Smart interaction between proteins

19.08.2019 | News

By:  Santina Russo

Very little was known till now about DNA repair by homologous recombination, which is fundamental for human health. Now an ETH research group has for the first time isolated and studied all the key proteins involved in this process, laying the foundation for investigating many diseases.

Which proteins are essential for cell division? The biochemist Philipp Wild (left) and his colleagues Ilaria Piazza and Christian Dörig examine the results from the mass spectrometer. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Adrian Henggeler)

Within our body, the process of cell division is constantly creating new cells to replace old or damaged ones. The genetic information is also duplicated and passed on to the new cells. Complex interaction of many different proteins ensures a smooth process. This is because these proteins immediately repair any errors that creep in during DNA duplication. However, the same protein machinery also performs another function: in germ cells that divide to from gametes – egg cells and sperm – it is responsible for mixing the genetic information of the original maternal and paternal side during cell division. The same mechanism therefore has to resolve two conflicting problems: in normal cell division, called mitosis, it ensures genetic preservation, while in the cell division to produce gametes, or meiosis, it ensures genetic diversity. 

The Fountain of Youth

Chinese Scientists Say They’ve Found a Safer Alternative to CRISPR

Researchers from China’s Peking University have developed a new gene-editing technology —  and they think it shows promise as a CRISPR alternative for fighting human diseases.

According to a paper published on Monday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, this new technology, LEAPER, which stands for “leveraging endogenous ADAR for programmable editing of RNA,” works similarly to CRISPR-Cas13, targeting RNA molecules as opposed to DNA like the well-known CRISPR-Cas9.

But while CRISPR-Cas13 relies on both a guide RNA and the Cas13 enzyme to make its edits to RNA, the LEAPER system needs just one component known as an arRNA.

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Proton Therapy

There are more than 200 different types of cancers. According to the US National Cancer Institute, nearly 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lives. The World Health Organization names cancer as the second leading cause of death globally, causing nearly one in six deaths. In case anyone needs reminding, cancer is a big deal. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths around the world, causing more deaths than prostate, breast and colon cancers combined. Only 18.5% of patients will survive five or more years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. So smokers, take note! Alongside chemotherapy and surgery to remove tumors, about 40% of cancer patients are treated with radiotherapy, which fires ionizing radiation into the body, killing malignant cells with X-ray photons. Roughly 17,000 clinics worldwide deliver X-ray radiotherapy treatment today.

The rise in popularity of proton therapy (vs X-ray) is continuing across the globe. It is estimated that more than 165,000 patients suffering from a variety of cancers, such as prostate cancer, brain tumors, etc. have already been successfully treated using this method. In fact, the proton therapy market is on track to become a multibillion-dollar industry by 2024. The number of proton therapy centers is increasing globally. Still, industry experts believe that players will miss out on a majority of cancer patients who can benefit with proton therapy, overlooking a huge multi-Billion-dollar potential market.

The proton therapy market is likely to almost double by 2024 from its current market value.  Globally, the numbers of patients treated with proton therapy is very low whereas the potential candidates for it are in the Millions.

What next in battery technology?

Immortality, Bliss, Divinity

Swiss Society for Biomaterials & Regenerative Medicine Annual Conference

Advances in Antimicrobial Biomaterials science, industry, physicians

The SSB+RM meetings are devoted to all aspects of biomaterials science including basic research, engineering, and medical applications. The 2017 conference is dedicated to Advances in Antimicrobial Materials. This conference will include keynote speakers who will give an overview of clinical and commercial translations of biomaterials. Selected sessions are devoted to the design, preparation, characterization, quality control and application of all types of antimicrobial materials from the viewpoints of academia, industry and the clinics.

 

Both oral and poster presentations are welcome. Those wishing to present are asked to submit an extended abstract (1 page maximum) by March 17th, 2017. Abstracts must be submitted as an electronic file in MS Word and must adhere to the abstract guidelines. The abstract template can soon be obtained from the conference website.

 

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Click to Registration 

 

Contact

Dr Katharina Maniura EMPA, Biointerfaces Phone: +41 58 765 74 47 e-mail

Alzheimer's, a dementia disease of the past?

The BACE1 inhibitor verubecestat (MK-8931) reduces CNS β-amyloid in animal models and in Alzheimer’s disease patients

The discovery of BACE1 inhibitors that reduce β-amyloid peptides in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients has been an encouraging development in the quest for a disease-modifying therapy. Kennedy and colleagues now report the discovery of verubecestat, a structurally unique, orally bioavailable small molecule that potently inhibits brain BACE1 activity resulting in a reduction in Aβ peptides in the cerebrospinal fluid of animals, healthy volunteers, and AD patients. No dose-limiting toxicities were observed in chronic animal toxicology studies or in phase 1 human studies, thus reducing safety concerns raised by previous reports of BACE inhibitors and BACE1 knockout mice.

 

According to the World Health Organization over 36 million people world-wide are affected by dementia, of which the majority have Alzheimer’s. This number is forecast to double by 2030 and triple by 2050 if no treatment is discovered. So great hopes are placed on verubecestat. 

 

http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/363/363ra150.full

Nanoparticles to Break Up Plaque and Prevent Cavities

Philadelphia, PA (Scicasts) — The bacteria that live in dental plaque and contribute to tooth decay often resist traditional antimicrobial treatment, as they can "hide" within a sticky biofilm matrix, a glue-like polymer scaffold.

 

A new strategy conceived by University of Pennsylvania researchers took a more sophisticated approach. Instead of simply applying an antibiotic to the teeth, they took advantage of the pH-sensitive and enzyme-like properties of iron-containing nanoparticles to catalyze the activity of hydrogen peroxide, a commonly used natural antiseptic. The activated hydrogen peroxide produced free radicals that were able to simultaneously degrade the biofilm matrix and kill the bacteria within, significantly reducing plaque and preventing the tooth decay, or cavities, in an animal model.

 

"Even using a very low concentration of hydrogen peroxide, the process was incredibly effective at disrupting the biofilm," said Hyun (Michel) Koo, a professor in the Penn School of Dental Medicine's Department of Orthodontics and divisions of Pediatric Dentistry and Community and Oral Health and the senior author of the study, which was published in the journal Biomaterials. "Adding nanoparticles increased the efficiency of bacterial killing more than 5,000-fold."

 

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Research Shows Gentle Cancer Treatment Using Nanoparticles Works

Copenhagen, Denmark (Scicasts) — Cancer treatments based on laser irradiation of tiny nanoparticles that are injected directly into the cancer tumour are working and can destroy the cancer from within.

 

Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method that kills cancer cells using nanoparticles and lasers. The treatment has been tested on mice and it has been demonstrated that the cancer tumours are considerably damaged. The results are published in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports.

 

Traditional cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy have major side affects, because they not only affect the cancer tumours, but also the healthy parts of the body. A large interdisciplinary research project between physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute and doctors and human biologists at the Panum Institute and Rigshospitalet has developed a new treatment that only affects cancer tumours locally, therefore, much more gentle on the body. The project is called Laser Activated Nanoparticles for Tumor Elimination (LANTERN). The head of the project is Professor Lene Oddershede, a biophysicist and head of the research group Optical Tweezers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Professor Andreas Kjær, head of the Cluster for Molecular Imaging, Panum Institute.

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Latest Advances in Nano-Oncology

Unique characteristics of nanoparticles make them highly attractive for various applications in oncology. They are able to function as carriers for chemotherapeutic drugs to increase their therapeutic index and lower their toxicity, as therapeutic agents in photodynamic, gene, and thermal therapy, as well as molecular imaging agents to detect and monitor cancer progression. Several nanoparticle-based agents for cancer therapy and diagnostics have been approved by FDA, more are in clinical trials, and even more are in the discovery and early development stages in academic and industry laboratories. Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Latest Advances in Nano-Oncology symposium is designed to encourage open discussion and knowledge exchange in this exiting and rapidly developing area at the junction of nanobiotechnology and oncology.

 

http://www.worldpreclinicalcongress.com/Nano-Oncology

Hitting cancer from the inside

Most cancer cells carry unique receptors on their surface. Because the receptors extend into the cell's interior, they act as intermediaries between the outside and the inside. Chemotherapeutic drugs that dock on the exterior trigger a cascade of biochemical reactions inside the cell. At the end of this process, the cancer cells should die off. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI are now investigating a new method that would not only attach radioactive substances to the outside of a cancer cell, but also would channel them right into the cell's nucleus. Thus the radiation source would remain inside the cell and work in a more targeted way, by getting closer to the genetic information. If the suitable radioactive compounds can be found, this method has the potential to help with several kinds of cancer in the future.

One of the most important goals in cancer therapy is to strike at the heart of the camouflaged cancer cells – that is, in the nucleus. In cancer cells, pathologically mutated DNA ensures that cell division occurs more rapidly and more frequently than in normal cells. Many cytotoxins used in chemotherapy against cancer manage to penetrate to the cell nucleus and attack precisely those processes that are important for cell division. Others interfere with the metabolism of tumour cells, thereby impeding their growth. Thus they all operate within the cell, and particularly at the time when it is dividing. Many cytotoxins, however, are non-specific and also attack other tissues of the body that renew themselves frequently, such as hair or mucous membranes.

 

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