New compound unleashes the immune system on metastases

A new nanocomplex renders a tumor harmless – and, on top of that, it trains the immune system to detect and eliminate metastases

08-Sep-2023 - An international research team headed by Dr. Johannes Karges of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has developed nanoparticles that accumulate in cancer cells and eliminate them after being photoactivated. In addition, they label them in such a way that ...

Progesterone’s protective potential against Parkinson’s

“There is hope that steroid-based therapeutic approaches could help to slow down or even stop neurodegenerative diseases”

09-Jun-2023 - Progesterone was shown in a study to have a protective effect on intestine nerve cells. These findings raise hopes that the hormone could be used in the fight against Parkinson’s disease. The nerve cells of the gastrointestinal tract communicate with those of the brain and spinal cord. This ...

How injured nerves stop themselves from healing

Researchers have discovered an unexpected effect: It might open up new avenues for developing therapies after brain or spinal cord damage

21-May-2021 - Damage to nerve fibers in the central nervous system – brain, spinal cord, or optic nerve– often results in lifelong and severe disabilities, such as paraplegia or blindness. Although we are aware of various reasons why nerves fail to regenerate, their treatment has not yet led to any significant ...

The gut may be involved in the development of multiple sclerosis

06-Dec-2019 - The gut has long been suspected to play a role in autoimmune disease. A research team has now identified evidence of a potential mechanism. It is incompletely understood which factors in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) act as a trigger for the immune system to attack the brain and spinal ...

New findings on the recycling centres of cells

11-Oct-2019 - Like tiny garbage chutes, certain organelles clean cells of superfluous or defective material. Researchers are currently studying the mechanisms underlying this process. Both animal and plant cells depend on their own damaged or superfluous cell material being removed – a process referred to as ...

New approaches to heal injured nerves

27-Aug-2019 - Preventing the deactivation of a protein could be the key to repairing the central nervous system. Injuries to nerve fibers in the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves usually result in functional losses as the nerve fibers are unable to regenerate. A team from the Department of Cell Physiology ...

New insights into the structure of a killer protein

01-Oct-2018 - The protein Bax is responsible for programmed cell death. Because it is constantly changing its location, its structure has so far been difficult to determine. Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Tübingen have gained new insights into the structure of the killer protein ...

Biomolecule’s behaviour under artificial conditions more natural than expected

Comparing cell and test tube

04-Feb-2016 - Researchers often analyse isolated biomolecules in test tubes, and it is doubtful if the results can be applied to densely-packed cells. A team from Bochum, Dortmund and Greifswald monitored the folding of an RNA structure in the living cell and compared the results with those of test tube ...

One ion channel, many diseases

Dysfunction in cerebellar Calcium channel causes motor disorders and epilepsy

22-Mar-2013 - A dysfunction of a certain Calcium channel, the so called P/Q-type channel, in neurons of the cerebellum is sufficient to cause different motor diseases as well as a special type of epilepsy. This is reported by the research team of Dr. Melanie Mark and Prof. Dr. Stefan Herlitze from the ...

The architects of the brain

How different receptors promote the formation of nerve cell processes

31-Oct-2011 - Bochum’s neurobiologists have found that certain receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate determine the architecture of nerve cells in the developing brain. Individual receptor variants lead to especially long and branched processes called dendrites, which the cells communicate with. The ...