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Public release date: 8-Sep-2009ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
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Researchers have uncovered a strong association between infection with a retrovirus and prostate cancer, a disease that strikes one in six American men. The research could provide opportunities to develop new diagnostic markers and the potential to prevent and treat prostate cancer with antiretroviral therapies or vaccines, as has been done for the human papilloma viruses that often initiate cervical cancers. Recent studies identified xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) in prostate cancers, and found that a sub-population of men who carried a specific genetic variation were more susceptible to viral infection. Ila Singh and colleagues examined more than 300 excised cancerous prostate specimens and found XMRV in more than a quarter of the samples. The researchers report that the virus was more likely to be present in aggressive cancers, and that viral proteins appeared in malignant cells, suggesting that XMRV infection may be directly linked to the formation of tumors. Infection occurred independent of the RNase L gene variation--a finding that expands the "at risk" population from a small, genetically predisposed fraction, to all men. Based on the appearance of XMRV, sequence comparisons, and similarity with other known retroviral proteins, the authors classified the virus as a gammaretrovirus. Members of this viral genus are known to cause leukemias and sarcomas in many animal species, but have not yet been shown to cause cancers in humans.
Article #09-06922: "XMRV is present in malignant prostatic epithelium and is associated with prostate cancer, especially high-grade tumors," by Robert Schlaberg, Daniel J. Choe, Kristy R. Brown, Harshwardhan M. Thaker, and Ila R. Singh
MEDIA CONTACT: Ila Singh, Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; tel: 801-213-3737 (day), 201-694-6448 (evening), e-mail: ila.singh@path.utah.edu
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As bananas transition from ripe to rotten, the bright yellow peel develops brown and black spots that grow rapidly and eventually envelop the whole fruit. The spots--a warning sign that the banana will soon be inedible--mark dead tissue. Bernhard Kraeutler and colleagues report that bananas, which glow blue under ultraviolet (UV) light, display bright blue halos around the dead spots under UV light. The researchers note that the fluorescent blue color is caused by the breakdown of chlorophyll, the pigment that colors plant leaves and is vital for photosynthesis. The authors show that when chlorophyll breaks down in bananas, the compound produces fluorescent molecules that make the fruit glow blue in UV light. The researchers show that these lingering fluorescent molecules accumulate in senescent tissue and mark it blue luminescent, and suggest that the coloration may provide a tool to identify apoptotic and dying plant cells. Some fruit-eating animals might be attuned to the blue fluorescent halos as a sign of ripe food, according to the authors.
Article #09-08060: "Fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites in bananas light up blue halos of cell death," by Simone Moser, Thomas Müller Andreas Holzinger, Cornelius Lütz, Steffen Jockusch, Nicholas J. Turro, and Bernhard Kraeutler
MEDIA CONTACT: Bernhard Kraeutler, Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, AUSTRIA; tel: +43-512-507-5200 (day), +43-664-812-5275 (evening); e-mail: bernhard.kraeutler@uibk.ac.at
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A report reveals that human fat, an easily and safely acquired source of cells, can be quickly and efficiently coaxed into adult stem cells. Most earlier attempts to reprogram adult cells into other cell types for use in research or disease treatment has focused on skin cells. Whereas skin fibroblasts can be induced to produce lines of stem cells, the process with adult cells is exceptionally time-consuming and inefficient. Joseph Wu and colleagues looked for a more workable source of adult stem cells and identified adult fat, or adipose tissue, which is made up of cells with different lineages and cells that can be easily isolated in prodigious quantities. The researchers isolated adipose cells from adults between the ages of 45 and 60 and attempted to reprogram the cells into stem cells using an established genetic targeting method. At the same time, the authors began the same procedure with adult skin cells. The adipose cells produced adult stem cells nearly twice as fast and approximately 20 times more efficiently than skin cells. The fat cells did not require mouse feeder cells, which could help reduce complicating factors for their use in human patients, according to the researchers.
Article #09-08450: "Feeder-free derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from adult human adipose stem cells," by Ning Sun, Nicholas J. Panetta, Deepak M. Gupta, Kitchener D. Wilson, Andrew Lee, Fangjun Jia, Shijun Hu, Athena M. Cherry, Robert C. Robbins, Michael T. Longaker, and Joseph C. Wu
MEDIA CONTACT: Joseph Wu, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA; tel: 650-736-2246 (day), 650-704-5208 (evening); e-mail: joewu@stanford.edu
MEDIA CONTACT: Michael Longaker, Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA; tel: 650-736-1707 (day), 650-743-3871 (evening); e-mail: longaker@stanford.edu
An analysis of future climate estimates suggests that temperature extremes may grow in intensity and geographic distribution in the coming century, researchers say. Auroop Ganguly and colleagues examined 21st century trends in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) temperature projections at decadal and regional scales and found that heat waves and regional warming are likely to become more intense, especially in the second half of this century. The analysis, however, suggests that the climactic effects will not be evenly distributed. In the United States, the west coast is predicted to see the largest overall temperature increase, although heat waves will be more concentrated in the midwest. The researchers indicate that more and better predictions are needed to narrow down what regions will be most affected. The results indicate which areas worldwide are most likely to be affected by temperature extremes associated with global climate change, which may help policy makers decide the best opportunities for preparation and mitigation efforts, according to the authors.
Article #09-04495: "Higher trends but larger uncertainty and geographic variability in 21st century temperature and heat waves," by Auroop R. Ganguly, Karsten Steinhaeuser, David J. Erickson III, Marcia Branstetter, Esther S. Parish, Nagendra Singh, John B. Drake, and Lawrence Buja
MEDIA CONTACT: Auroop Ganguly, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN; tel: 865-241-1305 (day), 865-924-7034 (evening); e-mail: gangulyar@ornl.gov
Researchers have developed a method that uses fluorescence imaging to detect the spread of cancer in live animals, which may help provide a less expensive and less toxic method than the radioactive materials typically used in cancer imaging. To aid in the fight against cancer, many pharmaceutical companies have manufactured specific antibodies that recognize antigens expressed on malignant cells in order to pinpoint minute and otherwise unidentifiable tumors. Yoshihiro Ohmiya and colleagues attached one such antibody, an embryonic antigen expressed on the surface of many cancer cells, to a red bioluminescent protein they created by conjugating a far-red fluorescent dye to the luciferase enzyme from the sea firefly, Cypridina. Except for the color red, most bioluminescence spectra occur in the visible range, where they overlap with hemoglobin, decreasing the bioluminescence intensity. The red luminescent probe produced a fluorescence that identified liver cancer cells in live mice. Because of the commercial availability of anti-cancer antibodies, this method could be quickly deployed to visualize cancers and provide early detection of many types of tumors, according to the researchers.
Article #09-08594: "In vivo far-red luminescence imaging of a biomarker based on BRET from Cypridina bioluminescence to an organic dye," by Chun Wu, Kazuhiro Mino, Hidetoshi Akimoto, Makiko Kawabata, Koji Nakamura, Michitaka Ozaki, and Yoshihiro Ohmiya
MEDIA CONTACT: Yoshihiro Ohmiya, Research Institute for Genome-based Biofactory, AIST, Sapporo, JAPAN; tel: +81-011-857-8493 (day), +81-80-2018-4702 (evening), e-mail: y-ohmiya@aist.go.jp
Protection against arsenic toxicity
A specific protein may help the liver excrete arsenic, thereby providing partial protection of an animal from arsenic toxicity.
Article: #09-08108: "Reduced arsenic clearance and increased toxicity
in aquaglyceroporin-9 null mice," by Jennifer M. Carbrey, Linhua Song, Yao Zhou, Masafumi Yoshinaga, Aleksandra Rojek, Yiding Wang, Yangjian Liu, Heidi L. Lujan, Stephen E. DiCarlo, Søren Nielsen, et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Carbrey, Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; tel: 919-681-4931; e-mail: jennifer.carbrey@duke.edu
Preventing new strains of the influenza virus may be possible by manipulating RNAs in a virus' genetic interior.
Article #09-08897: "Rewiring the RNAs of influenza virus to prevent reassortment," by Qinshan Gao and Peter Palese
MEDIA CONTACT: Peter Palese, Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY; tel: 212-241-7318; e-mail: peter.palese@mssm.edu
A technique that can predict an ocean bacterium's adaptation strategies solely by analyzing its genome sequence may show how oceanic bacteria adapt to their environments.
Article #09-03507: "The genomic basis of trophic strategy in bacteria," by Federico M. Lauro, Diane McDougald, Torsten Thomas, Timothy J. Williams, Suelen Egan, Scott Rice, Matthew Z. DeMaere, Lily Ting, Haluk Ertan, Justin Johnson, et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Rick Cavicchioli, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA; tel: +61-2-9385-3516OR or +61-2-9501-1505; e-mail: r.cavicchioli@unsw.edu.au
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