Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have clarified how spermine - a small molecule that regulates many processes in the body's cells - can guard against diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's: it renders certain proteins harmless by acting a bit like cheese on noodles, making them clump together. This discovery could help combat such diseases.

Cancer research, drug safety testing and ageing biology may all gain a major boost from a new fluorescent sensor developed at Utrecht University. This new tool allows scientists to watch DNA damage and repair unfold in real time inside living cells. The development, which opens the door to experiments that weren't feasible before, is published in the journal Nature Communications.

A new study from the Systems Immunology Research Group at the Institute of Biochemistry, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged, reveals that our immune system does more than defend against viruses. In certain cases, it induces mutations within viruses that make them easier to recognize later on. The findings have been published in Nature Communications.

A collaborative research team, led by scientists at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, has identified a targeted drug that could effectively treat an aggressive soft tissue cancer that occurs most often in pediatric and young adult patients. New findings - published in Nature Communications - suggest that blocking a specific genetic pathway could reverse a series of tumor-driving cellular interactions

The age-old advice to “trust your gut” could soon take on new meaning for people diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, thanks to a creative feat of bioengineering by researchers in the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Anumantha Kanthasamy, professor and director of the Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research (ICNDR) leads a multidisciplinary research team including Gregory Phillips, Piyush Padhi, and other scientists that has engineered a groundbreaking living medicine, a beneficial probiotic designed to deliver Levodopa steadily from the gut to the brain of Parkinson's patients.

A naturally occurring protein that tends to be expressed at higher levels in breast cancer cells boosts the effectiveness of some anticancer agents, including doxorubicin, one of the most widely used chemotherapies, and a preclinical drug known as ErSO, researchers report. The protein, FGD3, contributes to the rupture of cancer cells disrupted by these drugs, boosting their effectiveness and enhancing anticancer immunotherapies.

A widely-used, inexpensive gout drug could reduce heart attacks and strokes in people with cardiovascular disease, according to a new Cochrane review.

The review examined the effects of low doses of colchicine, a drug used to treat gout, and found no increase in serious side effects.