Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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Wnt signaling

Drying up the HIV reservoir

Immunologists refer to the cells that harbor HIV, even while someone is getting effective antiretroviral drugs, as the “reservoir.” That term inspires a lot of waterway metaphors! Unfortunately, drying up the HIV reservoir is not as straightforward as building a dam across a stream.  But it is the goal, if we are talking about the still-elusive possibility of a HIV cure.

Maud Mavigner, Ann Chahroudi and colleagues at Yerkes recently published a paper in Journal of Virology on targeting the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway as a tactic. They were studying SIV-infected macaques, in the context of ongoing antiretroviral therapy.

The HIV reservoir is more difficult to visualize than a human-made aquatic reservoir

Wnt is one of those funky developmental signaling pathways that gets re-used over and over again, whether it’s in the early embryo,the brain or the intestine. Beta-catenin is a central protein in that pathway.

In this case, Wnt/beta-catenin regulates the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of memory T cells – important components of the HIV reservoir. Mavigner’s team used PRI-724, a molecule that blocks interaction between beta-catenin and another protein it needs to turn on genes. PRI-724 has also been investigated in the context of cancer clinical trials. Read more

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment

Long-lasting blood vessel repair in animals via stem cells

Stem cell researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have made an advance toward having a long-lasting “repair caulk” for blood vessels. The research could form the basis of a treatment for peripheral artery disease, derived from a patient’s own cells. Their results were recently published in the journal Circulation.

A team led by Young-sup Yoon, MD, PhD developed a new method for generating endothelial cells, which make up the lining of blood vessels, from human induced pluripotent stem cells.. When endothelial cells are surrounded by a supportive gel and implanted into mice with damaged blood vessels, they become part of the animals’ blood vessels, surviving for more than 10 months.

“We tried several different gels before finding the best one,” Yoon says. “This is the part that is my dream come true: the endothelial cells are really contributing to endogenous vessels. When I’ve shown these results to people in the field, they say ‘Wow.'”

Previous attempts to achieve the same effect elsewhere had implanted cells lasting only a few days to weeks, although those studies mostly used adult stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells or endothelial progenitor cells, he says.

“When cells are implanted on their own, many of them die quickly, and the main therapeutic benefits are from growth factors they secrete,” he adds. “When these endothelial cells are delivered in a gel, they are protected. It takes several weeks for most of them to migrate to vessels and incorporate into them.” Read more

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Quinn Eastman in Heart Leave a comment