Preclinical Developments news from FierceBioResearcher

In a remarkable breakthrough for weight research, scientists have reported the discovery of a neurochemical pathway that stimulates the accumulation of fat in animals laboring under chronically high stress and exposed to a diet of junk food. Inhibiting the pathway prevented weight gain in mice but selectively spurring the mechanism allowed for the strategic accumulation of weight--potentially opening a new pathway to mold larger breasts, firmer buttocks and younger faces.

Zofia …

The heart drug propranolol can be used to interfere with the way the brain stores memories, offering a new approach to treating people with post traumatic stress disorder, according to a team of U.S. and Canadian scientists. The researchers at McGill and Harvard worked with a group of volunteers with traumatic memories of a crash or rape. They treated the victims with the drugs over a period of 10 days, during which the group related their memories. A week later the volunteers treated …

A discovery that the presence of prions interrupts the buildup of beta amyloid may point to new therapies to treat Alzheimer's. The research work was triggered by similarities between human mad cow disease and Alzheimer's. In mad cow disease, corrupted prion proteins cause brain damage. When the level of normal prions is high, the researchers noted, the presence of beta amyloids was low. When the level of prions was low, though, beta amyloids were more prevalent. To test the work, …

The Times' Anjana Ahuja takes J. Craig Venter's latest revelation and breaks it down to some easily understood concepts. Venter is focused on creating synthetic life, taking 400 or so genes and making a microbe of his own design. Built properly, the microbe could be used to create a new generation of clean fuels. And his patent on the work, if granted, would give Venter …

There's new evidence to support the theory that the enzyme protein kinase G offers a promising target in the fight against tuberculosis. The enzyme is secreted by the microbe that triggers TB and is believed to provide essential protection for the bug from the host's immune system, which tracks down and kills most pathogens. Scientists say they have a compound that can block the protein, but were worried about interfering with the action of other proteins also secreted by the microbe. …

Researchers from the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reversed mild retardation and severe autism in mice by inhibiting the enzyme called p21-activated kinase (PAK). Their study focused on Fragile X Syndrome (FXS)--a leading cause of retardation and autism--which is linked to a mutated X chromosome gene. The PAK enzyme controls the connections between neurons and the brain.

"Strikingly, PAK inhibition also restored electrical …

In what is shaping up as one of the toughest rehab jobs in science, disgraced Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk is logging long hours in his new lab. Hwang was accused of one of the biggest frauds in scientific history when he claimed in 2005 to have cloned human embryos and developed embryonic stem cells from them. Hwang apologized for the scam but insisted that he should be …

A scientist at the University of Central Florida has helped develop a nanoparticle that apparently helps deliver high concentrations of medicine for treating glaucoma. The tiny size of the particle allows it to penetrate the blood-brain barrier that typically obstructs therapies. Sudipta Seal, an engineering professor with appointments in UCF's Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center and the Nanoscience Technology Center, says that only 1 percent to 3 percent of existing …

Stanford University scientists have discovered a naturally occurring protein that could be used to treat multiple sclerosis. Injecting alphaB-crystallin into mice with MS, the researchers say they were able to reduce symptoms and cell death while reversing paralysis. Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences, says that the immune system automatically attacks the protein when it finds it in the brain, even though it's a natural healing agent. "Like a runaway …

Pointing the way to the development of customized blood vessel grafts for heart and kidney disease, researchers have taken stem cells from muscle tissue to make the blood vessel grafts in rats. The stem cells were allowed to develop on elastic tubes within days of extraction. The researchers were able to seed millions of the stem cells on a tube that was 1.2 mm in diameter. Gaining direction from surrounding tissue on blood pressure and other physical traits, the stem cells formed a …