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Snail gene justifies the reason of body asymmetry

International team of researchers have identified a gene which is the major switch box to determine whether the shells of snails to twist clockwise or anticlockwise. This new identification can provide answers how the same gene allows insights of body asymmetry in different animals, including humans. The research is published in the journal Current Biology by scientists from University of Nottingham, UK. The question does often will arise why every animal or organisms have definite asymmetry, where their bodily organs are placed at certain determined places inside. If these organs is reversed or mirrored from their normal placement, the whole process would go wrong. Three different teams from different countries – UK, Germany and US worked on genes of snail’s shell control that twist clockwise or anticlockwise. The gene that controls this movement produces a protein called formin that is involved in cell scaffold. If found problem in this protein, the whole snail gets ‘rev...

Mitochondrial DNA replacement now need to answer questions

Image Source: evolution.berkeley.edu Genetic disorders have been under questionnaire due to its prevalence from parent to child and henceforth. But emerging mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRT) also raise some ethical as well as social questions about risks or consequences for patients and families. MRT aims to prevent mother to child transmission of mitochondrial disease which is complex set of rare disorders caused due to the presence or modification into defective DNA within. The disease thus caused may attack any organs at any age and sometimes may lead to fatality. Currently there aren’t any approved cures or therapies assigned by doctors. An article on 24 th February 2016 in New England Journal of Medicine highlights with headline “Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disease may be the poster child for highly targeted, 'personalized' medicine.” Scientist confers that even though MRTs would not support health benefit on patients who are already associated with ...

Researchers hope to test Zika virus treatment in a year

Researchers hope to test Zika virus treatment in a year There is no cure or vaccine for the virus, which was discovered in the Zika Forest in Uganda in 1947. It was detected in Brazil for the first time last year and has since spread to at least 26 countries in the Americas. The virus has mild effects - red eyes, fever, joint pains and a rash - and nearly 80 percent of people who are infected experience no symptoms. Kalil, an immunologist, said the institute was cultivating the virus in quantities sufficient to start tests in isolating antibodies in rodents. Researchers would then attempt to produce them in larger quantities in horses and purify the antibodies in the laboratory before starting tests on humans. "The antibodies ... could be injected into women with Zika to neutralize the virus," Kalil told Reuters in an interview. "I think we can reach that point in a year." Researchers do not have a clear model of how the virus operates in animals or hu...

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