Pequenas mudanças de hábito podem prevenir câncer

Profissionais do Hospital A.C. Camargo indicam como manter a saúdem em ordem e detectar tumores mais cedo

A palavra câncer assusta muita gente. Mas diagnosticar e tratar um tumor precocemente pode aumentar muito as chances de cura. Por isso, selecionamos algumas dicas de especialistas do Hospital A.C. Camargo, de São Paulo, que podem te ajudar a prevenir e até procurar um médico caso desconfie estar com algum tipo de câncer.

O Hospital é responsável por 60% da produção científica envolvendo oncologia de todo o País e identifica e trata 14 mil casos da doença ao ano. Para diminuir as chances de apresentar tumores, dicas básicas como manter uma alimentação saudável, não exagerar no álcool, fazer exercícios regularmente e não fumar valem para praticamente todos os tipos de câncer.

Confira abaixo algumas dicas para diminuição de riscos dos tipos mais comuns de câncer: 

Colo do útero 

Por ser causado por vírus, pode ser prevenido facilmente com o uso de camisinha durante as relações sexuais e visitas regulares ao ginecologista para a realização do exame papanicolau. Evite cigarro e mantenha a região genital bem higienizada.

Intestino 

Os tumores de intestino e reto, um dos mais comuns em homens e mulheres, podem ser evitados com alimentação saudável. São mais comuns em pessoas acima dos 50 anos e a prevenção engloba uma dieta rica em frutas, vegetais, fibras, cálcio e com pouca gordura animal, bebidas alcoólicas e carne vermelha. Pesquisas recentes relacionam a doença a embutidos e defumados. Com diagnóstico precoce, a taxa de cura é de cerca de 95%.

Pele 

O tipo de câncer mais comum no mundo. No Brasil, 120 mil pessoas são diagnosticados por ano. O crescimento de pintas no corpo pode ser o melanoma, um dos sintomas mais frequentes e agressivos. Para evitar a doença, evite ficar exposto ao sol entre 10h e 16h, use chapéu, guarda sol, óculos, filtro solar (no mínimo, de FPS 15). Ao sinal de qualquer mancha diferente na pele, procure um dermatologista.

Mama 

Cerca de 90% dos casos do tumor feminino mais comum têm cura quando há diagnóstico precoce. Especialistas indicam a realização do exame de mamografia anualmente a partir dos 40 anos. Quem tem casos deste tipo de câncer na família deve procurar aconselhamento médico mais cedo e fazer acompanhamento com um mastologista. Exercícios e alimentação saudável também ajudam.

Pulmão 

O tipo de câncer que mais mata no Brasil, é muito mais comum entre fumantes. Quem fuma deve parar e consultar um médico pneumologista para realização de exames como radiografia do tórax e tomografia computadorizada. Apenas um em cada dez casos não está relacionado ao cigarro, mas os não fumantes pode tentar prevenir a doença com exercícios regulares e também check-ups médicos.

Estômago 

É mais comum a partir dos 50 anos, mas não há idade indicada para realização de endoscopia. Especialistas do hospital A.C. Camargo indicam a procura de um médico para realização do exame quando há azia, má digestão e dores abdominais frequentes. A prevenção envolve hábitos alimentares saudáveis, com vegetais, frutas, fibras e eliminação de bebidas alcoólicas e cigarro.

Esôfago 

Este tipo de câncer está ligado ao cigarro, bebidas, lesões no esôfago, deficiência de ferro e presença de bactérias. Para evitá-lo, é essencial manter estômago e intestino funcionando bem e evitar álcool e defumados. Quem tem casos na família e refluxo – 20 milhões de brasileiros têm – também deve procurar um especialista. 

Boca 

Os principais sintomas são feridas que não cicatrizam na boca em no máximo duas semanas, manchas brancas ou vermelhas nos lábios. Dificuldades para falar e mastigar, dor, emagrecimento rápido e até presença de caroços no pescoço podem ser sinais da doença. Para prevenir é necessário evitar o cigarro e bebidas, principalmente destiladas; escovar os dentes com frequência; ajustar bem próteses e aparelhos dentários; não utilizar enxaguante bucal com álcool na fórmula, que provoca irritações.

Tireóide 

Três vezes mais frequente em mulheres, pode ser identitificado pela presença de nódulos tireoidianos e gânglios linfáticos na região do pescoço e rouquidão. Além disso, é importante que a pessoa procure um médico quando alguém na família já teve a doença.

Retina 

Chamado de retinoblastoma, 90% dos casos do tumor ocular acontecem em crianças de até cinco anos. Os principais sinais são o estrabismo e a pupila aparecer branca, em vez de vermelha, em fotografias com flash e histórico familiar de tumor ósseo ou retinoblastoma.

Leucemia 

Não existem sintomas claros de leucemia, câncer mais frequente em crianças de 2 a 5 anos, mas ela tem alto índice de cura. Segundo especialistas do A.C.Camargo, quatro em cada cinco crianças são curadas com tratamento. Alguns dos sinais que podem indicar a doença e necessitam de avaliação médica são anemia, fadiga, cansaço, desânimo, dificuldade para andar, sangramentos e febres ocasionais.

BOLETIM INFORMATIVO ABRASCO

Diretoria da ABRASCO marca presença na primeira audiência dos representantes do Movimento da Reforma Sanitária com o Ministro da Saúde Alexandre Padilha

O Presidente da ABRASCO, Luiz Augusto Facchini, os vice-presidentes Elias Rassi Neto, Ligia Bahia e Luis Eugênio Portela, e o Secretário Executivo da Associação, Carlos Silva, participaram da cerimônia de posse do Ministro da Saúde, Alexandre Padilha, no dia 03 de janeiro. Durante seu discurso Padilha fez referência a vários pontos da Agenda Estratégica para a Saúde no Brasil, como o financiamento, relações público-privado, modelo de atenção, APS, acesso e qualidade em saúde, doenças negligenciadas e emergentes, força de trabalho em saúde, formação e educação permanente, ciência e tecnologia, gestão e formulação de políticas. Devido a problemas de tempo não foi possível realizar a reunião preparatória dos integrantes do Movimento da Reforma Sanitária para a audiência com o Ministro, mas ao longo da solenidade foi possível promover a articulação entre os representantes das entidades. O encontro com Padilha aconteceu no dia 04 de janeiro e contou com a participação de integrantes da ABRASCO, do Cebes, da Rede Unida e da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade, além de membros da equipe do ministro, como Helvécio Miranda Magalhães, Odorico Monteiro e Eliane Cruz, entre outros. "A reunião foi muito cordial e todos tiveram oportunidade de falar livremente, expressando as preocupações e as propostas de nossa Agenda. O Ministro sinalizou com um plano de 100 dias, convidando as entidades científicas, as universidades e os centros de pesquisa a contribuírem para o debate e a identificação de alternativas aos problemas do SUS e do setor saúde no país", informou Facchini. Segundo o Presidente da ABRASCO, o Ministro foi enfático em seu interesse de construir uma agenda de trabalho com o Movimento da Reforma Sanitária e suas entidades científicas, e houve consenso quanto à autonomia e liberdade de crítica das entidades em relação ao Ministério da Saúde e ao SUS. Nos próximos dias será distribuído um relatório sucinto sobre o encontro e novas reuniões de trabalho estão previstas para os próximos meses. "Temos a oportunidade de coordenar os esforços do movimento social, da produção científica, da educação profissional, da gestão e da prática profissional em saúde em favor da superação dos desafios e contradições do SUS e das iniquidades em saúde no país. As críticas, as observações e as contribuições de todos serão fundamentais para a continuidade desse processo e a construção de uma agenda de trabalho com o ministro", enfatizou Facchini. Saiba mais sobre o novo Ministro da Saúde clicando aqui. V Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências Sociais e Humanas em Saúde O V Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências Sociais e Humanas em Saúde será realizado de 17 e 20 de abril de 2011, no Campus da Cidade Universitária da Universidade de São Paulo e terá como tema central “O lugar das Ciências Sociais e Humanas no campo da Saúde Coletiva”. O evento pretende reunir pesquisadores, docentes e estudantes de pós-graduação e graduação nas áreas de ciências humanas e sociais voltadas para a saúde, incentivando o debate, a reflexão e o enfrentamento dos desafios teóricos e práticos colocados para esta área no contexto contemporâneo. Realizado pela ABRASCO, o Congresso conta com o apoio do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) e da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (Fapesb). A Comissão Científica recebe resumos de trabalhos até 26 de janeiro.  Todas as informações sobre o evento estão disponíveis aqui. VIII Congresso Brasileiro de Epidemiologia A Comissão de Epidemiologia da ABRASCO promove o VIII Congresso Brasileiro de Epidemiologia, de 12 a 16 de novembro de 2011, em São Paulo. Esta edição terá como tema central o debate sobre a Epidemiologia e seu papel na definição de políticas públicas, articulado que está ao conjunto das demais disciplinas do campo da Saúde Coletiva. O primeiro prazo para inscrição com desconto vence no dia 31 de dezembro e a Comissão Científica receberá resumos de trabalhos até 14 de abril. Mais informações sobre o evento estão disponíveis no site do evento: www.epi2011.com.br. O Papel da Alimentação e da Nutrição na Saúde da População Brasileira A Revista Ciência & Saúde Coletiva inicia o ano de 2011 com o número temático intitulado  O Campo da Alimentação e Nutrição em Saúde Coletiva, já à disposição dos leitores nos formatos impresso e online, cujo sumário pode ser acessado no anexo. Organizado por Maria Lúcia Magalhães Bosi e Shirley Donizete Prado, editoras convidadas, este número ressalta a construção de referenciais interdisciplinares e propostas empíricas que promovem o encontro entre o campo da Alimentação e Nutrição e o da Saúde Coletiva. Os textos dão ênfase ao estatuto científico dessa interface, à produção de pesquisas, à história, às políticas e às teorias que fundamentam a problemática alimentar-nutricional, ao tempo em que evidenciam o papel da sociedade civil na construção do conceito e das práticas de segurança alimentar. Este número traz ainda outras contribuições de grande relevância sobre o assunto em foco, além de outros temas de elevado interesse no âmbito  da saúde coletiva.. Veja o sumário da revista clicando aqui. Boletim impresso da ABRASCO apresenta consolidado de 2010 O número 105 do Boletim impresso da ABRASCO apresenta um consolidado que destaca as realizações da Associação durante 2010. Veja nesta edição: informações sobre as reuniões itinerantes da Diretoria, a entrega do documento "Uma Agenda Estratégica para a Saúde do Brasil" à presidente eleita Dilma Rousseff, a primeira reunião do Fórum de Coordenadores de Cursos de Graduação em Saúde Coletiva, a indexação da Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia pela MedLine, a renovação da Revista Ciência e Saúde Coletiva (que passou a ser mensal), a inauguração do Café Saúde e Letras na Fiocruz Pernambuco, uma entrevista com Carlos Coimbra Jr. sobre o 1° Inquérito Nacional de Saúde e Nutrição dos Povos Indígenas, as publicações técnico-científicas fruto do intercâmbio Brasil-Canadá, a criação da Rede de Pesquisa em Atenção Primária à Saúde, além de informações sobre o I Congresso Brasileiro de Política, Planejamento e Gestão em Saúde, o V simpósio Brasileiro de Vigilância Sanitária e o I Simpósio Brasileiro de Saúde Ambiental, entre outras notícias. A publicação está disponível aqui. Propaganda e Obesidade Carlos Augusto Monteiro, professor do Departamento de Nutrição da Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo e integrante do GT Alimentação e Nutrição em Saúde Coletiva da ABRASCO, publicou o artigo "Propaganda e Obesidade" no jornal O Globo, no último dia 16 de dezembro. No artigo o pesquisador denuncia que "campanhas publicitárias milionárias e extremamente eficazes cuidam para ampliar vantagens dos produtos ultraprocessados, promovendo sua hiperpalatabilidade (´você não pode resistir´) e sua conveniência (´coma em qualquer lugar e a qualquer hora´), quando não estimulando diretamente o comer compulsivo (um desses produtos atende pelo sugestivo nome de "Sem parar"). Além disso, a não regulação do marketing desses produtos no Brasil permite sua oferta e propaganda em todos os ambientes (incluindo escolas, hospitais e farmácias), promoção por celebridades, uso de alegações saudáveis sem base cientifica comprovada, megadescontos na compra de megaporções, campanhas dirigidas especificamente a crianças e adolescentes, estratégias de venda-casada, uso de personagens e heróis do universo infantil, brindes e prêmios na compra dos produtos e tantas outras técnicas de marketing já proibidas em vários países." Para ver o artigo na íntegra clique aqui. Um SubMinistério Faz Mal À Saúde Ligia Bahia, vice-presidente da ABRASCO e professora de economia da saúde no Instituto de Estudos em Saúde Coletiva da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IESC/UFRJ), publicou o artigo "Um SubMinistério Faz Mal à Saúde" no Jornal O Globo, no último dia 13 de dezembro. No texto Ligia afirma que "a organização de sistemas de saúde de “primeira” mantém-se associada ao sentido da dinâmica econômica.  Os gastos sociais não são considerados antagônicos à modernização e ao desenvolvimento.  No Brasil, os avisos sobre os cortes de gastos e o abandono das tentativas de ressuscitar a CPMF irão dificultar muito o pagamento da promessa da Presidente. Porém, não existe uma única alternativa de saída.  Os atuais constrangimentos orçamentários não justificam a desoneração do governo da tarefa de imprimir direção política ao sistema de saúde brasileiro e muito menos transformar o dito no não dito". Confira o texto na íntegra aqui. Publicações retratam a cooperação técnico-científica entre o Brasil e o Canadá na área de Saúde Pública Estão disponíveis para download duas publicações que retratam o intercâmbio técnico-científico entre o Brasil e o Canadá na área de Saúde Pública durante a última década: Ações Intersetoriais em Promoção da Saúde: A experiência de Cooperação Técnica no Campo da Saúde Pública  (em português e em inglês) e A Decade of Canadian and Brazilian Collaboration in Public Health - Knowledge exchange and learning to setrengthen intersectoral health promotion (português, inglês e francês). Os livros retratam ações coordenadas pela ABRASCO, a Associação Canadense de Saúde Pública (CPHA), a Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública (ENSP/FIOCRUZ) e a Agência Canadense de Desenvolvimento Internacional (ACDI). Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia recebe artigos A Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia (RBE) está recebendo artigos para publicação (em português, espanhol ou inglês) e a partir de agora é possível fazer a submissão on-line através da plataforma SciELO, o que aumenta a agilidade do processo de tramitação dos manuscritos. A RBE, classificada como B1 no Qualis (Capes), está indexada nas bases bibliográficas LILACS, Scielo, EBSCO, Scopus e Latindex. Segundo o SciELO, os artigos publicados na revista em 2007 e 2008 apresentaram fator de impacto de 0.2525. Os autores interessados podem obter mais informações sobre as normas clicando aqui.

Proteins Need Chaperones: Newly Discovered Processes in Production of Proteins Described

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2011) — The term "molecular chaperones" is used in cellular biology to refer to a group of proteins which prevent undesirable contact between other proteins. Such contact can be particularly dangerous during protein production, a process carried out by the ribosome in the cell. The ribosome functions like a knitting spool: 20 different amino acids are threaded together like loops of thread in various sequences and amounts. The emerging amino acid chain disappears into a tunnel and does not come back out until it has reached a certain length.

A research group led by Freiburg biochemist Prof. Dr. Sabine Rospert studies how the chaperones at the end of the ribosomal tunnel influence the fate of newly synthesized proteins and how their functioning is coordinated in time and space. In 2005, the group discovered the chaperone ZRF1 at the end of the human ribosomal tunnel. ZRF1 exhibits structural characteristics which are otherwise typical only of proteins which influence the chromatin structure. Chromatin is a combination of DNA, histone, and other proteins in the nucleus of the cell. The DNA contains the information necessary for letting a ribosome know which amino acid chain it should produce. Gene segments of the DNA are translated into transcripts for this purpose, which then leave the nucleus in order to program the ribosomes for the synthesis of certain proteins.

Why does a chaperone sitting at the end of the ribosomal tunnel need to possess characteristics that can influence the chromatin structure in the nucleus? Thanks to the cooperation between Sabine Rospert's team in Freiburg and a group of researchers working under the biologist Prof. Dr. Luciano Di Croce at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain, scientists are now a step closer to answering this question. Di Croche investigates protein complexes which influence the chromatin structure and thus also the production of transcripts. Reversible modifications to histone proteins in the chromatin play a decisive role in these processes. The experiments conducted by the scientists have revealed that ZRF1 influences the modification of a histone protein, thus allowing the production of a specific group of transcripts for a limited period of time.

These results, published in the current issue of the journalNature, constitute an important step in the quest to understand the connection between the function of ZRF1 in the ribosome and in the chromatin. The discovery that this molecular chaperone has a dual function, both in the process of transcription and in the translation of the transcripts into proteins at a different place and time, is important initial evidence for the assumption that there is a link between the regulation of the two processes.

First Drug to Treat Fragile X?

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2011) — The first drug to treat the underlying disorder instead of the symptoms of Fragile X, the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability, shows some promise, according to a new study published in the January issue of Science Translational Medicine. Researchers from Rush University Medical Center helped design the study and are now participating in the larger follow-up clinical trial.

The data from the early trial of 30 Fragile X patients, found the drug, called AFQ056, made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals, helped improve symptoms in some patients. Patients who had the best response have a kind of "fingerprint" in their DNA that could act as a marker to determine who should get treatment.

"This is an exciting development. It is the first time we have a treatment targeted to the underlying disorder, as opposed to supportive treatment of the behavioral symptoms, in a developmental brain disorder causing intellectual disability. This drug could be a model for treatment of other disorders such as autism," said pediatric neurologist Dr. Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, a study author and director of the Fragile X Clinic and Research Program and the Fragile X-Associated Disorders Program at Rush.

The drug is designed to block the activity of mGluR5, a receptor protein on brain cells that is involved in most aspects of normal brain function, including regulation of the strength of brain connections, a key process required for learning and memory. Fragile X patients have a mutation in a single gene, known as Fragile X Mental Retardation-1 or FMR1. The mutation prevents FMR1 from making its protein, called FMRP, such that FMRP is missing in the brain. FMRP normally acts as a blocker or "brake" for brain cell pathways activated by mGluR5. When FMRP is missing, mGluR5 pathways are overactive resulting in abnormal connections in the brain and the behavioral and cognitive impairments associated with Fragile X.

The research team, led by Sebastien Jacquemont of Vaudois University in Switzerland in collaboration with Baltazar Gomez-Mancilla of Novartis, found no significant effects of treatment when the entire group of 30 patients was analyzed. However, in a subsequent analysis, seven patients who had a fully methylated gene, a gene that was fully shut down, presumably resulting in no FMR protein in the blood or brain, showed significant improvement in behavior, hyperactivity and inappropriate speech with the treatment compared to placebo.

"The treatment period in this pilot study was very short and longer treatment might have been needed to see improvement in the whole group of patients. Importantly, the drug was well-tolerated and there were no safety problems," said Berry-Kravis.

A larger study of the drug is now underway that will recruit 160 patients worldwide and test the effects of a longer period of treatment. Rush University Medical Center is one of the participating sites.

Fragile X affects 1 in 4000 males and 1 in 6000 females of all races and ethnic groups. It is the most common known single gene cause of autism or "autistic-like" behaviors. Symptoms also can include characteristic physical and behavioral features and delays in speech and language development. The impairment can range from learning disabilities to more severe cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

Babies Process Language in a Grown-Up Way

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2011) — Babies, even those too young to talk, can understand many of the words that adults are saying -- and their brains process them in a grown-up way.

This graphic shows estimated brain activity (indicated by bright colors) in four infants. (Credit: UC San Diego School of Medicine)

Combining the cutting-edge technologies of MRI and MEG, scientists at the University of California, San Diego show that babies just over a year old process words they hear with the same brain structures as adults, and in the same amount of time. Moreover, the researchers found that babies were not merely processing the words as sounds, but were capable of grasping their meaning.

This study was jointly led by Eric Halgren, PhD, professor of radiology in the School of Medicine, Jeff Elman, PhD, professor of cognitive science in the Division of Social Sciences, and first author, Katherine E. Travis, of the Department of Neurosciences and the Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, all at UC San Diego. The work is published this week in the Oxford University Press journal Cerebral Cortex.

"Babies are using the same brain mechanisms as adults to access the meaning of words from what is thought to be a mental 'database' of meanings, a database which is continually being updated right into adulthood," said Travis.

Previously, many people thought infants might use an entirely different mechanism for learning words, and that learning began primitively and evolved into the process used by adults. Determining the areas of the brain responsible for learning language, however, has been hampered by a lack of evidence showing where language is processed in the developing brain.

While lesions in two areas called Broca's and Wernicke's (frontotemporal) areas have long been known to be associated with loss of language skills in adults, such lesions in early childhood have little impact on language development. To explain this discordance, some have proposed that the right hemisphere and inferior frontal regions are initially critical for language, and that classical language areas of adulthood become dominant only with increasing linguistic experience. Alternatively, other theories have suggested that the plasticity of an infant's brain allows other regions to take over language-learning tasks if left frontotemporal regions are damaged at an early age.

In addition to studying effects of brain deficits, language systems can be determined by identifying activation of different cortical areas in response to stimuli. In order to determine if infants use the same functional networks as adults to process word meaning, the researchers used MEG -- an imaging process that measures tiny magnetic fields emitted by neurons in the brain -- and MRI to noninvasively estimate brain activity in 12 to 18-month old infants.

In the first experiment, the infants listened to words accompanied by sounds with similar acoustic properties, but no meaning, in order to determine if they were capable of distinguishing between the two. In the second phase, the researchers tested whether the babies were capable of understanding the meaning of these words. For this experiment, babies saw pictures of familiar objects and then heard words that were either matched or mismatched to the name of the object: a picture of a ball followed by the spoken word ball, versus a picture of a ball followed by the spoken word dog.

Brain activity indicated that the infants were capable of detecting the mismatch between a word and a picture, as shown by the amplitude of brain activity. The "mismatched," or incongruous, words evoked a characteristic brain response located in the same left frontotemporal areas known to process word meaning in the adult brain. The tests were repeated in adults to confirm that the same incongruous picture/word combinations presented to babies would evoke larger responses in left frontotemporal areas.

"Our study shows that the neural machinery used by adults to understand words is already functional when words are first being learned," said Halgren, "This basic process seems to embody the process whereby words are understood, as well as the context for learning new words." The researchers say their results have implications for future studies, for example development of diagnostic tests based on brain imaging which could indicate whether a baby has healthy word understanding even before speaking, enabling early screening for language disabilities or autism.

Additional contributors include Matthew K. Leonard, Timothy T. Brown, Donald J. Hagler, Jr., Megan Curran, and Anders M. Dale, all of UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists Construct Synthetic Proteins That Sustain Life

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — In a groundbreaking achievement that could help scientists "build" new biological systems, Princeton University scientists have constructed for the first time artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells.

Michael Hecht, a professor of chemistry at Princeton University, has led a team of researchers who have for the first time constructed artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells. The synthetic proteins were designed from scratch and expressed from artificial genes. He is holding samples of living bacteria containing the synthetic proteins. (Credit: Photo by Brian Wilson)

The team of researchers created genetic sequences never before seen in nature, and the scientists showed that they can produce substances that sustain life in cells almost as readily as proteins produced by nature's own toolkit.

"What we have here are molecular machines that function quite well within a living organism even though they were designed from scratch and expressed from artificial genes," said Michael Hecht, a professor of chemistry at Princeton, who led the research. "This tells us that the molecular parts kit for life need not be limited to parts -- genes and proteins -- that already exist in nature."

The work, Hecht said, represents a significant advance in synthetic biology, an emerging area of research in which scientists work to design and fabricate biological components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world. One of the field's goals is to develop an entirely artificial genome composed of unique patterns of chemicals.

"Our work suggests," Hecht said, "that the construction of artificial genomes capable of sustaining cell life may be within reach."

Nearly all previous work in synthetic biology has focused on reorganizing parts drawn from natural organisms. In contrast, Hecht said, the results described by the team show that biological functions can be provided by macromolecules that were not borrowed from nature, but designed in the laboratory.

Although scientists have shown previously that proteins can be designed to fold and, in some cases, catalyze reactions, the Princeton team's work represents a new frontier in creating these synthetic proteins.

The research, which Hecht conducted with three former Princeton students and a former postdoctoral fellow, is described in the online journal PLoS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science.

Hecht and the students in his lab study the relationship between biological processes on the molecular scale and processes at work on a larger magnitude. For example, he is studying how the errant folding of proteins in the brain can lead to Alzheimer's disease, and is involved in a search for compounds to thwart that process. In work that relates to the new paper, Hecht and his students also are interested in learning what processes drive the routine folding of proteins on a basic level -- as proteins need to fold in order to function -- and why certain key sequences have evolved to be central to existence.

Proteins are the workhorses of organisms, produced from instructions encoded into cellular DNA. The identity of any given protein is dictated by a unique sequence of 20 chemicals known as amino acids. If the different amino acids can be viewed as letters of an alphabet, each protein sequence constitutes its own unique "sentence."

And, if a protein is 100 amino acids long (most proteins are even longer), there are an astronomically large number of possibilities of different protein sequences, Hecht said. At the heart of his team's research was to question how there are only about 100,000 different proteins produced in the human body, when there is a potential for so many more. They wondered, are these particular proteins somehow special? Or might others work equally well, even though evolution has not yet had a chance to sample them?

Hecht and his research group set about to create artificial proteins encoded by genetic sequences not seen in nature. They produced about 1 million amino acid sequences that were designed to fold into stable three-dimensional structures.

"What I believe is most intriguing about our work is that the information encoded in these artificial genes is completely novel -- it does not come from, nor is it significantly related to, information encoded by natural genes, and yet the end result is a living, functional microbe," said Michael Fisher, a co-author of the paper who earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 2010 and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California-Berkeley. "It is perhaps analogous to taking a sentence, coming up with brand new words, testing if any of our new words can take the place of any of the original words in the sentence, and finding that in some cases, the sentence retains virtually the same meaning while incorporating brand new words."

Once the team had created this new library of artificial proteins, they inserted those proteins into various mutant strains of bacteria in which certain natural genes previously had been deleted. The deleted natural genes are required for survival under a given set of conditions, including a limited food supply. Under these harsh conditions, the mutant strains of bacteria died -- unless they acquired a life-sustaining novel protein from Hecht's collection. This was significant because formation of a bacterial colony under these selective conditions could occur only if a protein in the collection had the capacity to sustain the growth of living cells.

In a series of experiments exploring the role of differing proteins, the scientists showed that several different strains of bacteria that should have died were rescued by novel proteins designed in the laboratory. "These artificial proteins bear no relation to any known biological sequences, yet they sustained life," Hecht said.

Added Kara McKinley, also a co-author and a 2010 Princeton graduate who is now a Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "This is an exciting result, because it shows that unnatural proteins can sustain a natural system, and that such proteins can be found at relatively high frequency in a library designed only for structure."

In addition to Hecht, Fisher and McKinley, other authors on the paper include Luke Bradley, a former postdoctoral fellow in Hecht's lab who is now an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, and Sara Viola, a 2008 Princeton graduate who is now a medical student at Columbia University.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

High Dietary Fat, Cholesterol Linked to Increased Risk of Breast Cancer

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — Elevated fat and cholesterol levels found in a typical American-style diet play an important role in the growth and spread of breast cancer, say researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson.

The study, published in the January issue of The American Journal of Pathology, examines the role of fat and cholesterol in breast cancer development using a mouse model. The results show that mice fed a Western diet and predisposed to develop mammary tumors, can develop larger tumors that are faster growing and metastasize more easily, compared to animals eating a control diet.

The research team led by cancer biologist Philippe G. Frank, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, was interested in learning about the link between diet and breast cancer. The incidence rate of this cancer is five times higher in Western countries than in other developed countries. Moreover, studies have shown an increase in breast cancer incidence in immigrant populations that relocate from a region with low incidence. "These facts suggest strong environmental influence on breast cancer development," says Dr. Frank.

Dietary fat and cholesterol have been shown to be important risk factors in the development and progression of a number of tumor types, but diet-based studies in humans have reached contradictory conclusions. This has led Dr. Frank to turn to animal models of human cancer to examine links between cholesterol, diet, and cancer.

The research team turned to the PyMT mouse model to determine the role of dietary fat and cholesterol in tumor development. This mouse model is believed to closely parallel the pathogenesis of human breast cancer. PyMT mice were placed on a diet that contained 21.2 percent fat and 0.2 percent cholesterol, reflective of a typical Western diet. A control group of PyMT mice was fed a normal chow that had only 4.5 percent fat and negligible amounts of cholesterol.

The researchers found that tumors began to develop quickly in mice fed the fat/cholesterol-enriched chow. In this group, the number of tumors was almost doubled, and they were 50 percent larger than those observed in mice that ate a normal diet. "The consumption of a Western diet resulted in accelerated tumor onset and increased tumor incidences, multiplicity, and burden, suggesting an important role for dietary cholesterol in tumor formation," Dr. Frank says. There was also a trend towards an increased number of lung metastasis in mice fed the fatty diet, he adds.

To confirm the aggressive nature of the cancer in animals fed a cholesterol-rich diet, the researchers examined the levels of several biomarkers of tumor progression and found a signature of a more advanced cancer stage, compared to tumors that developed in the control group.

The researchers also showed that plasma cholesterol levels in experimental mice that developed tumors were significantly reduced compared to a group of "wild-type" mice -- animals with no predisposition to develop tumors -- that was also fed a cholesterol-rich diet. "This suggests that tumor formation was responsible for the reduction in blood cholesterol levels observed in our animals," indicates Dr. Frank.

Dr. Frank explains the use of cholesterol in breast tumors this way: "In a neighborhood, if you want to build more houses, you need more bricks. In tumors, cholesterol provides the bricks that are the foundation for further growth, and this cholesterol comes from the blood. A drop in blood cholesterol may signify that some tumors are growing as cholesterol provides support for breast cancer growth."

"These data provide new evidence for an increase in cholesterol utilization by breast tumors and thus provides many new avenues for prevention, screening, and treatment," indicates Dr. Frank. These findings suggest that use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, may both protect against breast cancer as well as treat patients carrying tumors. Since researchers also found that blood cholesterol levels dropped significantly as tumors began to develop, the study indicates measuring blood cholesterol levels may also be an effective method of screening cancer development.

This research team also discovered the same association between cholesterol and growth of prostate cancer in mice in a study published in the December issue of The American Journal of Pathology. The results of these two new studies indicate, according to Dr. Frank that, "Cholesterol does indeed seem to be an important factor in the regulation of tumor formation in several cancer types."

Health Chip Gives Instant Diagnoses

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — Soon, your family doctor will no longer have to send blood or cancer cell samples to the laboratory. A little chip will give her test results on the spot.

SINTEF scientist Liv Furuberg believes that the chip will not be expensive, in spite of all the advanced technology it uses.

Today, a blood sample whose protein content, genes and so on are to be read needs to be submitted to a series of complex processes, such as centrifugation, heat treatment, mixing with enzymes and concentration of disease markers. This means that samples are sent to central laboratories for analysis, and weeks may pass before the results are returned.

The same thing happens when women are checked for cervical cancer by taking a cell scrape from the cervix. The samples are then sent off and studied under the microscope. Diagnostic error rates can be high when abnormal cell appearance is determined by even experienced eyes.

Automated

The EU's MicroActive project has developed an integrated system based on microtechnology and biotechnology, that will enable a number of conditions to be diagnosed automatically in the doctor's own office.

The new "health chip" looks like a credit card and contains a complete laboratory. The EU project has used cells taken to diagnose cervical cancer as a case study, but in principle the chip can check out a number of different diseases caused by bacteria or viruses, as well as various types of cancer.

SINTEF has coordinated the project, whose other members include universities, hospitals and research institutes from Germany and Ireland. The Norwegian NorChip company had the idea for the chip, and has carried out full-scale tests during the project.

Advanced "credit card"

The chip is engraved with a number of very narrow channels that contain chemicals and enzymes in the correct proportions for each individual analysis. When the patient's sample has been drawn into the channels, these reagants are mixed.

"The health chip can analyse your blood or cells for eight different diseases," say Liv Furuberg and Michal Mielnik of SINTEF. "What these diseases have in common is that they are identified by means of special biomarkers that are found in the blood sample. These "labels" may be proteins that either ought or ought not to be there, DNA fragments or enzymes.

"This little chip is capable of carrying out the same processes as a large laboratory, and not only does it perform them faster, but the results are also far more accurate. The doctor simply inserts the card into a little machine, adds a few drop of the sample taken from the patient via a tube in the cardholder, and out come the results."

Scientists at SINTEF's MiNaLaB have developed a number of techniques for interpreting the results when the biomarkers have been found. For example, they can read them off in a spectrophotometer, an optical instrument in which the RNA molecules in different markers emit specific fluorescent signals.

"SINTEF's lab-on-a-chip projects have shown that it is possible to perform rapid, straightforward diagnostic analyses with the aid of microchips, and we are now working on several different types of chip, including a protein analysis chip for acute inflammations," says Liv Furuberg.

Mass production

NorChip has just started a new two-year EU project that aims to industrialise the diagnostic chip to the mass-production stage while the company will also evaluate market potential and industrial partners.

Chief scientist Frank Karlsen in NorChip says that the ways in which the chip can be used can be extended to enable patients themselves to take samples at home, and he expects that such special sampling systems will be ready for testing within a few years.

Evidence Lacking for Widespread Use of Costly Antipsychotic Drugs, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — Many prescriptions for the top-selling class of drugs, known as atypical antipsychotic medications, lack strong evidence that the drugs will actually help, a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and University of Chicago has found. Yet, drugs in this class may cause such serious effects as weight gain, diabetes and heart disease, and cost Americans billions of dollars.

"Because these drugs have safety issues, physicians should prescribe them only when they are sure patients will get substantial benefits," said Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who is senior author of the study to be published online Jan. 7 inPharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. "These are commonly used and very expensive drugs."

Prescriptions for these drugs have risen steadily since they first came on the U.S. market in 1989, largely replacing the first generation of antipsychotics, which were mainly used to treat schizophrenia. The U.S. government's original stamp of approval for the new drugs was for treating schizophrenia, but they're used more today for other conditions, including other psychoses, autism, bipolar disorder, delirium, dementia, depression and personality disorders. And while some of these uses have recently been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, many have not.

For example, the FDA has approved quetiapine (brand name, Seroquel), the antipsychotic with the biggest U.S. sales, for treating schizophrenia and some aspects of bipolar disorder and depression, but the drug is also often used for anxiety and dementia, among other conditions.

These new drugs accounted for more than $10 billion in retail pharmacy U.S. prescription drug costs in 2008, representing the largest expenditure for any single drug class -- nearly 5 percent of all drug spending, surpassing even blockbusters like statin cholesterol medications. According to a 2004 study, a quarter of all residents of U.S. nursing homes had taken them. Among the drugs are quetiapine, aripoprazole (brand name, Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa) and risperidone (Risperdal), each with annual U.S. sales exceeding $1 billion.

Stafford's new study adds to concerns about the drugs, which have been the focus of thousands of lawsuits, and as a class make up the single largest target of litigation filed under the federal False Claims Act. All major companies selling new-generation antipsychotics have either recently settled cases for hundreds of millions of dollars or are currently under investigation for skewing results or using questionable marketing tactics.

In 2005, the FDA issued its strongest type of caution, the "black box" warning, for use of new-generation antipsychotics, because of increased risk of death for dementia patients.

"Most people think, 'If my doctor prescribed this, the FDA must have evaluated whether this drug was safe and effective for this use.' That's not true," said Stafford. When doctors prescribe drugs for purposes other than those approved by the FDA, it's called "off-label" use. Though it's riskier for patients, there's nothing illegal about it, and can make sense medically in some instances, Stafford said, especially if there are no approved treatments or if a patient has not responded to approved drugs.

Previous studies had shown that antipsychotic drug use is ballooning. Stafford's new study not only corroborated and updated these findings but also identified the fraction of off-label use that is based on uncertain evidence.

The researchers' first step was to analyze the results of a physicians' survey conducted by health-care information company IMS Health. The IMS Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index survey gives a snapshot of the conditions doctors treated and drugs they prescribed. About 1,800 physicians participate each calendar quarter and each is randomly assigned two days per quarter to provide data.

After identifying which antipsychotics were being used, and for what, the researchers assessed the strength of the evidence supporting those that lacked FDA approval, using efficacy ratings from the widely used drug compendium, Drugdex.

Lead author Caleb Alexander, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, and colleagues conducted the analysis. Stafford supervised the project and with Alexander interpreted the data. Stanford clinical assistant professor of psychiatry Anthony Mascola, MD, provided expertise on the treatment of psychiatric conditions.

Among their findings:

Antipsychotic treatment prescribed during the surveyed doctors' visits nearly tripled from 6.2 million in 1995 to 16.7 million in 2008, the most recent year for which they had data. During this period, prescriptions for first-generation antipsychotics decreased from 5.2 million to 1 million.

Antipsychotic use for indications that lacked FDA approval by the end of 2008 increased from 4.4 million prescriptions during surveyed doctors' visits in 1995 to 9 million in 2008.

In 2008, more than half -- 54 percent -- of the surveyed prescriptions for the new-generation antipsychotics had uncertain evidence.

An estimated $6 billion was spent in 2008 on off-label use of antipsychotic medication nationwide, of which $5.4 billion was for uses with uncertain evidence.

Prescriptions for antipsychotics began dropping slightly in 2006, shortly after the FDA issued a warning about their safety.

Stafford suggests the upswing in prescriptions for antipsychotics despite the absence of good evidence for their value in many instances is the result of marketing -- whether legal or illegal -- and ingrained cultural tendencies. "Physicians want to prescribe and use the latest therapies -- and even when those latest therapies doesn't necessarily offer a big advantage, there's still a tendency to think that the newest drugs must be better," he said.

Physicians could benefit from more feedback on what percentage of their prescriptions is for off-label uses, said Stafford. "In many cases, physicians don't realize they're prescribing off-label," he said.

In fact, in a previous survey of physicians, Alexander found that the average respondent accurately identified the FDA-approval status of drugs for a given condition just over half the time.

The research was funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The data were obtained under licensed agreement with IMS Health.

Alexander is a consultant for IMS Health. Stafford has served as a consultant to a company that produces generic drugs, including first-generation antipsychotics.

Potential New Anti-Cancer Mechanism

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — Scientists attached to VIB and K.U.Leuven have succeeded in decoding a potential new anti-cancer mechanism. The researchers discovered that normalizing abnormal tumor blood vessels through HRG (histidine-rich glycoprotein) prevents metastasis of tumor cells and enhances chemotherapy efficiency. In tumors, vessels formation is disturbed, leading to inefficient delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs and allowing cancer cells to escape to other parts of the body (metastasis).

The normalization of tumor blood vessel formation through HRG works by repressing the production of the Placental Growth Factor PlGF. Anti-PlGF therapy is now being tested as a new agent against cancer by ThromboGenics in collaboration with Roche. The recently discovered mechanism offers alternative possibilities for cancer treatment.

Cancer and the formation of blood vessels (angiogenesis)Every growing tissue is supplied with oxygen and nutrients through our blood vessels. However, tumors grow much faster than normal tissue and have a higher need for nutrients. Consequently, tumor cells start generating growth factors to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. However, the resulting blood vessels are of abnormal shape, causing poor blood flow and little oxygen supply to the cancer cells. The oxygen shortage encourages cancer metastasis and eventually leads to a malignant cancer. Furthermore, the abnormal shape of the blood vessels hampers the supply and efficiency of anti-cancer drugs.

Conventional anti-angiogenic therapyConventional anti-angiogenic cancer therapy in which a growth factor is eliminated may aggravate tumor metastasis, becase. Because of this, there has in recent years been a greater focus on anti-angiogenic therapies which normalize the blood vessels supplying the tumor. This would reduce the oxygen shortage, with the result that the cancer cells will tend to travel less to other parts of the body and anti-cancer drugs can be delivered more efficiently.

Histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG)Charlotte Rolny, Max Mazzone and their colleagues from the VIB Vesalius Research Center, K.U.Leuven, have under the direction of Peter Carmeliet and in collaboration with VIB researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and colleagues from Sweden studied the mechanism behind the known anti-cancer activity of the protein HRG. The results of their experiments show that HRG, a protein distributed in the tumor stroma, displays anti-cancer activity by combating tumor progression and spread and stimulating normalization of tumor blood vessels. The underlying basis of this action is the capacity of HRG to suppress the angiogenic factor PlGF.

Towards an alternative cancer therapyRevealing the mechanism behind the anti-cancer activity of HRG opens up new horizons for cancer treatment. The larger a tumor becomes, the higher its oxygen requirement. However, the tumor vessels that are formed are abnormal in shape, leading to poor blood and oxygen flow. This oxygen shortage stimulates cancer cell metastasis. Stimulating HRG in the tumor stroma counters tumor progression and spread while at the same time being conducive to normalization of tumor blood vessels which enhances the efficacy of chemotherapy. Moreover, these data also support eliminating PlGF for the treatment of cancer.

More Evidence That Malaria Drug Could Help Combat Cancer, and That Breaks from Treatment Could Improve Results

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — Scientists investigating the cancer-fighting properties of artesunate -- a drug commonly used to treat malaria -- have found early evidence that combining it with an existing cancer drug has the potential to make each drug more effective than when used alone. They also found that regular treatment breaks could improve success levels.

The findings, recently published in the International Journal of Cancer, are the result of tests on human cancer cells studied outside the body (in vitro studies) by Dr Wai Liu and Professor Angus Dalgleish at St George's, University of London.

Artesunate is well-known for combating malaria by reducing the amount of malaria-infected cells in the body that cause the disease -- and a number of scientific studies have already found that it may have the same effect on cancerous cells, consequently reducing the size of the cancer. This latest study adds further evidence to this theory. It also suggests that, in addition to actively killing infected cells to reduce the size of the cancer, artesunate may have the ability to prevent the disease from developing further by stunting the growth of the individual cancerous cells that cause the disease. They found that which effect it takes to combat the disease varies depending on the type of cancer.

The researchers analysed how four different types of human cancer cells -- two of which represented cancer of the colon, and the others breast and lung -- reacted to artesunate when it was used both alone and in combination with other anti-cancer drugs.

They found that artesunate prevented the cancer from growing in all four types of cell lines tested, in addition to reducing the size of the cancer in those cell lines derived from breast and lung cancer.

The researchers then combined artesunate with other common anti-cancer drugs in an attempt to boost activity, and this showed favourable responses with a drug called lenalidomide. When used together, these two drugs increased the effectiveness of the treatment in all four types of cancer cells tested, and had the largest effect on the lung cancer cells. When used separately, artesunate reduced the amount of lung cancer cells, or the size of the cancer, by 20 per cent, whilst lenalidomide reduced its size by 10 per cent. However, by using the two together, at the same concentrations, the cancer was reduced by around 60 per cent.

Dr Liu says: "We combined our lead drug called lenalidomide with the widely available drug artesunate, and showed that the overall activity of the drugs was boosted to a point that was greater than the sum of the two individual drugs, indicating that the two drugs have a cooperative relationship."

The research also indicates that artesunate could be made more effective at reducing the size of the cancer if used in shorter bursts, separated by drug-free periods. The researchers showed that with this treatment pattern, the cancer's size was reduced where artesunate had previously only been preventing the cancer from growing. The introduction of drug-free periods was also shown to further reduce the size of the cancerous mass where it was already being reduced without the drug-free periods. For example, in the breast cancer cell lines, a continuous exposure to artesunate achieved just a 10 per cent reduction in the size of the cancer, but the reduction with drug-free period was increased to over 50 per cent.

Dr Liu says: "Whilst stunting cell growth is a useful effect, destroying the cells to reduce their numbers is the preferred effect. These two processes are actually linked together, to the extent that if a drug inhibits cell growth it will inadvertently inhibit the ability of the cells to be destroyed. We have shown that by using short bursts of artesunate, the cancer cells regain the ability to be destroyed."

He concludes that: "Whilst these studies are conducted on cells outside the body and reactions can vary in the human body, this research provides new insight into how artesunate interacts with cancer drugs and different treatment patterns to combat cancer, and provides a starting point from which studies can be based."

Cellular Power Plants' 'Import Business' Revealed

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — Scientists from Freiburg's two Excellence Institutions Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (BIOSS) and Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM) have discovered a new signaling path in cells: a mechanism which enables the transport of proteins into mitochondria to be adjusted depending on the current metabolic state of the cell.

The results of this study were published in the scientific journalCell.

Mitochondria are the power plants of the cells. They transform energy taken up through nourishment into a form the cells can use for a multitude of necessary metabolic reactions. In addition, mitochondria are responsible for triggering programmed cell death. It has long been known that illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, and tumors can be traced back to dysfunctions in these cellular organelles. Mitochondria possess around 1,000 different proteins, most of which are initially produced in the cytosol. From there they are imported into the organelle.

A research team led by Prof. Dr. Chris Meisinger from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Freiburg has now discovered that the main port of entry for these proteins is changed in various ways by cytosolic signaling proteins depending on the metabolic state of the cell, thus regulating the intake of proteins into mitochondria. Mitochondria are descended from bacteria and still possess many of their characteristics today. Researchers were thus long convinced that these organelles act with a high degree of autonomy in higher cells, hardly communicating with other cellular compartments at all. The results of the research project suggest that many more communication paths between mitochondria and the rest of the cell are waiting to be discovered.

"Regulation of Mitochondrial Protein Import by Cytosolic Kinases." O. Schmidt, A. Harbauer, S. Rao, B. Eyrich, R. Zahedi, D. Stojanovski, B. Schönfisch, B. Guiard, A. Sickmann, N. Pfanner, and C. Meisinger.

Herpes Virus' Tactical Maneuver Visualized in 3-D

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2011) — For the first time, researchers have developed a 3-D picture of a herpes virus protein interacting with a key part of the human cellular machinery, enhancing our understanding of how it hijacks human cells to spread infection and opening up new possibilities for stepping in to prevent or treat infection. This discovery uncovers one of the many tactical maneuvres employed by the virus.

An image of a human cellular protein (white) with a herpes virus protein docked (red) showing the details of the interaction leading to increased export of viral genetic material from the cell nucleus, so as to build a new generation of viruses.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded team, led by The University of Manchester, have used NMR -- a technique related to the one used in MRI body scanners and capable of visualizing molecules at the smallest scales -- to produce images of a herpes virus protein interacting with a mouse cellular protein. These images were then used to develop a 3-D model of this herpes virus protein interacting with human protein. The research is published in PLoS Pathogens.

Lead researcher Dr. Alexander Golovanov from Manchester's Interdisciplinary Biocentre and Faculty of Life Sciences said: "There are quite a few types of herpes viruses that cause problems as mild as cold sores through to some quite serious illnesses, such as shingles or even cancer. Viruses cannot survive or replicate on their own -- they need the resources and apparatus within a human cell to do so. To prevent or treat diseases caused by viruses we need to know as much as possible about how they do this so that we can spot weak points or take out key tactical maneuvres."

The 3-D model shows how the viral protein piggybacks onto the molecular machinery components inside human cells, promoting virus replication and spread of infection through the body.

"When you look at the image, it's like a backpack on an elephant: the small compact fragment of viral protein fits nicely on the back of the human protein," said Dr. Golovanov.

By studying the images along with biochemical experiments using the human version of the cellular protein, the team has uncovered the mechanism by which the viral and cellular proteins work together to guide the viral genetic material out of the cell's nucleus. Once there, the genetic material can be utilized to make proteins that are used as building blocks for new viruses. The researchers have also confirmed that this relationship between the two proteins exists for related herpes viruses that infect monkeys.

Dr. Golovanov continued: "Our discovery gives us a whole step more detail on how herpes viruses use the human cell to survive and replicate. This opens up the possibilities for asking new questions about how to prevent or treat the diseases they cause."

Professor Janet Allen, BBSRC Director of Research said: "This new research gives us an important piece of the jigsaw for how a particular viral infection works on a molecular level, which is great news. Understanding the relationship between a human, animal or plant -- the host -- and the organisms that cause disease -- pathogens -- is a fundamental step toward successful strategies to minimize the impact of infection. To study host-pathogen relationships we have to look in detail at the smallest scale of molecules -- as this study does -- and also right through to the largest scale of how diseases work in whole systems -- a crop disease in the context of a whole area of agricultural land, for example. BBSRC's broad portfolio of research into host-pathogen relationships facilitates this well."