The white-frocked, determined men of test tubes, calipers and meters who log hours of experimental research progress never cease to amaze me \u2014 and why shouldn\u2019t they? In one area at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, for instance, they have determined how a pesky cold virus can be a valuable ally in the fight against cancer.\u00a0In another, they have put together findings that might encourage inroads in dealing with Parkinson\u2019s disease. \u00a0 Of course, most of the discoveries are meshed from research and language adaptable only to laboratory conversation and arrived at with major input from colleagues in other countries. These things take teamwork. According to a study recently released in Cell, adenovirus, a type of cold virus, has developed molecular tools or proteins that allow it to hijack a cell\u2019s molecular machinery, including large cellular machines involved in growth, replication and cancer suppression. Researchers identified the construction of these molecular weapons and found they form a three-dimensional web inside cells that traps and overpowers cellular sentries involved in growth and cancer suppression.\u00a0 Findings suggest a new avenue for developing cancer therapies by mimicking strategies employed by the viruses. “Cancer was once a black box,” said Clodagh O\u2019Shea, an assistant professor in Salk\u2019s Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, who led the study. “The key that opened that box was revealing the interactions between small DNA tumor virus proteins and cellular tumor suppressor complexes.” \u00a0 \u00a0 The suggestions may help scientists develop small molecules \u2014 the basis for the vast majority of current\u00a0drugs \u2014 capable of destroying tumors by binding and disrupting large and complex cellular components that allow cancer cells to grow and spread. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, Sontag Foundation, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation and the Anna Fuller Foundation. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 INTERNATIONAL INVOLVEMENT<\/b> By reprogramming skin cells from Parkinson\u2019s disease patients with a known genetic mutation, researchers have identified damage to neural stem cells as a powerful player in the disease. The findings, reported in Nature, may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease. The research team, which included scientists from China and Spain, as well as the University of California, San Diego, and Scripps Research Institute, made discoveries using human-induced pluripotent stem cells. \u00a0 They found that a common mutation to a gene that produces an enzyme responsible for both familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson\u2019s disease deforms the membrane surrounding the nucleus of a neural stem cell. Damaging the nuclear architecture leads to destruction of these powerful cells, as well as their decreased ability to spawn functional neurons, like the ones that respond to dopamine. The researchers checked their laboratory findings with brain samples from Parkinson\u2019s disease patients and found the same nuclear envelope impairment. “This discovery helps explain how Parkinson\u2019s disease, which has been traditionally associated with loss of neurons that produce dopamine and subsequent motor impairment, could lead to locomotor dysfunction and other common non-motor manifestations, such as depression and anxiety,” said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk\u2019s Gene Expression Laboratory, who led the research team.\u00a0 Although researchers say they don\u2019t yet know whether these nuclear aberrations cause Parkinson\u2019s disease or are a consequence of it, they say the discovery could offer clues about potential new therapeutic approaches. \u2014 Johnny McDonald is a longtime writer and columnist for the San Diego Community Newspaper Group. He can be reached at johnny23@cox.net.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The white-frocked, determined men of test tubes, calipers and meters who log hours of experimental research progress never cease to amaze me \u2014 and why shouldn\u2019t they? In one area at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, for instance, they have determined how a pesky cold virus can be a valuable ally in the fight […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"La Jolla researchers continue to amaze with scientific advancements","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}