New insights into the structure of a killer protein

01-Oct-2018 - The protein Bax is responsible for programmed cell death. Because it is constantly changing its location, its structure has so far been difficult to determine. Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Tübingen have gained new insights into the structure of the killer protein ...

Tracking protein’s role in stem cell function

26-Mar-2018 - MCL-1 is a member of the BCL-2 family of proteins important for blocking apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Many types of cancer cells escape the body’s effort to kill them by overexpressing MCL-1. However, new evidence from Vanderbilt University researchers indicates that MCL-1 also helps ...

Ultrashort cell-free DNA reveals health of organ transplants

11-Jul-2016 - When cells die, whether through apoptosis or necrosis, the DNA and other molecules found in those cells don't just disappear. They wind up in the blood stream, where degraded bits and pieces can be extracted. This cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is degraded due to its exposure to enzymes in the blood but ...

Pulmonary fibrosis culprits

Isoketal-modified proteins as a potential therapeutic target of pulmonary fibrosis

08-Jun-2016 - Isoketals (IsoKs) – highly reactive compounds formed when membrane lipids are attacked by free radicals – are emerging as a mechanistic link between pathogenic reactive oxygen species and disease progression. However, the identity of IsoK-modified proteins and whether isoketal generation is ...

New drug candidates from genome sequence

As proof-of-principle, the team designs potent anti-cancer compound

11-Feb-2014 - In research that could ultimately lead to many new medicines, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a potentially general approach to design drugs from genome sequence. As a proof of principle, they identified a highly potent compound that ...

Dying Brightly

Fluorescence lights up cells programmed to die

28-Jan-2013 - Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, occurs tens of millions of times every day in every human body. Researchers in South Korea have devised an easy method to detect apoptotic cells by fluorescence, as they report in Chemistry—An Asian Journal. Their method makes it easier to detect improper ...

Scientists develop new method to identify glycosylated proteins

02-Jun-2010 - Various processes in our body are controlled by subsequent changes of proteins. Therefore, the identification of such modifications is essential for the further exploration of our organism. Now, scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, have made a crucial ...

Chemopreventive agents in black raspberries identified

12-Jan-2009 - A study published in Cancer Prevention Research , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, identifies components of black raspberries with chemopreventive potential. Researchers at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center found that anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids in black ...

Existing Anti-Obesity Drugs May Be Effective Against Flu, Hepatitis and HIV

06-Oct-2008 - Viruses dramatically increase cellular metabolism, and existing anti-obesity drugs may represent a new way to block these metabolic changes and inhibit viral infection, according to a study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Metabolism refers to all the reactions by which living ...

New Protein Survey by Scripps Research Scientists Upends Understanding of Cell Death Process

Results Reveal Numerous Potential New Drug Targets for Related Diseases

25-Aug-2008 - Results from a Scripps Research Institute study have nearly tripled the number of proteins known to be involved in the critical process of programmed cell death, and have shot down a long-held idea about the life cycle of proteins. The work opens doors for potential new drug discoveries, and may ...