LONDON – Older men who have lost the Y chromosome from their peripheral blood cells are significantly more likely to develop cancer and to die than those who retain the Y chromosome in their blood cells, a study in Sweden has found.
LONDON – A study of the genome of a woman who lived to the age of 115 years has revealed that people develop many different mutations in their somatic cells during their lifetimes, and that these mutations may not be harmful to health.
LONDON – Work on a mouse model representing a rare inherited disease that affects the heart muscle suggests that gene therapy to replace a missing protein may one day be possible in the clinic, for some conditions at least.
LONDON – The discovery of an enzyme that is vital to the survival of cancer cells, but which normal cells do not seem to need at all, is pointing to entirely new ways of treating cancer.
LONDON — A vital component of our bones has turned out to be a viscous gel that allows bone crystals to slide over one other. The gel, a combination of water and citrate that also bonds strongly to the calcium phosphate crystals, makes bones strong and flexible, rather than brittle.
LONDON – The advent of mice that produce the full range of human antibodies is set to trigger an explosion in new therapies for human diseases and to revolutionize vaccine research.
LONDON – Bone contains different types of blood vessels, one of which is vital for the formation of new bone, a study has shown. The findings suggest that boosting the presence of this specific type of blood vessel in the bone has the potential to heal fractures faster and treat osteoporosis.
LONDON – People carrying one copy of a rare mutant gene are at 65 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a genomewide association study has found. The work suggests that it may be possible one day to develop therapies that target the protein encoded by the gene in question, which is known to play a role in insulin secretion.
LONDON – A compound found in a traditional Chinese medicine has anti-inflammatory properties and could point the way to a novel class of drugs, a study in zebrafish larvae has shown.
