Creative Biomart Blog

Sat, 2020/08/15

Identify a Key Protein that Can Regulate the Female Body's Estrogen Cycle - RSK2

Recently, in a research report titled “RSK2 Maintains Adult Estrogen Homeostasis by Inhibiting ERK1/2-Mediated Degradation of Estrogen Receptor Alpha” published in the Cell Reports, scientists from Vanderbilt University and other institutions found a key regulatory protein through research that can regulate the body's estrogen cycle. Oral contraceptives will moderately increase the risk of breast cancer in women, and birth control methods will use estrogen, a hormone that binds to estrogen receptor alpha (ER-α) to change the reproductive cycle, although scientists know a lot about estrogen

Fri, 2020/08/14

A Special Protein May Help SARS-CoV-2 to Spread Rapidly in Host Cells!

Recently, in a research report published in The FASEB Journal, scientists from Colorado State University and other institutions discovered that a special kind of virus-encoded by SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that induces COVID-19) protein may be directly related to the rapid spread of viruses in the human body. Now scientists have begun to reveal the key features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus through the use of basic research tools and bioinformatics analysis, and these features are expected to help scientists develop new therapies for COVID-19 in the future. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, these research

Thu, 2020/07/23

The Use of Activin/GDF Fusion Protein Is Expected to Treat Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension (PAH) is an insidious disease. Its symptoms may start slowly, and even before the symptoms appear, extensive damage has caused the blockage of small arteries, resulting in increased blood pressure in the lungs. When the symptoms—the most obvious being shortness of breath—are severe enough for PAH patients to seek treatment and obtain a definite diagnosis, based on currently available treatments, the patient’s chance of survival within five years is slightly higher than 50%. Dr. Paul B. Yu, an expert in cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the Uni

Thu, 2020/07/23

Inhibition of the STING Protein Pathway Can Prevent Patients from Developing Graft-versus-host Disease

In a new study, researchers found that inhibiting the STING protein pathway can protect some patients from graft versus host disease (GVHD), among which, GVHD is the most serious complication of bone marrow (stem cell) transplantation. The relevant research results were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The title of the paper is “STING differentially regulates experimental GVHD mediated by CD8 versus CD4 T cell subsets”. Dr. Levy said, “This pathway plays a very important role in allogeneic (donor) stem cell transplantation. In a preclinical model that simulates trans

Wed, 2020/06/24

PNAS: Obese Hormones Increase the Risk of Sepsis

Scientists from the Gulbenkian de Ciência Institute (IGC) led by Luís Moita have discovered that a hormone believed to treat obesity reduces the body's resistance to bacterial infections and increases the risk of sepsis. The research results were recently published in PNAS. Sepsis is a potentially fatal disease that stems from the dysregulation of the organism's response to infection, leading to organ failure. A recent study published in the scientific journal “The Lancet” estimated that in 2017 sepsis infected 49 million people and 11 million people died globally. To expand their understan

Wed, 2020/06/24

Loss of Fat-regulated Genes Accelerates Metastatic Spread of Prostate Cancer

Researchers at the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiology at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University have discovered a lipid-modulating protein that transfers a substance that researchers call “superpower” to prostate cancer cells, allowing them to spread malignantly. In studies of human prostate cancer cells and stromal cell lines, when the lipid regulatory protein called CAVIN1 was removed from stromal cells (connective tissue cells in and around the tumor), the cells no longer used lipids. Instead, cancer cells enjoy the oil in the environment, using it as

Thu, 2020/05/21

Anti-Inflammatory Drug Anakinra May Improve Respiratory Function in Some Severe COVID-19 Patients

A small study of 8 patients in Greece found that the clinically approved anti-inflammatory drug anakinra (anakinra, which is essentially an IL-1 inhibitor) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis It can improve the respiratory function of severe COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019, 2019 coronavirus disease) patients. The eight patients also suffered from a disease called secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH), which was characterized by excessive immune system activation and organ failure. One patient did not need mechanical ventilation, after starting treatment with this drug, h

Thu, 2020/05/21

Smokers Express Higher ACE2 and Are Susceptible to Coronavirus Infection

Data from COVID-19 patients indicate that smokers are at higher risk of complications. The researchers published an article in the journal Developmental Cell that one of the possible reasons is that smoking increases the gene expression of ACE2 (a protein that binds to SARS-CoV-2), which may promote COVID- 19 infections. The study shows that long-term smoking will increase the ACE2 protein in the lungs, which may lead to a higher incidence of patients. The author of the article, Jason Sheltzer, a cancer geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, said: "Our results suggest why smoking popu