Trio of Researchers Shares $500,000 Medical Prize
The richest medical prize in the United States was awarded Friday to three immune system scientists whose work has led to new diabetes and arthritis therapies, theAssociated Press reported.
The $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize is being shared by Dr. Ralph Steinman of Rockefeller University in New York City, Dr. Charles Dinarello of the University of Colorado, and Dr. Bruce Beutler of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
The medical award established in 2000 is among the world's largest, second only to the $1.4 million Nobel Prize, the wire service said.
Here's a brief look at what each of the researchers was cited for:
- Steinman, in 1973, discovered the dendritic cell, a white blood cell that mobilizes other disease-fighting cells in the body to ward off infectious germs.
- Dinarello identified a molecule later labeled Interluekin-1, which produces inflammation and fever. His discovery led to treatments for immune disorders including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
- Beutler isolated a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which plays a role in conditions such as inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.
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Team IDs Bacteria That Use Toxins to Cause Infections
More than three dozen bacterial pathogens that use toxins to manipulate human host cells and cause infections have been identified by scientists. The findings may lead to improved treatments for bacterial infections.
The German researchers found that the 39 bacterial pathogens produce toxins that bind relatively weakly to human proteins, but can influence several different proteins simultaneously, United Press International reported.
"A single bacterial toxin seems to function like a master key that can access different host cell proteins in parallel," explained Matthias Selbach of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine. "Perhaps it is due to this strategy that bacteria are able to attack very different cells and, thus, to increase their survival chances in the host."
He said it may be possible to develop new drugs that target the signaling mechanisms in human cells that are disrupted by the bacterial toxins, UPI reported.
The research appears in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
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Specialized Immune Cells Linked to Malaria: Study
A specialized type of immune cell that may help explain why malaria kills some people and not others has been identified by Australian researchers.
Their study of 33 malaria-infected adults in Indonesia found high levels of highly suppressive regulatory T-cells in the blood of those with severe malaria but not in those who weren't as sick, the Associated Press reported.
The findings were published in the journal PLoS Pathogens. The next step is to determine whether these immune cells actually cause more severe malaria or are caused by having a severe case of the disease.
"Our results indicate that severe malaria is accompanied by the induction of highly suppressive T-reg cells that can promote parasite growth," said lead researcher Magdalena Plebanski, of Monash University, the AP reported. Vaccine studies should carefully examine whether recipients develop this type of immune reaction, Plebanski suggested.
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Jay Leno 'Just Fine' After Checking Into Hospital: Report
"Tonight" show host Jay Leno is reported to being doing well after he checked himself into a hospital with an undisclosed illness, the Associated Press reported.
Leno's publicist, Dick Guttman, said the comedian left his office at NBC's studios about midday Thursday and checked himself into the hospital for observation. Guttman didn't reveal the hospital or what symptoms Leno experienced, but did say the illness was "mild."
The publicist also said Leno kept working after he went to the hospital, writing jokes and making phone calls, the AP reported.
"Jay Leno is doing just fine," NBC spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre said in a statement. "He was kidding around with the hospital staff and running his monologue jokes by the doctors and the nurses. He's expected back to work on Monday."
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