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 GENETICS: RNA Interference Cuts Hepatitis Down to Size
For the first time in an animal model, researchers have shown the therapeutic punch of the gene-silencing technique RNA interference. This method of reducing gene expression took off five years ago when researchers discovered double-stranded RNA could stifle genes in the early stages of activation. Only two years ago, scientists discovered that small pieces of RNA triggered RNA interference in mammalian cells, not just plants, fruit flies, and worms. Now, in the March Nature Medicine (online Feb. 10), Judy Lieberman (left), Premlata Shankar, and colleagues report that small pieces of RNA can prevent liver injury and death in mice with chronic and severe autoimmune hepatitis.
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IMMUNOLOGY: Mouse Gives Glimpse into Complications of Diabetes
José Halperin and colleagues report in the February Immunity that they have created a mouse that with a little further tinkering, could provide the first good animal model of the complications of diabetes. Until now, animal models have failed to accurately replicate diabetic complications such as retinopathy, renal disease, and atherosclerosis. The newly engineered mice, which lack the cd59 gene, could help prove a controversial theory put forth by Halperin and his coworkers that the complications of diabetes are due to a lack of protection against complement proteins, which form a branch of the immune system.
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ONCOLOGY: Zebrafish Lights Path of Leukemia
Researchers have created the first transgenic zebrafish model of human cancer, which may help to identify genes that block or promote the carcinogenic process--and potentially help find new drugs to treat the disease. The transgenic fish, which develop T cell leukemia when a mouse oncogene is taken up by these immune cells, are described in a Feb. 7 Science article by senior author A. Thomas Look, with first author David Langenau and others. The team introduced green fluorescent protein into the leukemic cells, making it easy to see where cancer had spread in the fish's body. Likewise, in the search for proteins and drugs that block leukemia, the fluorescent protein should show if the cancer regresses.
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Copyright 2003 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
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