Olfactory receptors in the skin: Sandalwood scent facilitates wound healing, skin regeneration

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/cosmetic_surgery/~4/NhlE9zml-D8

Skin cells possess an olfactory receptor for sandalwood scent, as researchers at the Ruhr-Universitt Bochum have discovered. Their data indicate that the cell proliferation increases and wound healing improves if those receptors are activated. This mechanism constitutes a possible starting point for new drugs and cosmetics. The team headed by Dr Daniela Busse and Prof Dr Dr Dr med habil Hanns Hatt from the Department for Cellphysiology published their report in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.The nose is not the only place where olfactory receptors occurHumans have approximately 350 different types of olfactory receptors in the nose. The function of those receptors has also been shown to exist in, for example spermatozoa, the prostate, the intestine and the kidneys. The team from Bochum has now discovered them in keratinocytes — cells that form the outermost layer of the skin.Experiments with cultures of human skin cellsThe RUB researchers studied the olfactory receptor that occurs in the skin, namely OR2AT4, and discovered that it is activated by a synthetic sandalwood scent, so-called Sandalore. Sandalwood aroma is frequently used in incense sticks and is a popular component in perfumes. The activated OR2AT4 receptor triggers a calcium-dependent signal pathway. That pathway ensures an increased proliferation and a quicker migration of skin cells — processes which typically facilitate wound healing. In collaboration with the Dermatology Department at the University of Mnster, the cell physiologists from Bochum demonstrated that effect in skin cell cultures and skin explants.Additional olfactory receptors in skin detectedIn addition to OR2AT4, the RUB scientists have also found a variety of other olfactory receptors in the skin, the function of which they are planning to characterise more precisely. …


Read More: Olfactory receptors in the skin: Sandalwood scent facilitates wound healing, skin regeneration

#Bochum, #Cell, #Cosmetics, #Journal, #Pregnancy, #Sandalore, #Science, #Skin

Clutter cutter: Computer modeling used to understand how messy cells contribute to cancer

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/BfE-IJRw804

Life can be messy at all scales, requiring different organizational strategies — from cleaning the house, to removing damaged or expired cells from the body to avoid cancer progression.In a messy house, people use computers to manage paper and photo clutter; companies use computer systems to track their inventory. Now a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is taking a similar approach to cell-molecular inventory control for cancer. They have created computer models, using their programming framework (PySB), which enable them to explore the complex biochemical processes that drive cancer growth.”Our hypothesis is that understanding how the cell uses their protein inventory will lead to understanding why cells dysregulate and become carcinogenic. We expect model outputs will lead to novel, targeted cancer therapies — possibly by 2019,” explained researcher Carlos F. Lopez, who will present the work at the 58th annual Biophysical Society Meeting in San Francisco, Feb.15-19.Lopez is interested in understanding how cells in multicellular organisms engage programmed cell death — so-called “cell suicide” — for cellular removal. It is a natural part of many cells’ life cycle.When cancer cells avoid programmed cell death, uncontrolled growth fuels tumor progression. The Vanderbilt team expects their computer models to identify what goes wrong in these cases, at a speed and scale never before possible. Lopez noted: “We are bridging the nanoscale molecular-level biochemical interactions with the macroscale cancer tumor outcomes, which is a huge range in scales. Most people don’t realize this, but molecular chemical reactions at the nanometer and nanosecond level affect things that happen at the timescale level of years — nine orders of magnitude in space and time! For comparison, a nanosecond is to a second like a second is to one century.”Rather than listing the cellular biochemical reactions by hand, PySB enables the researchers to “write” the biochemical cellular processes as computer programs. …


Read More: Clutter cutter: Computer modeling used to understand how messy cells contribute to cancer

#Agriculture, #Alzheimer, #Body, #Carlos, #Cell, #Inventory, #Lopez, #Processes, #Protein, #Researchers, #Result, #University

Tinnitus study signals new advance in understanding link between exposure to loud sounds and hearing loss

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~4/C4R5QMSaUR4

Leicester research reveals why hearing loss is correlated with auditory signals failing to get transmitted along the auditory nerve.A research team investigating tinnitus, from the University of Leicester, has revealed new insights into the link between the exposure to loud sounds and hearing loss.Their study, published this week in J Neurosci,, helps to understand how damage to myelin — a protection sheet around cells — alters the transmission of auditory signals occurring during hearing loss.The three-year study was derived from a PhD studentship funded by Action on Hearing Loss. It was led by Dr Martine Hamann, Lecturer in Neurosciences at the University’s Department of Cell Physiology and Pharmacology.Dr Hamann said: “A previous publication has shown that exposure to loud sound damages the myelin which is the protection sheet around cells. We have now shown the closer links between a deficit in the “myelin” sheath surrounding the auditory nerve and hearing loss. It becomes obvious why hearing loss is correlated with auditory signals failing to get transmitted along the auditory nerve.”Understanding cellular mechanisms behind hearing loss and tinnitus allows for developing strategies to prevent or alleviate the symptoms of deafness or tinnitus — for example by using specific drug therapies.”This new study is particularly important because it allows us to understand the pathway from exposure to loud sound leading to the hearing loss. We now have a better idea about the mechanisms behind the auditory signals failing to get transmitted accurately from the cochlea to the brain. Consequently, targeting myelin and promoting its repair after exposure to loud sound could be proven effective in noise induced hearing loss.”Dr Hamann added that getting to dissect the cellular mechanisms underlying hearing loss is likely to bring a very significant healthcare benefit to a wide population.She said: “Understanding mechanisms responsible for hearing loss represents a significant unmet need that is likely to increase as the incidence of the disorder increases due to an aging population and the increasing impact of recreational and workplace noise.”I am very excited by this research. The work will help prevention as well as progression into finding appropriate cures for hearing loss and possibly tinnitus developing from hearing loss.”Dr Hamann’s team at the University of Leicester included Thomas Tagoe who performed all the electrophysiological experiments, Matt Barker and Natalie Allcock who performed the electron microscopy and the imaging experiments. Andrew Jones, a project student in the lab performed computer modelling.Dr Ralph Holme Action on Hearing Loss’ Head of Biomedical Research says: ”We know that exposure to loud noise can lead to hearing loss. Protecting your ears should always be the first line of defence, but medical treatments to combat unavoidable or accidental exposure to noise are also urgently needed. The research we have been funding at University of Leicester makes an important contribution to increasing our understanding of how noise damages the hearing system — knowledge we hope will ultimately lead to medical treatments for this common type of hearing loss.”Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by University of Leicester. …


Read More: Tinnitus study signals new advance in understanding link between exposure to loud sounds and hearing loss

#Cancer, #Cell, #Department, #Health, #Hearing, #Hearingloss, #Leicester, #Pregnancy, #Result, #Science

Nanomotors are controlled, for the first time, inside living cells

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~4/JAvkh9h8v3Q

For the first time, a team of chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically. It’s not exactly “Fantastic Voyage,” but it’s close. The nanomotors, which are rocket-shaped metal particles, move around inside the cells, spinning and battering against the cell membrane.”As these nanomotors move around and bump into structures inside the cells, the live cells show internal mechanical responses that no one has seen before,” said Tom Mallouk, Evan Pugh Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics at Penn State. “This research is a vivid demonstration that it may be possible to use synthetic nanomotors to study cell biology in new ways. We might be able to use nanomotors to treat cancer and other diseases by mechanically manipulating cells from the inside. Nanomotors could perform intracellular surgery and deliver drugs noninvasively to living tissues.”The researchers’ findings will be published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on 10 February 2014. In addition to Mallouk, co-authors include Penn State researchers Wei Wang, Sixing Li, Suzanne Ahmed, and Tony Jun Huang, as well as Lamar Mair of Weinberg Medical Physics in Maryland U.S.A.Up until now, Mallouk said, nanomotors have been studied only “in vitro” in a laboratory apparatus, not in living human cells. Chemically powered nanomotors first were developed ten years ago at Penn State by a team that included chemist Ayusman Sen and physicist Vincent Crespi, in addition to Mallouk. “Our first-generation motors required toxic fuels and they would not move in biological fluid, so we couldn’t study them in human cells,” Mallouk said. “That limitation was a serious problem.” When Mallouk and French physicist Mauricio Hoyos discovered that nanomotors could be powered by ultrasonic waves, the door was open to studying the motors in living systems.For their experiments, the team uses HeLa cells, an immortal line of human cervical cancer cells that typically is used in research studies. …


Read More: Nanomotors are controlled, for the first time, inside living cells

#Cancer, #Cell, #Fantastic, #French, #Human, #International, #Mallouk, #Physics, #State, #Story, #University