cusabio2015的部落格

The function of the protein alpha-synuclein is unknown. Scientists studying Parkinson's disease are interested in this protein because it is a major component of Lewy bodies, clumps of protein that can form in the brain and are one of the hallmarks of Parkinson's disease. Despite intensive efforts to characterize the protein's role in Parkinson's, there are still many questions about it.
A paper published online 23 December 2016 in Acta Neuropathologica now indicates that alpha-synuclein can travel from brain to gut. Moreover, vagal motor neurons and efferents seem to be involved in this process.

A team led by Jilin University, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University and South Dakota State University in China has shown that rabbit polyclonal antibody is effective in treating Leptospira infections in hamster. The findings, published online in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, indicates that IgG polyclonal antibody may be a new treatment option for Leptospira infections in the future.
Leptospira is a genus of aerobic, finely coiled spirochete bacteria with hooked ends. The bacteria can lead to Leptospirosis, a disease of worldwide significance that affects both humans and animals. If left untreated, the disease can cause kidney damage, liver failure, and even death. The death rate is about 1%-5%. Patients are usually treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin, erythromycin and doxycycline depending on their disease phase. But antibiotic resistance is problem that should be taken into consideration. Leptospirosis is one of the most neglected tropical diseases. Drugs with less side-effects are in urgent need.

Research on a drug called tiplaxtinin shows that the drug hinders the migration of smooth muscle cells and thus stops blockage development in arteries. This drug works by inhibiting PAI-1, a protein known to control cell migration. Published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, the study indicates that pharmacological PAI-1 inhibitors may be used to prevent diseases associated with blocked blood vessels. CusAb provides proteins such as Recombinant PTPRA with premium quality.

Heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases are among the most widespread and costly health problems facing many countries. For America alone, these diseases lead to the death of 2,200 people each day.  Blocked blood vessels is the major cause of these diseases. Now, researchers at University of Missouri School of Medicine have found a way to stop blockage development in blood vessels.

Diabetes, the most common metabolic disease, affects many people, and the number is on the rise. Compounds that activate a nuclear receptor are promising to treat diabetes because this receptor regulate sugar metabolism. Research in Journal of Biological Chemistry details how these compounds interact with its target, which will accelerate the development of new diabetic drugs.

The orphan nuclear receptor liver receptor homolog 1 (LRH-1 or NR5A2) is known to regulate many important cellular activities, such as gene expression, sugar and fat metabolism, and cell replication. Earlier studies on the LRH-1 protein prove that it has great potential as a drug target for metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Activation of LRH-1 protein reduces liver fat accumulation and increases insulin sensitivity in mice. A lot of scientists are looking for compounds to activate this protein. But one problem is that mechanism through which LRH-1 protein is activated by the compounds remains elusive. In order to improve the efficacy of these LRH-1 activators, scientists modify the compounds but do not achieve satisfactory results.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a long-term disorder of the central nervous system that mainly occurs in older people. In most cases, the cause is unknown, while only a small portions of cases can be attributed to known genetic factors. One pathogenic feature of the disease is accumulation of α-synuclein in the brain, which causes damage to brain cells that produce dopamine, an important chemical that helps regulate movement and emotional responses. Some studies indicates that inflammation in the brain is implicated in PD.

New research in Acta Neuropathologica has shown how inflammation drives the development of PD. It reveals that a toll-like receptor, called TLR2, is increased in nerve cells in the brain tissues of PD patients, and activating the receptor induces inflammatory response that elevates the levels of α-synuclein, indicating that TLR2 may be a useful target for PD.

University of Southern California (USC) and Harvard Medical School researchers now have identified an approach for altering brain function. Don B Arnold from USC's Department of Biology is the corresponding author of the study, and Garrett G Gross is the first author. The findings have been published in Nature Methods.

Arnold's team used a protein named GFE3 to study the connections of the brain in order to determine how inhibitory synapses influence neuronal activity and brain function. Synapses are connections between neurons, or between neurons and other cells. Using the method, the researchers were able to control neural activity. These would facilitate the research on schizophrenia, cocaine addiction, and other disorders.

Dr Payam Piray at the Donders Institute has found that levodopa -- a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease (PD) patients --may lead to impulse control disorders. In PD, a protein called alpha-synuclein builds up and causes neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain to die, leading to a reduction in the production of dopamine, a chemical essential for brain function. Althouth there is no drug to prevent the protein deposits, some drugs can help supplement dopamine, which can relieve symptoms like stiffness, tremors, spasms and poor muscle control, to some extent. But such drugs like levodopa can induce adervese effects.

Levodopa, the most important first-line drug for PD management, is synthesized in the brain into dopamine. It can lead to side effects such as gambling or sexual addiction and other impulse control disorders. Dr Piray wanted to elucidate how PD medicines impact patients' behavior. They found that these dopamine-stimulating drugs cause patients unable to learn from the positive and negative consequences of their behaviour. For those with an impulsive personality, these drugs increase brain communication. In contrast, for those who are not impulsive, these drugs decrease brain communication. The results suggest that dopaminergic drugs have an impact on people's brain function and behavior.

Now scientists find that the pancreatic islet cells release intracellular autoantigens in exosomes, which may trigger antoimmune responses associated with diabetes.

As an organ-specific autoimmune disease, T1D is a disease caused by the lack of insulin. It occurs when the body's immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. But the exact cause of Type-1 diabetes (T1D) is unknown. 

Subunit vaccines are commonly used to combat viral infections. But to data no vaccine is available for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a severe viral respiratory disease with mortality rate of 36%. MERS is caused by a virus called MERS‐CoV, and it was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. CusAb offers MERS‐CoV related proteins and polyclonal antibody for researchers doing related experiments.

Now, a new study appearing online in Nature Communications would open a door for the design and development of MERS vaccines. A multinational study led by scientists from University of Minnesota Medical School in the USA and Beijing Institute of Microbiology in China has found a way to improve MERS vaccines.

A collaborative research team has shown that genetic mutations in a gaint protein also impact heart function in healthy people. The heart may be healthy initially but it reacts to this genetic stress. And when an additional stressor occurs, the heart may bucome unhealthy. The study appears in Nature Genetics.

Scientists have known for some time that genetic mutations in a protein called titin can cause dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a common disease of the heart muscle. DCM -- a common cause of heart failure -- can also contributes to irregular heartbeats, blood clots or sudden death. This inherited heart condition can affect people of all ages including children, but is most common in men ages 20 to 60. According to estimates, 1 in 250 people will develop this disease. However, many people that carry titin mutations exhibit no sign of disease.

Allergic diseases such as asthma affect a large number of people in the world. Severe allergy attack can be painful and even life-threatening. Existing therapies for allergy mainly work by blocking the effects of histamine or by inhibiting the body's overall immune response. The latter approach can cause severe side effects. In addition, these therapies are not always effective.

IgE, mast cells, basophils, and eosinophils are essential components of allergic inflammation. Allergic diseases are driven by two types of cells: mast cells and basophils. Moreover, there is evidence that both IgE antibodies and mast cells are also key drivers of the long-term pathophysiological changes and tissue remodeling associated with chronic allergic inflammation in a variety of allergic and inflammatory diseases. IgE antibodies and IgE-mediated mast cell and eosinophil activation contribute to these allergic diseases.

Extranodal natural killer T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is a rare, aggressive cancer that mainly affects Asian and Latin American people. Patients with the disease often have poor prognosis. It has been known for some time that a virus called EBV is strongly associated with NKTCL. But the exact mechanism and other risk factors of NKTCL remain unclear. 

A team composed of scientists from China and Singapore has recently identified a genetic risk factor associated with this cancer type. The research team, headed by Prof?Jin-Xin Bei at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, China, has has shown that a mutation a gene called c NKTCL. The findings appear in The Lancet Oncology.

A research team led by scientists from the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology has identified a potential way to combat infections caused by Staphylococcus (or "staph") bacteria. What’s more, the method used in the study is less likely to cause the problem of drug resistance. The scientists have already published their findings in EBioMedicine.

Although a lot of progress has been made in treating bacterial infections, many species of bacteria are still killing. For example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacteria that has become resistant to many of the commonly used antibiotics. Bacteria like MRSA are called superbugs, which kill approximately 11,000 people in America annually. People often get exposed to these extremely harmful bacteria in health case settings, in particular hospitals. It is necessary to take measures to clean these places in order to prevent their spread.

Flu virus kills a large number of people each. Finding effective vaccines is of great significance. Described in Nature Medicine, a new research led by Prof. George Georgiou from The University of Texas provides new insight into the process that flu vaccine induces production of protective antibodies against flu virus. This work indicates there is way to promote the effect of traditional flu vaccine.

The study reveals that quadrivalent flu vaccines, which are relativley expensive, might not provide significant benefits over trivalent flu vaccines, and that certain antibodies are able to fight agaisnt multiple stains of the virus.

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) -- antibodies that can defend a cell by neutralizing different strains of the pathogen -- shows promise in preventing and treating HIV infection. But a couple of researches now have shown it's difficult to use bNAbs to fight HIV. A such antibody, VRC01, blocked HIV for only a short time. In all the 24 HIV-infected patients that were enrolled in the research, the virus reappeared within 8 weeks after the patients stopped conventional anti-viral treatment.

One research was undertaken by the universities of Pennsylvania and Alabama investigators,showing that combinations of neutralizing antibodies are necessary for HIV long-term control. This is consistent with former studies suggesting that it's required to attack HIV in multiple ways to avoid potential drug resistance and viral resurgence. Pennsylvania investigators led a trial of 14 HIV-infected individuals. Results showed that these participates harbored a pre-existing virus that was resistant to VRCO1. Moreover, they had a virus that developed resistance to VRCO1 during treatment.

The exosomes are small membrane vesicles secrected by most cell types. These small vesicles can travel to distant tissues to influence cell behavior and physiology. For example, the exosomes are responsible for drug resistance in certain types of cancers.  In pancreatic cancer, the exosomes secrected by the supportive cells can help the cancer cells to survive drug treatments. Now, scientists at the University of Notre Dame and the Harper Cancer Research Institute have found that blocking the exosomes could help treat patients with pancreatic cancer. CusAb is a biotech company specialized in production of bio-products like Recombinant CDHR4

According to estimates, 53,000 people in the USA will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and another 41,000 will die from the disease in 2016. Although pancreatic cancer survival rates have been improved, the disease is still considered largely incurable. The one-year relative survival rate is 20%, and the five-year rate is 8%. Besides, the development procedure for new drug is complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.

McMaster researchers and collaborators have identified genetic mutations that impairs synaptic connections in patients with autism, a finding that may guide development of new autism treatments.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurological and developmental disorders that can cause significant social communication and behavioral challenges. ASD is estimated to affect one in 68 people and it is around 4.5 times more common among boys than girls. Tens of millions of people worldwide are affected by autism.

New research from University of Pennsylvania shows that using an antibody to block a specific bone protein can reduce radiotherapy-induced bone loss in mice. The finding may reduce side effect of radiotherapy and thus improve cancer treatment.

Radiotherapy is a treatment that involves the use of high-energy radiation. Radiotherapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer. At least one in two people with cancer would benefit from radiotherapy. High-energy radiation kills or damages cancer cells and stops them from growing and multiplying. However, radiation also affects nearby normal cells. Despite advances in radiotherapy, the therapy can cause patients to lose bone density, which in turn increases the risk of broken bones.

Oxford have have a way to treat autoimmune disorders and decrease adverse effects of treatment. The findings appear in Science Translational Medicine.

An autoimmune disorder is a condition that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks a normal body part. Overall, autoimmune diseases are common, affecting a large number of people worldwide. Common autoimmune diseases include type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, and inflammatory bowel disease. Currently, there are a variety of treatment options for autoimmune diseases. But these treatments may compromise the patients' immune system, making them vulnerable to other opportunistic illnesses. So there is an need to develop novel treatments that cause less side effects.