p.R254W Variance. A shift from thymin to cytosine causes a shift in the aminoacid order of the enzyme Chymothrypsin. Courtesy: University of Leipzig

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AIDs-virus leaving a host cell (Courtesy: NIH)

Scientists from the german universities of Ulm and Hannover now discovered a peptide (an enzyme derivate) that accelerates the process of cell infection by the Aids virus. In the recent "Cell"- Volume the physicians Dr. Wolfgang Forsmann and his collegue Dr. Frank Kirchhoff showed this important results of their research groups.

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Incense from the arabian peninsula. Used in asia in traditional medicine. Courtesy: www.esuq.de

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 Inflammatory diseases and infections are triggered by a variety of different biological processes, involving the bacteria or viruses as well as the host physiology. Pathogens often infect their host cells by on-off switch of their gene translation (which causes the expression of special proteins, virulent factors). The large number of different proteins and genes involved in this complicated process between host and pathogen is a obstacle to scientists to investigate the different circuits during an infection. Now with a newly developed method it is easy to target special genes within the bacteria or viruses. With a special promoter which is simply activated by Aspirin (=acetyl-salicyate) the scientists in the laboratory of Prof. Carlos  Guzman (at the Helmholtz-Center of infection research, Braunschweig, Germany) managed to find a control of the activation of single proteins of a pathogen in different periods of an infection.

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Drinking alcohol is common in western societies and part of our daily life. But drinking too much causes severe addiction with numerous diseases following an alcoholic career of many years. One of the deadly consequences can be different types of cancers as head, neck or esophageal cancer. A pooled analysis of 5000 cases from 13 different studies now revealed that  a Withdrawal from alcohol can in the long term reduce the risk of getting one of these cancer forms back to a normal level.

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Glia cell in cell culture from neonatal mouse brain, green: glia cell, red peroxisome (Courtesy of Max-Planck-Institute for experimental medicine, Goettingen, Germany).

Glia cells have been known to play a protective role for the cells of the nervous system, the neurons. Until now glia cells were known as myelin structures which form the layer around the axons, the connections between nerve cells. Likewise an isolation in an electrical cable the myelin which consists of gliacells gives electrical protection for the currents between axons and nerve cells. Researchers of the Max-Planck Institute in Goettingen, Germany, showed in genetically disabled lab mice (knock-out-mice) for the production of peroxisomes (small cell organells), that a lack of these peroxisomes in gliacells caused subsequently a degeneration in the axons.

 

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Viruses cause diseases by penetrating the host cell membrane and transferring its genetic material to the cell compartment to hijack its cellular machinery. Some viruses are protected by an envelope, which allows the virus to bind to specific target cells and via proteins to fusion the envelope with the cell membrane and thus deliver its genome. However, it remains poorly understood how non-enveloped virus, such as the polio virus, which in severe cases where the central nervous system becomes infected results in paralysis, penetrates the cell membrane.

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Round and agressiv, that is the way in which cancer cells attack healthy tissues to initiate metastases. Scientists of the university of Heidelberg, Germany, now published new insights in cancer cell proliferation in "Genes and Development". Similar to the mechanisms in stem cells it is known that cancer cells can change their form by switching on genes. Thanks to the protein "Diaphanous1" (Dia1) cancer cells can modulate their cell skeleton to a round form. The cell skeleton of cancer cells is extremely flexible and smooth similar to human muscle cells.

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German and romanian scientists from the university hospital in Bonn and the university hospital in Cluj-Napoca now found a gene (ABCG8) that increases the risk of getting a biliary colic disease threefold. An estimated ten percent of the european population is carrier of this gene. The gene is causing an increased activity of a molecular pump which is a transporter of cholesterin from the liver into the biliary tract. Gallstones consist primarily of cristalin cholesterin. The study was conducted in 178 individual which are suffering from biliary colics. It revealed that 21% of the participants have the gene ABCG8 compared to a control group with only 8%.

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