human cells

(Northwestern University) A drug used to treat cancer may also be effective in diseases that cause scarring of the internal organs or skin, such as pulmonary fibrosis or scleroderma.

The drug, with the generic name bortezomib, stopped the development of fibrotic proteins in human cells and stopped the development of fibrous scarring in a mouse model of fibrotic disease.

There currently is no effective treatment for these diseases, which have a high fatality rate.

(University of Southern California) Study of human cells finds mitochondria, energy plants of cells, to be more vulnerable in senescent cells due to impaired function of an anti-oxidant enzyme.

(Georgia Health Sciences University) The most common breast cancer uses the most efficient, powerful food delivery system known in human cells and blocking that system kills it, researchers report.

This method of starving cancer cells could provide new options for patients, particularly those resistant to standard therapies such as tamoxifen, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers said.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Researchers have engineered new sensors that fluoresce in the presence of compounds that interact with estrogen receptors in human cells.

The sensors detect natural or human-made substances that alter estrogenic signaling in the body.

(University of Illinois at Chicago) University of Illinois at Chicago scientists report they've discovered small molecules that appear to bind to the outer protein coat of the Ebola virus, possibly blocking the virus from entering human cells.

The finding may open new paths to treatment of Ebola and the related Marburg viral disease.

BOSTON (MedPage Today) -- Researchers here have pared down animal livers to their basic vascular structure and repopulated them with human liver progenitor and endothelial cells, a small step toward ultimately creating completely bioartificial livers.

For the first time, human cells have been used to create a lab-grown liver.

WebMD reports

(Walter and Eliza Hall Institute) Development of an effective vaccine for malaria is a step closer following identification of a key pathway used by the malaria parasite to infect human cells.

The discovery, by researchers at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, provides a new vaccine target through which infection with the deadly disease could be prevented.

(University of Edinburgh) Fresh discoveries about the parasite that causes sleeping sickness could lead to new avenues of research into treatments for the disease.

(University of California - San Francisco) UCSF researchers have discovered that a key cellular defect that disturbs the production of proteins in human cells can lead to cancer susceptibility.

The scientists also found that a new generation of inhibitory drugs offers promise in correcting this defect.