NATURE: 13. 6. 2013

NATURE: ‘Master protocol’ aims to revamp cancer trials

"In the push to match medical therapies to the genetic underpinnings of disease, lung-cancer treatments have been at the frontier. But the 1.6 million people diagnosed with this cancer every year will take scant comfort in knowing that of the past 20 late-stage trials of drugs to treat it, only two yielded positive results. And in only one of those 20 were patients chosen systematically by screening for biomarkers such as relevant blood proteins or DNA sequences. Now, an ambitious project aims to improve those success rates and speed new treatments to market by matching companies with the patients whose tumours are most genetically relevant to the therapies they are trying to develop. The project is slated to launch next year and, if successful, could be expanded to other cancers."

http://www.nature.com/news/master-protocol-aims-to-revamp-cancer-trials-1.13176

 

NATURE: Stem cells: Cloning human embryos

"Human embryonic stem cells have at last been generated by a technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer. Further research on such cells should provide insight into ways of improving the generation of stem cells by reprogramming."

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v498/n7453/full/498174a.html

 

NATURE: FDA gets to grips with faeces

"The brown slurry is piped through tubes into the top of the human body — or the bottom. It can even come in pill form. For years, doctors have been transferring faeces into ill people’s intestines to replace resident microbes with a fresh batch. The procedure is often a therapeutic success, but protocols for it vary wildly. As it steadily grows more popular, regulators are now working to define what a standard faecal transplant should be, and how to deliver one safely. (...)"

http://www.nature.com/news/fda-gets-to-grips-with-faeces-1.13177

 

SCIENCE: Cell Biology: Rapid Aging Rescue?

"Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a rare dominant genetic disorder that mimics premature, rapid aging. Patients fail to thrive, and death occurs at an average age of 13 years, usually from myocardial infarction or stroke. Spontaneous HGPS-generating mutations occur at the rate of about 1 in 4 to 8 million births. LMNA, the gene harboring the HGPS mutations, encodes prelamin A (1). This precursor matures to lamin A, a structural component of the nuclear envelope. On page 1330 of this issue, Ibrahim et al. (2) show that methylated prelamin A, an intermediate form in the protein's maturation pathway, is associated with progeria symptoms in a mouse model of the disease. The methylated form blocks a signaling pathway that promotes cell proliferation, survival, and tissue growth. Reducing this methylation pharmacologically could be an effective therapeutic approach for treating progeroid disorders."

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6138/1299.summary