Nature view
Research highlights from the NPG family of journals.
Taking heart
Embryonic
stem-cell therapy may prove better than the passage of time for the healing
of broken hearts. Loss of cardiac cells or cell function is mostly irreversible,
but in an advance online publication for Nature Biotechnology,
Izhak Kehat and colleagues show cells derived from human embryonic stem
cells can restore heart rhythm after transplantation into cardiac tissue.
After guided differentiation in culture, the cells spontaneously generated
a rhythm, and when grafted into swine hearts, the cells imparted the rhythm
to the host tissue.
articles
Electromechanical integration of cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells
I. KEHAT et al.
Nature Biotechnology 22, 2004
Published on 26 September 2004
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Closing in on prion disease
The
development of effective therapies for prion diseases is an urgent issue,
as there is uncertainty surrounding the numbers of people and animals
who are at risk. The prion diseases present unique problems, as they may
represent a new mode of transmission for infectious diseases. But they
may also provide a prototype for the study of other protein-misfolding
disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. In Nature Reviews
Drug Discovery, Neil Cashman and Byron Caughey review the recent progress
in understanding and treatment of prion diseases, and discuss how the
findings could affect approaches to related disorders.
reviews
Prion diseases — close to effective therapy?
N. R. CASHMAN AND B. CAUGHEY
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 3, 874; October 2004
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Reading the patterns of cancer
Patterns
of inheritance have previously provided evidence that individuals differ
in their genetic propensity to develop cancer. Contemporary population
genetics can also make use of recent data about which specific loci are
involved in cancer development to understand how patterns of inheritance
evolve. In Nature Reviews Genetics, Steven Frank discusses two
of the major questions addressed by this field — what determines
whether predisposing mutations become common or rare in populations? And
how do the biochemical consequences of mutations influence the accumulation
of traits that predispose to cancer?
reviews
Genetic predisposition to cancer — insights from population genetics
S. A. FRANK
Nature Reviews Genetics 5, 764; October 2004
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Editorial control over potassium channels
The
human Kv1.1 channel opens and closes a potassium-selective pore in response
to voltage. Potassium channels are subject to fine tuning through a number
of regulatory mechanisms, but little is known about how exactly these
modifications affect channel function. In this month's Nature Structural
and Molecular Biology, Tarun Bhalla and colleagues report that mRNAs
for Kv1.1 undergo editing — producing a channel variant that differs
by a single residue. This change alters the channel's properties, resulting
in rapid recovery from fast inactivation. Francisco Bezanilla reviews
the study in an associated News and Views.
articles
Control of human potassium channel inactivation by editing of a small mRNA hairpin
T. BHALLA et al.
Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 11, 950; October
2004
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news and views
RNA editing of a human potassium channel modifies its inactivation
F. BEZANILLA
Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 11, 915; October
2004
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Elephant census
Southern
India is one of the last strongholds of the endangered Asian elephant,
and is home to a fifth of the world's population. This month, Heredity
publishes the first comprehensive population genetic study of free-ranging
Asian elephants. Using fresh dung samples from 18 locations across three
populations, Vidya and colleagues extracted and analysed mitochondrial
and nuclear DNA to examine genetic diversity and gene flow. For example,
while elephants have matrilineal social systems, they variously associate
in families, bond groups and clans; their social structures are echoed
in their genetic landscape. Their results show that population bottlenecks,
social structure and biogeographic barriers have all shaped the elephants'
genetic landscape.
original article
Population differentiation within and among Asian elephant
(Elephas maximus) populations in southern India
T N C VIDYA, P FERNANDO, D J MELNICK & R SUKUMAR
Heredity advanced online publication; September 2004
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Endophenotypes: a bridge over troubled genes?
Despite
a surfeit of genetic studies, no genes for major depressive disorder (MDD)
have been consistently identified. This could be due to unresolved questions
regarding the definition of genetically relevant phenotypes and the nature
of underlying genes. In their substantive review for Neuropsychopharmacology,
Gregor Hasler et al. attempt to bridge the gap between genetics
and clinical presentation by proposing endophenotypes for major depression.
Endophenotypes are variables, usually sub-clinical, that correlate with
a given disease and may serve to better define a disorder or underlying
genetic mechanism. Hasler and colleagues discuss associations between
psychopathological and biological endophenotypes for MDD, making the case
for the development of a new classification system to improve our understanding
of the basis of this common and debilitating illness.
perspective
Discovering Endophenotypes for Major Depression
GREGOR HASLER, WAYNE C. DREVETS, HUSSEINI K. MANJI
AND DENNIS S. CHARNEY
Neuropsychopharmacology 29, 1765-178; (2004)
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R.E.C.E.P.T- Find out What It Means
Although
estrogen is known to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of breast
cancer, the molecular mechanisms underlying the action of estrogen remain
elusive. In Laboratory Investigation, Advanced Online Publication,
Takehiko Koji and colleagues found that keratinocyte growth factor (KGF)/fibroblast
growth factor-7 expression was closely associated with the presence of
estrogen receptor (ER) in human breast cancer cells. The co-expression
of KGF and its receptor is notably linked with lower frequency of breast
cancer cell death, but not with growing activity in living organism. In
fact, the induction of cell death by anticancer drugs was markedly inhibited
by KGF in cultured breast cancer cells, indicating that KGF may delete
or reduce the therapeutic effect of anticancer drugs. In result, KGF and
its receptor are possible molecular targets for the gene therapy of breast
cancer.
research article
Estrogen receptor-associated expression of keratinocyte growth factor and its possible role in the inhibition of apoptosis in human breast cancer
N. TAMARU et al.
Laboratory Investigation advance online publication 16 August 2004
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