Tag: cells

Matcha green tea kills cancer stem cells in tests

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Matcha, the green tea packed with antioxidants, is often hailed as containing properties which prevent disease. Scientists in Salford, UK have shed a ray of light on the claim by testing it on cancer stem cells – with surprising results. In research published in the journal Aging, a team from the

How damaging immune cells develop during tuberculosis

Insights into how harmful white blood cells form during tuberculosis infection point to novel targets for pharmacological interventions, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Valentina Guerrini and Maria Laura Gennaro of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and colleagues. Foam cells are a type of white blood cell, known as

Obesity, infertility and oxidative stress in mouse egg cells

Excessive body fat is associated with negative effects on female fertility and pregnancy. In mice, maternal obesity impairs proper development of egg precursor cells called oocytes. In a recent paper published in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, Qiang Wang and colleagues at the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine in China describe the link between poor

Acidic pH—the weakness of cancer cells

A new computational model has allowed researchers to identify new therapeutic targets that can attack cancer cells by lowering their intracellular pH. The study, which is the result of collaboration between IRB Barcelona, the Moffitt Cancer Center, and the University of Maryland, has been published in Nature Communications. Cancer cells are known to acidify their

Study finds brain tumour cells are killed by targeting marker

Brain tumours account for 20 per cent of all cases of childhood cancers as well as the highest number of cancer-related deaths in Canadian children under 20 years old. Despite improved clinical outcomes, patients live with extensive cognitive and physical delays resulting from toxicities associated with chemotherapy and radiation. “Better, more targeted and less toxic

Scientists reveal novel drug-target to destroy dormant cancer cells

Research spearhead by first author Isabel Puig, Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Vall d´Hebron Institute of Oncology’s (VHIO) Stem Cells & Cancer Group, directed by Principal Investigator Héctor G. Palmer, has culminated in the discovery of a biomarker to identify dormant tumor cells (DTC), also known as slow-cycling cancer cells (SCCC), that, in their dormant state,

Ovarian cancer cells switched off by ‘unusual’ mechanism

Scientists at the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre at Imperial College London have discovered a mechanism that deactivates ovarian cancer cells. The findings, published in EMBO Reports, could lead to better treatments for women with ovarian cancer. The research has found a new mechanism for a protein named OPCML. This protein is known as a

Researchers transform human blood cells into functional neurons

Human immune cells in blood can be converted directly into functional neurons in the laboratory in about three weeks with the addition of just four proteins, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. The dramatic transformation does not require the cells to first enter a state called pluripotency but instead occurs through

Inflammatory signals in heart muscle cells linked to atrial fibrillation

Interfering with inflammatory signals produced by heart muscle cells might someday provide novel therapeutic strategies for atrial fibrillation, according to an international team of researchers who have published their findings in the journal Circulation. “Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart arrhythmia, and it is particularly observed in the elderly human population, which is growing

Antifungal drug eliminates sleeping bowel cancer cells in mice

An antifungal medication, commonly prescribed for toenail infections, could help eliminate dormant cells within bowel tumours, according to new research funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine today. Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute have shown in laboratory studies in mice, that itraconazole effectively halts the growth

Two-pronged antibodies draw immune killers directly to cancer cells

Our immune system’s arsenal of defenses usually protects us from cancer. But sometimes, cancer cells overwhelm or evade this elaborate defense system. In the lab of biochemist and immunologist Christoph Rader, Ph.D., associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute in Florida, scientists have engineered a new type of anti-cancer antibody, one intended to enhance nature’s

Some blood stem cells are better than others

In your body, blood stem cells produce approximately 10 billion new white blood cells, which are also known as immune cells, each and every day. Even more remarkably, if some of these blood stem cells fail to do their part, then other blood stem cells pick up their slack and overproduce whichever specific type of

The accidental discovery of stem cells

Till knows of what he speaks; it was almost 60 years ago that the renowned University of Saskatchewan graduate, along with a colleague, found something unexpected in research results that simply could not be ignored. Although they did not know it at the time, the two scientists were on the path to discovering stem cells

The joy of neurons: A simplified ‘cookbook’ for engineering brain cells to study disease

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have devised what they call a “neuronal cookbook” for turning skin cells into different types of neurons. As reported today in the journal Nature, the research opens the door to studying common brain conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, addiction and Alzheimer’s disease under reproducible conditions in a dish. “The