Latest Animal physiology Stories
Claims to Cover Therapeutic Delivery Across Blood-Brain Barrier NOVATO, Calif., April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Raptor Pharmaceuticals Corp. ("Raptor" or the "Company") (OTC Bulletin Board: RPTP) today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") has issued two Notices of Allowance for U.S. Patent Application Nos. 10/812,849 and 11/202,566, titled "Methods of increasing delivery of active agents to brain comprising administering receptor-associated protein...
An anti-inflammatory herbal extract may inhibit pancreatic cancer, U.S. researchers say. Thymoquinone -- the major constituent of the oil extract from a Middle Eastern herbal seed called Nigella sativa used as a traditional medicinal in Middle Eastern and Asian countries -- reduces the release of inflammatory mediators in pancreatic cancer cells. Dr. Hwyda Arafat of the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, who was the study leader, says thymoquinone...
The common research worm, C. elegans, is able to use heat-sensing nerve cells to not only regulate its response to hotter environments, but also to control the pace of its aging as a result of that heat, according to new research at the University of California, San Francisco.The new findings have turned upside down a widespread assumption about how cold-blooded animals respond to and regulate heat, the researchers say. The study is reported in the online early edition of the journal...
A study published tomorrow (10 April) in Science examines a key player in conditions such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma and has shown that cells use a sophisticated communication system to coordinate responses to infection and maintain inflammation in the body. This system is now a target for designing drugs to treat these conditions.Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council...
Officials with the Cook County Board in Illinois said a discontented audience member at a recent meeting may have left feces behind in the boardroom. The officials said board members smelled the feces during Wednesday's meeting and County Board President Todd Stroger called a half-hour recess while boardroom staff removed the offending substance, the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald reported Thursday. Officials said they have not ruled out the idea that the feces may have been dropped...
U.S. scientists say they've discovered luminol -- a compound used at crime scenes to make blood residue glow -- can also identify immune inflammation. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered injected luminol glows blue at sites of active immune inflammation in living mice, with the glow detectable by scientific cameras from outside the mice. The scientists said immune inflammation is thought to be a critical component of arthritis and other autoimmune...
An experiment conducted by U.S. psychologists finds the smell of fear can affect how humans see others. The study, published in Psychological Science, suggests the sense of smell may guide human social perceptions -- especially when another sense provides ambiguous information. In the experiment, smelling chemicals derived from the sweat of men feeling fear biased women toward interpreting ambiguous facial expressions as fearful. The smell of fear had no effect when the facial emotions were...
A U.S. study has identified the source of immature cells that spur heterotopic ossification -- misplaced bone growth. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut said they discovered the major repository of bone-forming cells originates in blood vessels deep within skeletal muscle and other connective tissues, and not from muscle stem cells themselves. That finding, said the scientists, shows cells important in the inflammatory response...
Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis cause fatigue because white blood cells -- monocytes -- infiltrate the brain, Canadian researchers said. Senior author Dr. Mark Swain of the University of Calgary and colleagues found that in mice with inflamed livers monocytes infiltrated the brain. These findings support previous research demonstrating the presence of immune cells in the brain following organ inflammation, challenging the long-held belief that the blood-brain barrier prevents...
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) remains a major obstacle to the successful delivery of drugs to treat central nervous system (CNS) disorders, reports Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN). Researchers are exploring a variety of approaches to preserve the ability of the BBB to block harmful and toxic substances from entering the brain and to permit the passage of effective medicines for the treatment of CNS diseases, according to the February 1 issue of GEN."The blood-brain...
