PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Nov-2014 Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology @ASMnewsroom WASHINGTON, DC November 4, 2014 Filoviruses like Ebola "edit" genetic material as they invade their hosts, according to a study published this week in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The work, by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Galveston National Laboratory, and the J. Craig Venter Institute, could lead to a better understanding of these viruses, paving the way for new treatments down the road. Using a laboratory technique called deep sequencing, investigators set out to investigate filovirus replication and transcription, processes involved in the virus life cycle. They studied the same Ebola virus species currently responsible for an outbreak in West Africa, and also analyzed a related filovirus, Marburg virus, that caused a large outbreak in Angola in 2005 and recently emerged in Uganda. The scientists infected both a monkey and human cell line with both viruses, and analyzed the genetic material produced by each virus, called RNA. Their results highlight regions in Ebola and Marburg virus RNAs where the polymerase of the virus (a protein that synthesizes the viral RNA) stutters at specific locations, … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Asthma may be more harmful than was previously thought, according to UCLA researchers who found that genetic damage is present in circulating, or peripheral, blood. Doctors previously thought that the genetic damage it caused was limited to the lungs. In the study, researchers looked for the overexpression of a cytokine called interleukin 13 (IL-13), which is known to mediate inflammation, a critical problem for people with asthma. The study, which was conducted in an animal model that mimicked human asthma, was the first to assess the role of IL-13 in genetic damage to cells, or genotoxicity, said its senior author, Robert Schiestl, a professor of pathology and radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Asthma is a very widespread disease, and we show for the first time an association between asthma and genotoxicity in peripheral blood, said Schiestl, who also is a professor of environmental health sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. This is important because it shows a whole-body effect from asthma, not just damage in the lungs. The findings were published today in the peer-reviewed journal Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Nov-2014 Contact: Bob Nellis newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic @MayoClinic ROCHESTER, Minn. In an international study, Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators have identified genetic markers that may help in identifying individuals who could benefit from the alcoholism treatment drug acamprosate. The findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, show that patients carrying these genetic variants have longer periods of abstinence during the first three months of acamprosate treatment. Acamprosate is a commonly prescribed drug used to aid patients in recovery from alcoholism. Mayo researchers studied the association between variation in candidate genes and the length of sobriety in alcohol-dependent patients treated with acamprosate in community-based programs. They found that, when other environmental and physiological factors were considered, patients with the common allele of the genetic variant rs2058878 located in the GRIN2B gene, stayed sober more days than those with a variant allele of the same polymorphism. This finding was replicated in a sample of alcohol-dependent patients treated with acamprosate in a study conducted by collaborators from Germany. "This association finding is a first step towards development of a pharmacogenetic test allowing physicians to choose appropriate treatment for specific subgroups of alcohol-dependent patients," says Victor Karpyak, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo … Continue reading →

International Stem Cell Corp., a Carlsbad-based biotech company developing stem cell therapies and biomedical products, announced that the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the companys human parthenogenetic stem cell line for investigational clinical use. Human embryonic stem cells typically come from fertilized eggs. In 2007, however, scientists at International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO) reported the first successful creation of human stem cell lines from unfertilized eggs, according to Scientific American. They used a process called parthenogenesis, in which researchers use chemicals to induce the egg to begin developing as if it had been fertilized. The egg called a parthenote behaves just like an embryo in the early stages of division. Because it contains no genetic material from a father, however, it cannot develop into a viable fetus. Just like embryonic stem cells, parthenogenetic stem cells can be coaxed to grow into different kinds of human cells or tissue, ready to be transplanted into diseased areas of the body. "Many stem cell lines can never be used to develop commercial therapeutic products because they don't meet the FDA's ethical and quality standards, said Ruslan Semechkin, ISCOs chief scientific officer. With this clearance from the FDA, based on the … Continue reading →