Cardiac Muscle Derived from Pluripotent Stem Cells

By: CK LAB

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Cardiac Muscle Derived from Pluripotent Stem Cells - Video

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BARRIE - For Brian Hekman, coming to Barrie for a pint has taken on a whole new meaning.

A paramedic for the past 16 years, the 46-year-old Everett man now spends a dozen hours each week at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) receiving pints of platelet transfusions and blood to keep him healthy until a bone-marrow donor can be found.

It takes five blood donors to create enough platelets for one transfusion for Hekman.

To that end, a blood donor clinic is being held at the Barrie Canadian Blood Services clinic at 231 Bayview Dr., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A second blood donor clinic has been set up at the Simcoe County administration offices in the mobile unit Feb. 2 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A father of two children under the age of three, Hekman was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a bone-marrow disorder, on Dec. 23 after a particularly tenacious flare-up of gout wouldnt subside.

Fresh from a blood transfusion at RVH, Hekman and his wife, Lisa, visited the Examiner on Tuesday morning.

While he admits fatigue and a weakened immune system have taken its toll on his body, Hekman said he feels buoyed by the support his fellow County of Simcoe paramedics, family and friends have shown in the last month.

Friends will offer to snow-blow our driveway, babysit or sometimes they drop off a casserole for dinner, he said. You never want to ask for help, but when someone does something like that, its just great.

As a paramedic, he said hes not used to being the person needing help.

Im used to carrying a 300-pound person up the stairs. Now I struggle to carry my six-month-old daughter upstairs, Hekman said.

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Simcoe County paramedic used to helping others in need of bone-marrow transplant

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For the first time, researchers have been able to use pluripotent stem cells to generate cells that can grow new hair.

Hair growing on hairless mice thanks to induced pluripotent stem cells. Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

It's been theorised for years, but now human stem cells have resulted in hair growth for the very first time.

"We have developed a method using human pluripotent stem cells to create new cells capable of initiating human hair growth. The method is a marked improvement over current methods that rely on transplanting existing hair follicles from one part of the head to another," said Alexey Terskikh, Ph.D., associate professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at Sanford-Burnham.

"Our stem cell method provides an unlimited source of cells from the patient for transplantation and isn't limited by the availability of existing hair follicles."

The process started with human pluripotent embryonic stem cells -- that is, stem cells that are capable of developing into any other cell -- which were then developed into neural crest cells. These are cells that can develop into a variety of cells on the head, including brain cells, cartilage, bone and muscle cells.

From the neural crest cell point, the team coaxed the cells to grow into dermal papillae cells, the cells that nourish the skin and regulate follicle growth and formation. When transplanted -- in the case of this study, into hairless mice -- these cells flourish.

Another part of the study examined whether the same result could be achieved using dermal papillae cells taken from the scalps of adult humans. Outside the body, living in culture, these cells are not suitable for hair transplants, since they lost their ability to induce follicle formation. The number of hairs their produced was insignificant.

"In adults, dermal papilla cells cannot be readily amplified outside of the body and they quickly lose their hair-inducing properties," said Terskikh. "We developed a protocol to drive human pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into dermal papilla cells and confirmed their ability to induce hair growth when transplanted into mice."

The researchers say that their research represents the first step towards a cell-based treatment for hair loss, which affects 40 million men and 21 million women in the United States.

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Stem cell-grown hair could help those with hair loss

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A way to eradicate cancer stem cells, using the side-effects of commonly used antibiotics, has been discovered by a University of Manchester researcher following a conversation with his young daughter.

Professor Michael P. Lisanti, Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Unit, led the research. He was inspired to look at the effects of antibiotics on the mitochondria of cancer stem cells by a conversation with his daughter Camilla about his work at the University's Institute of Cancer Sciences.

His new paper, published in Oncotarget, opens up the possibility of a treatment for cancer, which is highly effective and repurposes drugs which have been safely used for decades.

Mitochondria are the 'engine' parts of the cells and are the source of energy for the stem cells as they mutate and divide to cause tumours. Cancer stem cells are strongly associated with the growth and recurrence of all cancers and are especially difficult to eradicate with normal treatment, which also leads to tumours developing resistance to other types of therapy.

Professor Lisanti said: "I was having a conversation with Camilla about how to cure cancer and she asked why don't we just use antibiotics like we do for other illnesses. I knew that antibiotics can affect mitochondria and I've been doing a lot of work recently on how important they are to the growth of tumours, but this conversation helped me to make a direct link."

Professor Lisanti worked with colleagues from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and the Kimmel Cancer Centre, Philadelphia. The team used five types of antibiotics -- including one used to treat acne (doxycycline) -- on cell lines of eight different types of tumour and found that four of them eradicated the cancer stem cells in every test. This included glioblastoma, the most aggressive of brain tumours, as well as lung, prostate, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and skin cancer.

Mitochondria are believed to be descended from bacteria which joined with cells early on in the evolution of life. This is why some of the antibiotics which are used to destroy bacteria also affect mitochondria, though not to an extent which is dangerous to people. When they are present in stem cells, mitochondria provide energy for growth and, crucially, for division, and it is this process going wrong which leads to cancer.

In the lab, the antibiotics had no harmful effect on normal cells, and since they are already approved for use in humans, trials of new treatments should be simpler than with new drugs -- saving time and money.

Professor Lisanti said: "This research makes a strong case for opening new trials in humans for using antibiotics to fight cancer. Many of the drugs we used were extremely effective, there was little or no damage to normal cells and these antibiotics have been in use for decades and are already approved by the FDA for use in humans. However, of course, further studies are needed to validate their efficacy, especially in combination with more conventional therapies."

Dr Matthew Lam, Senior Research Officer at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "The conclusions that the researchers have drawn, whilst just hypotheses at this stage, are certainly interesting. Antibiotics are cheap and readily available and if in time the link between their use and the eradication of cancer stem cells can be proved, this work may be the first step towards a new avenue for cancer treatment.

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Antibiotics as new cancer treatments? Conversation with schoolgirl sparks idea

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Professor Michael P. Lisanti, Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Unit, led the research. He was inspired to look at the effects of antibiotics on the mitochondria of cancer stem cells by a conversation with his daughter Camilla about his work at the University's Institute of Cancer Sciences.

His new paper, published in Oncotarget, opens up the possibility of a treatment for cancer, which is highly effective and repurposes drugs which have been safely used for decades.

Mitochondria are the 'engine' parts of the cells and are the source of energy for the stem cells as they mutate and divide to cause tumours. Cancer stem cells are strongly associated with the growth and recurrence of all cancers and are especially difficult to eradicate with normal treatment, which also leads to tumours developing resistance to other types of therapy.

Professor Lisanti said: "I was having a conversation with Camilla about how to cure cancer and she asked why don't we just use antibiotics like we do for other illnesses. I knew that antibiotics can affect mitochondria and I've been doing a lot of work recently on how important they are to the growth of tumours, but this conversation helped me to make a direct link."

Professor Lisanti worked with colleagues from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and the Kimmel Cancer Centre, Philadelphia. The team used five types of antibiotics - including one used to treat acne (doxycycline) - on cell lines of eight different types of tumour and found that four of them eradicated the cancer stem cells in every test. This included glioblastoma, the most aggressive of brain tumours, as well as lung, prostate, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and skin cancer.

Mitochondria are believed to be descended from bacteria which joined with cells early on in the evolution of life. This is why some of the antibiotics which are used to destroy bacteria also affect mitochondria, though not to an extent which is dangerous to people. When they are present in stem cells, mitochondria provide energy for growth and, crucially, for division, and it is this process going wrong which leads to cancer.

In the lab, the antibiotics had no harmful effect on normal cells, and since they are already approved for use in humans, trials of new treatments should be simpler than with new drugs - saving time and money.

Professor Lisanti said: "This research makes a strong case for opening new trials in humans for using antibiotics to fight cancer. Many of the drugs we used were extremely effective, there was little or no damage to normal cells and these antibiotics have been in use for decades and are already approved by the FDA for use in humans. However, of course, further studies are needed to validate their efficacy, especially in combination with more conventional therapies."

Dr Matthew Lam, Senior Research Officer at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "The conclusions that the researchers have drawn, whilst just hypotheses at this stage, are certainly interesting. Antibiotics are cheap and readily available and if in time the link between their use and the eradication of cancer stem cells can be proved, this work may be the first step towards a new avenue for cancer treatment.

"This is a perfect example of why it is so important to continue to invest in scientific research. Sometimes there are answers to some of the biggest questions right in front of us but without ongoing commitment to the search for these answers, we'd never find them."

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Schoolgirl comment points to antibiotics as new cancer treatments

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Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy by Dr.PV Mahajan
Patient testimonial of Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy treated by StemRx Bioscience Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

By: StemRx BioScience

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Arthritic knees three months after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D.
Holly, three-time World Cup Downhill Gold Medalist and Olympian, discusses her outcome from bone marrow stem cells for her arthritic knees performed at Docere Clinics http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Arthritic knees three months after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. - Video

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A gene variant believed to "wire" people to live longer might also ensure that they keep their wits about them as they age, a new study reports.

People who carry this gene variant have larger volumes in a front part of the brain involved in planning and decision-making, researchers reported Jan. 27 in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.

These folks performed better on tests of working memory and the brain's processing speed, both considered good measures of the planning and decision-making functions controlled by the brain region in question.

"The thing that is most exciting about this is this is one of the first genetic variants we've identified that helps promote healthy brain aging," said study lead author Jennifer Yokoyama, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She noted that genetic research has mainly focused on abnormalities that cause diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The gene involved, KLOTHO, provides the coding for a protein called klotho that is produced in the kidney and brain and regulates many processes in the body, the researchers said.

Previous research has found that a genetic variation of KLOTHO called KL-VS is associated with increased klotho levels, longer lifespan and better heart and kidney function, the study authors said in background information. About one in five people carries a single copy of KL-VS, and enjoys these benefits.

For this study, the researchers scanned the healthy brains of 422 men and women aged 53 and older to see if having a single copy of KL-VS affected the size of any brain area.

They found that people with this genetic variation had about 10 percent more volume in a brain region called the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, Yokoyama said.

This region is especially vulnerable to atrophy as people age, and its age-related decline may be one reason why older people can be easily distracted and have difficulty juggling tasks, she said.

Referring to the region as the "conductor of the brain's orchestra," Yokoyama said that it helps people "pay attention to certain types of things, to appropriately shift your attention and to engage working memory," which is the ability to keep a small amount of newly acquired information in mind.

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"Long life" gene might also make some smarter

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Genetic Engineering for Mining Water Filtering
This is a biotech company video made to show the process of genetically modifying bacteria used for filtering mining water-- Created using PowToon -- Free si...

By: shchang18

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IMAGE:Big Data, published quarterly in print and online, facilitates and supports the efforts of researchers, analysts, statisticians, business leaders, and policymakers to improve operations, profitability, and communications within... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, January 28, 2015 - EMBERS is a large-scale big data analytics system designed to use publically available data to predict population-level societal events such as civil unrest or disease outbreaks. The usefulness of this predictive artificial intelligence system over the past 2 years is reviewed in an article in Big Data, the highly innovative, peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Big Data website.

In the article "Forecasting Significant Societal Events Using the EMBERS Streaming Predictive Analytics System," Andy Doyle and coauthors, CACI, Inc. (Lanham, MD), Virginia Tech (Arlington, VA), and BASIS Technology (Herndon, VA), describe the structure and function of the Early Model Based Event Recognition using Surrogates (EMBERS) system. They describe EMBERS as a working example of a big data streaming architecture that processes large volumes of social media data and uses a variety of modeling approaches to make predictions.

"EMBERS represents a significant advance in our ability to make sense of large amounts of unstructured data in an automated manner," says Big Data Editor-in-Chief Vasant Dhar, Co-Director, Center for Business Analytics, Stern School of Business, New York University. "The authors present an architecture that provides a scalable method for dealing with large streams of social media data emanating from Twitter. Although the focus of the paper is on predicting social unrest globally, the methods should be usable for processing these type of data for a variety of applications."

###

About the Journal

Big Data, published quarterly in print and online, facilitates and supports the efforts of researchers, analysts, statisticians, business leaders, and policymakers to improve operations, profitability, and communications within their organizations. Spanning a broad array of disciplines focusing on novel big data technologies, policies, and innovations, the Journal brings together the community to address the challenges and discover new breakthroughs and trends living within this information. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Big Data website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, Journal of Computational Biology, New Space, and 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 80 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Bluez Brotherz Genetics update on BB 1 n 2 flower
Two weeks in tomorrow night and she #39;s got some major tities already. Check out bluez brotherz....Blue widow x blue dream.

By: jim blushi

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UVA Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic: Overview of the Clinic
UVA Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic - http://uvahealth.com/ UVA Health System Cardiologist, Dr. Robert Battle, discusses the importance and the process of cardiovascular genetics testing. ...

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Genetics of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)

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Genetics for Sustainability: Management of Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon
How do you manage the world #39;s largest sockeye salmon fishery? In his 5:23 long video,"Genetics for Sustainability," Nate Shoutis goes north to explore the use of molecular genetic data by...

By: Alaska Department of Fish and Game (Department Sponsored)

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5000w, 10 strain genetics run, ep 3-4, top feed flood, NO Co2, T5 veg
Episode 3-4 5000w, 10 strain genetics run, top feed and flood, NO Co2, T5 veg, Pinkman Goo, Walter White Og, Blue Cheese, Green Crack, Komodo Dragon, Nevilles Haze, Purple Master, Af Wreck,...

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TSG Sin City genetics update
Nightmare cookies.

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TSG Sin City genetics update - Video

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Friday Forum - Your Genes are not Your Destiny - From Big Data to Personalized Medicine
Presented on January 23, 2015 Your Genes are not Your Destiny - From Big Data to Personalized Medicine Dr. Leroy Hood helped pioneer the human genome program...

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Tale of a Paralyzed Pup
Mel is a miniature dachshund who had the misfortune of becoming paralyzed after a severe spinal cord injury. Fortunately for her, she still wins at life. This is her story. I do not own "Here...

By: Ashley Nizolek

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Stem Cell Transplantation at BLOOD
24.10.1423.01.15 BLOOD: NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED Twenty five provocative works that explore the scientific, symbolic and strange nature of blood. This vide...

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Achievementmade after coaxing stem cells to become papilla cells Dermal papilla is a special type of cell which is vital to follicle formation It could provide an unlimited source of cells for hair transplant procedures

By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:15 EST, 27 January 2015 | Updated: 16:16 EST, 27 January 2015

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Finding a cure for baldness has become the holy grail for scientists the world over.

Now researchers in Orlando have come a step closer to a natural treatment after successfully growing new hair using human stem cells.

The breakthrough was achieved after coaxing stem cells to become dermal papilla cells a special type of cell which is vital to follicle formation.

Researchers in Orlando have come a step closer to a natural treatment for baldness after successfully growing new hair using human stem cells. Pictured is the hair growth on the leg of an adult rat

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LOS ANGELES (Jan. 27, 2015) - Researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute have devised a novel way to generate transplantable corneal stem cells that may eventually benefit patients suffering from life-altering forms of blindness.

Scientists used human corneal cells to generate pluripotent stem cells that have a capacity to become virtually any body cell. Then, putting these cells on natural scaffolds, researcher's facilitated differentiation of these stem cells back to corneal cells.

"Our research shows that cells derived from corneal stem cells are attractive candidates for generating corneal cells in the laboratory," said Alexander Ljubimov, PhD, director of the Eye Program at the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and principal investigator on this research study.

This research, published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine, marks an important first step toward creating a bank of corneal stem cells that may potentially benefit patients who suffer from many forms of corneal blindness. The group is now working to optimize the process with National Institutes of Health funding.

Corneal deficiencies may have genetic or inflammatory roots or be caused by injuries, like burns to the skin in occupational accidents. They result in damage or death of stem cells that renew the outermost part of the cornea. If left untreated, they often cause compromised vision or blindness.

Over 150,000 Americans and more than 3 million individuals worldwide are affected by corneal blindness.

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Study collaborators include Clive Svendsen, PhD, director of the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and professor of biomedical sciences and medicine; Dhruv Sareen, PhD, director of the Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Core and assistant professor of biomedical sciences; Mehrnoosh Saghizadeh, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical sciences; Yaron Rabinowitz, MD, director of the Division of Ophthalmology Research; and Vincent A. Funari, PhD, director of the Genomics Core and assistant professor of pediatrics.

Citation: Sareen D, Saghizadeh M, Ornelas L, et al. Differentiation of human limbal-derived induced pluripotent stem cells into limbal-like epithelium. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2014; 3(9):1002-12.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Researchers advance the science behind treating patients with corneal blindness

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Hair growing from human dermal papillae cells, which were cultivated from pluripotent stem cells.

Cells needed to grow hair have been produced from human stem cells, according to a study led by scientists at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla. The first-time feat could uncork a bottleneck in developing hair-replacement therapies, the scientists say.

Called the dermal papillae, these cells regulate hair follicle formation and growth cycles. They rapidly lose their hair-generating ability after being grown outside the body, limiting their use for hair regrowth. Another cell type derived from stem cells effectively substitutes for the dermal papillae, the scientists found.

These artificial dermal papillae cells were grown from pluripotent stem cells, which can be derived either from human embryos or a patient's own skin cells. The latter, called induced pluripotent stem cells, are of the most interest, said lead researcher Alexey V. Terskikh. Patients can donate their own IPS cells, which can be grown into the replacement dermal papillae in "unlimited" quantities," he said.

Alexey V. Terskikh, Principal Investigator, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute / Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Sanford-Burnham is now looking for business partners to commercialize the discovery. More information can be found at: utsandiego.com/sbhair.

The study was published last week in the journal PLOS One. Terskikh is the study's senior author. Ksenia Gnedeva is first author.

In the lab, the human embryonic stem cells were first turned into neural crest cells, which produce brain cells, cartilage, bone, pigment and muscle cells. The cells were then converted into the artificial dermal papillae cells. These human cells induced hair formation, when transplanted along with mouse skin epidermal cells into immune-deficient and nearly hairless "nude mice".

Because nude mice were created from albino ancestors, the transplanted skin cells were chosen from dark-haired mice. This let the scientists distinguish hairs grown by the mice from cells grown by the transplanted cells.

Transplanted epidermal cells alone caused "minimal" growth, the study said.

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Sanford-Burnham's hair-raising study

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People who carry a gene variation associated with longevity have better brain cognition and are more resilient to aging, new research has found, paving the way for future treatments for brain aging and disease.

Using whole-brain analysis of healthy older adults, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that those who had the gene variation, a single copy of the KLOTHO allele, called KL-VS, had larger volumes in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) of their brains and therefore slightly better cognitive function.

KL-VS codes for a protein, called klotho, that circulates in the body and is present throughout the animal kingdom. Its long been known that klotho, which is produced in the kidneys and brain, regulates aging.

The rDLPFC region, which interacts with many other brain regions, is most known for its role in executive function, higher-level cognitive skills used to control and coordinate cognitive abilities and behaviors, such as attention, working memory, and decision-making.

This type of cognition is really important in sophisticated and very simple types of thinking, first author Jennifer Yokoyama, an assistant professor of neurology at UCSF told FoxNews.com.

The rDLPFC is very vulnerable to aging and tends to get smaller, leading to lower cognition, Yokoyama added.

What our data means in the bigger picture is that people who carry the genetic code, one in five people, that confers a decade of resilience against expected decline in executive function and size of that region, senior author Dr. Dena Dubal, an assistant professor of neurology at UCSF, told FoxNews.com.

The team also found that two copies of KL-VS, about three percent of people, was associated with a shorter lifespan, increased cardiovascular risk, worsened cognitive function, and a smaller rDLPFC.

The findings are one of the first showing the positive effect of a genetic variant on brain aging, researchers said, adding to their previously published research that found that boosting the level of KL-VS in mice lead to longer lifespan and increased brain function. With this understanding, scientists are one step closer to predicting healthy brain aging and treatment for diseases affecting rDLPFC, such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

The question we are answering next is what does this mean for [brain] disease and how can this be translated into some kind of therapeutic to help people suffering? Dubal said.

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Gene variant associated with better aging, cognitive function, study finds

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Newswise (MEMPHIS, Tenn. January 26, 2015) About 10 percent of young leukemia patients of East Asian ancestry inherit a gene variation that is associated with reduced tolerance of a drug that is indispensable for curing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer. St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital scientists led the study, which is being published online today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Researchers reported that patients who inherited either one or two copies of the newly identified variation in the NUDT15 gene were extremely sensitive to the drug mercaptopurine. Patients with the NUDT15 variant required a mercaptopurine dose reduction of as much as 92 percent. At standard doses patients developed side effects that caused treatment delays and threatened their chances of cures.

The finding should aid efforts to improve identification and treatment of patients who need reduced doses of mercaptopurine. Mercaptopurine is the backbone of chemotherapy that has helped transform the outlook for young ALL patients. At St. Jude, 94 percent of newly diagnosed ALL patients now become long-term survivors.

In this study, patients of East Asian and Hispanic background were more likely to inherit the NUDT15 variant than those from other racial and ethnic groups. Among patients of East Asian ancestry, 9.8 percent carried at least one copy of the NUDT15 variant, compared to 3.9 percent of Hispanic patients. The variant was rarer among those of European or African ancestry. East Asia includes China, Japan and Korea.

Mercaptopurine intolerance has been suspected to be a problem for young ALL patients of East Asian ancestry. Even at very low doses, the patients often develop toxicity that delays treatment, but until now the genetic basis of the problem was unknown, said Jun J. Yang, Ph.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Yang is first and corresponding author of the paper.

St. Jude is a pioneer in the field of pharmacogenetics, which focuses on how inherited differences in the makeup of genes influence patients drug responses. This study confirmed previous St. Jude research that showed variations in another gene, TPMT, were also associated with an increased risk of mercaptopurine toxicity. St. Jude patients are now routinely tested for the TPMT variants, and the results help determine the mercaptopurine dose patients receive.

The TPMT variants did not completely explain mercaptopurine toxicity. The TPMT variants are less common in individuals of East Asian ancestry. TPMT carries instructions for a protein of the same name. Some patients with normal TPMT still cannot tolerate standard doses of the drug. That suggested there are other inherited genetic risk factors at play, Yang said.

This study is the most comprehensive effort yet to identify the genetic basis of mercaptopurine intolerance in young ALL patients. Researchers screened the DNA of 657 pediatric ALL patients for 40,889 different inherited genetic variations. The patients were enrolled in a Childrens Oncology Group (COG) clinical trial. COG is a federally supported clinical trials network focused exclusively on childhood cancer research. Patients were scheduled to receive standard daily doses of mercaptopurine. The doses were reduced, however, if patients developed infections or other drug-related complications.

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Inherited Gene Variation Helps Explain Drug Toxicity in Patients of East Asian Ancestry

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[Cross-posted from our new Energy and Environment blog.]

One of the strange things about being human beings is that we are highly conscious of our surroundings, yet are oblivious to the molecular machinations within our own bodies. Sure, we monitor ourselves were hungry, were tired, were squirrelly, weve got the sewing-machine leg, we shoulda tried the decaf. Those of us who focus on our breathing can find our psychic zone of serenity, where we can feel superior to other people who breathe less immaculately and more clumsily. But whatever: Were not aware of whats happening at the cellular level, down there where the ribosomes are taking information from DNA and manufacturing proteins that somehow serve specific functions simply through their three-dimensional structure.

We certainly dont pause to consider that, thanks to the trillions of bacteria we host, most of the genetic information in our bodies is not actually human. Were a composite organism. Life is basically the weirdest and most astonishing thing ever.

And now, increasingly, human beings are at the controls through genetic engineering and other advanced laboratory technologies. This is the age of synthetic life.

GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are a source of enduring controversy, and its not simply a matter of science. There are economic and political issues here, with huge corporations like Monsanto looming over a discussion that touches on ownership of novel species and the question of who, exactly, will benefit from these technologies.

But lets cut to a basic question: Are GMOs safe?

Nothing controversial there! Seriously, you can answer this question round or square depending on which experts and activists you contact. Generally, though, scientists hold that food containing GMOs are just as safe to consume as food that comes from crops modified through traditional breeding techniques. Just because it comes out of a lab doesnt make it dangerous. The American Association for the Advancement of Science opposed the 2012 Proposition 37 California referendum that would have required GMO labeling. The AAAS board of directors said this would unnecessarily alarm consumers.

But what about the environment? Do GMOs pose an ecological risk?

The answer to that is controversial, said David Guston, a professor of politics and global studies and co-director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. He noted a much-publicized case where superweeds had developed a resistance to the herbicide Roundup as a result of heavy Roundup use on genetically modified, Roundup-resistant crops.

Any particular change is part of a larger system. You can say that the Roundup-resistant weeds, the superweeds, arent a direct effect of the genetic modification of the BT-resistant corn, but theyre a consequences of the agricultural practices that surround the Roundup-ready crop, Guston said. Some of this is foreseeable, and some of this is not foreseeable.

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Achenbach: Welcome to Science Tuesday Mid-Afternoon: Should we be worried about synthetic organisms cooked up in ...

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