanting several eggs without nuclei identical core taken from a single embryo. This technique does not apply to mammals. It can be used with cells cloned from very young embryos of mammals (embryonic stem cells) for reconstructing whole animals. It relies heavily on this technique to produce genetically engineered mice. There is no known example of human cloning by artificial means, which does not preclude people from claiming the regulations frequently on human cloning and genetic engineering, for the same reasons why most commentators to reject eugenics.

Gene Cloning

This type of cloning is a fundamental component of genetic engineering. A segment of DNA from any donor in vitro is combined with another molecule of DNA, called a vector, to form a DNA molecule "recombinant".

The design of suitable vectors is an important branch practice of genetic engineering. The insertion of DNA requires the mediation of different vectors according to the type of cell. Mammalian vectors usually come from mammalian viruses.

Stem cells

Stem cells

A stem cell is an undifferentiated cell is characterized by its ability to generate specialized cells in differentiating and its ability to grow almost infinitely to the same (self), particularly in culture.

A cell is said to stem cell (or undifferentiated cell) in two conditions:

1. It can provide specialized cell by cell differentiation and

2. It can virtually be renewed indefinitely.

They are present in the embryonic stage and in the adult organism, but they are much more rare in the adult organism (such as hematopoietic stem cells continuously regenerate blood cells, intestinal stem cells, neural stem cells in regions specific regions of the brain (hippocampus, an area subventriculaire)). In general, stem cells are present in all living multicellular. They play a very important role in the development of organisms and in maintaining them.

The most undifferentiated cell is the zygote or fertilized egg, since the egg will produce all the cells of an organism. We talk about stem cells in animals, but the plant meristems are also formed. In a more comprehensive, all multicellular organisms have stem cells.

Stem cells of animals and in particular human stem cells are the subject of much current research, including medicine to regenerate tissues or create any piece of tissue and organs is the goal of therapy Cell. The origin of stem cells used in research also raises ethical issues: indeed, they come mostly from embryos, although it has recently discovered the possibility of using other sources such as blood cells umbilical cord, or stem cells from adipose tissue. When they allow research on stem cells, the legal limit it to cells from spare embryos from procedures for medically assisted procreation (PMA), prohibiting in particular the creation of embryos solely for the purpose of search. Moreover, given the potential benefits that they seemed to present, trials of therapeutic cloning have been developed to control the production in large numbers.

Stem cell culture

Origin of stem cells

For medical or scientific research, human stem cells (and more generally mammalian) may also be classified in relation to their origin: embryonic, fetal or adult.

Embryonic Stem Cells

Also called ES cells are pluripotent stem cells present in the embryo shortly after fertilization until the stage of blastocyst development said they are still the inner cell mass (the other cells of the blastocyst are the cells of the trophectoderm).

These cells are the source of all tissues of the adult organism and are pluripotent. They can be isolated and cultured in vitro in the undifferentiated state. In terms of specific cultures (on suspension growth ...), individuals can direct their differentiation to a given cell type (neurons, melanocytes, muscle cells, blood cells ...).

Embryonic stem cells were isolated and grown in mice from the early 1980s and helped develop the technique of gene invalidation by homologous recombination (or knock-out) which, after reintroduction of these cells mutated into a recipient embryo and crossings, to obtain mice homozygous for a mutation in a gene.

They are in practice taken from cells of the internal mass of the blastocyst (an embryo that is less than 150 cells), which requires the destruction of the embryo. They can be obtained from frozen embryos from in vitro fertilization or by cloning (by transferring the nucleus of a cell into an egg).

These cells could enable the development of a cell therapy for many degenerative diseases (eg regeneration of injured dopamine neurons in Parkinson's disease after reintroduction into the brain, repair of damaged heart muscle tissue after a heart attack ... ).

Research on embryonic stem cells are currently not very advanced, mainly because of ethical and legal.

Fetal stem cells

A fetal stem cell is a type of multipotent stem cells of fetal origin. They can be harvested from fetuses from a voluntary interruption of pregnancy. Fetal stem cells have the characteristic of being directed to a particular cell type.

New Drug To Fight Against Pneumococcal Disease - Scientists Cripple Critical Pneumococcal Protein

New Drug To Fight Against Pneumococcal Disease - Scientists Cripple Critical Pneumococcal Proteins

Spain - A new scientific approach of the pneumococcus bacterium could allow the development of a new drug.

The joint study conducted by researchers of Elche (Spain) and Eindhoven (Netherlands) shows that copying the structure of choline in the cell membrane of the bacterium, it is possible to trap the protein binding of choline to the cell and thus making the bacteria less infective.

Phosphocholine, included in an acid used in the composition of the pneumococcal cell membrane, act as a agent host a number of proteins involved in cell division, release of toxins by the bacteria and the adhesion to infected tissues. The choline-binding proteins (CBP), can no longer play their role if they added choline. The cells can then no longer multiply.

Researchers hope to develop a drug based on the copy of the structure of choline-cell disease, choline itself can not be used as medicine. However, the necessary dosage of inhibitor of CBP is within an acceptable range of a pharmaceutical point of view.

1.7 million people die each year from pneumococcal infections such as pneumonia, meningitisand infections of the mid

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Nucleic acid secondary structure

In biochemistry and structural biology, secondary structure is the general three-dimensional form of local segments of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids (DNA/RNA). It does not, however, describe specific atomic positions in three-dimensional space, which are considered to be tertiary structure. Secondary structure is formally defined by the hydrogen bonds of the biopolymer, as observed in an atomic-resolution structure. In proteins, the secondary structure is defined by patterns of hydrogen bonds between backbone amide and carboxyl groups (sidechain-mainchain and sidechain-sidechain hydrogen bonds are irrelevant), where the DSSP definition of a hydrogen bond is used. In nucleic acids, the secondary structure is defined by the hydrogen bonding between the nitrogenous bases.

For proteins, however, the hydrogen bonding is correlated with other structural features, which has given rise to less formal definitions of secondary structure. For example, residues in protein helices generally adopt backbone dihedral angles in a particular region of the Ramachandran plot; thus, a segment of residues with such dihedral angles is often called a "helix", regardless of whether it has the correct hydrogen bonds. Many other less formal definitions have been proposed, often applying concepts from the differential geometry of curves, such as curvature and torsion. Least formally, structural biologists solving a new atomic-resolution structure will sometimes assign its secondary structure "by eye" and record their assignments in the corresponding PDB file.

The secondary structure of a nucleic acid molecule refers to the basepairing interactions within a single molecule or set of interacting molecules. The secondary structure of biological RNA's can often be uniquely decomposed into stems and loops. Frequently these elements, or combinations of them, can be further classified, for example, tetraloops, pseudoknots and stem-loops. There are many secondary structure elements of functional imp

Genes and Genomes

Genomic DNA is located in the cell nucleus of eukaryotes, as well as small amounts in mitochondria and chloroplasts. In prokaryotes, the DNA is held within an irregularly shaped body in the cytoplasm called the nucleoid.The genetic information in a genome is held within genes, and the complete set of this information in an organism is called its genotype. A gene is a unit of heredity and is a region of DNA that influences a particular characteristic in an organism. Genes contain an open reading frame that can be transcribed, as well as regulatory sequences such as promoters and enhancers, which control the transcription of the open reading frame.

In many species, only a small fraction of the total sequence of the genome encodes protein. For example, only about 1.5% of the human genome consists of protein-coding exons, with over 50% of human DNA consisting of non-coding repetitive sequences.The reasons for the presence of so much non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes and the extraordinary differences in genome size, or C-value, among species represent a long-standing puzzle known as the "C-value enigma".However, DNA sequences that do not code protein may still encode functional non-coding RNA molecules, which are involved in the regulation of gene ex