A team of researchers has come up with an artificial protein that may block malignant properties of cancer cells as well as correct certain birth defects. The findings may lead to identifying new molecular targets suitable for therapeutic intervention. Cells in the human body need to communicate with each other to function properly. This is accomplished by a molecular mechanism called signal transduction and its dysregulation leads to human disease. A group of molecules called G proteins act as a signalling mechanism that enables cells to change their behaviour when they are activated by surface receptors. According to the researchers, the G proteins can be activated via alternative mechanisms independent of surface receptors that also impact normal cell behaviour and pathogenesis. Scientists have engineered an artificial protein that when expressed in cells can specifically blunt receptor-independent G protein activation and subsequent changes in cell behaviour. They have implemented this to block malignant properties of cancer cells and to correct birth defects associated with the aberrant dysregulation of cellular communication. The clinical implications for this discovery are indirect - since the engineered protein cannot be delivered to patients - it does represent a significant advance in the identification of a new class of molecular targets in cancer or neonatal malformations.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug in the United States with a digital ingestion tracking system, in an unprecedented move to ensure that patients with mental illness take the medicine prescribed for them. The drug Abilify MyCite, developed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, was first approved by the FDA in 2002 to treat schizophrenia. The ingestible sensor, made by Proteus Digital health, was approved for marketing in 2012. The digitally enhanced medication works by sending a message from the pill's sensor to a wearable patch. Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for illness may be useful for some patients. Abilify MyCite's labelling asserts the ability of the product to improve patient compliance with their treatment regimen has not been shown. Abilify MyCite should not be used to track drug ingestion in 'real-time' or during an emergency because detection may be delayed or may not occur. In a portion of the statement to address privacy concerns, the FDA said the wearable patch that comes with the medication "transmits the information to a mobile application so that patients can track the ingestion of the medication on their smart phone. Patients can also permit their caregivers and physician to access the information through a web-based portal. Proteus Ingestible sensor "activates when it reaches stomach fluids and communicates with the patch." The product is designed for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with a bipolar disorder and for use as an add-on treatment for depression in adults.

Scientists, including those of Indian origin, have discovered a compound that may have played a crucial role in the origin of life on Earth.
Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in the U.S. hypothesised that a chemical reaction called phosphorylation may have been crucial for the assembly of three key ingredients in early life forms.
These ingredients are short strands of nucleotides to store genetic information, short chains of amino acids (peptides) to do the main work of cells, and lipids to form encapsulating structures such as cell walls.
No one has ever found a phosphorylating agent before that was plausibly present on early Earth, researchers said.
The compound produced these three classes of molecules side-by-side under the same realistic conditions, researchers said.
The TSRI scientists have now identified such a compound: diamidophosphate (DAP).
A phosphorylation chemistry that could have given rise, all in the same place, to oligonucleotides, oligopeptides, and the cell-like structures to enclose them.
That in turn would have allowed other chemistries that were not possible before, potentially leading to the first simple, cell-based living entities.
The study is part of an ongoing effort by scientists around the world to find plausible routes for the epic journey from prebiological chemistry to cell-based biochemistry.
Other researchers have described chemical reactions that might have enabled the phosphorylation of pre-biological molecules on the early Earth.
However, these scenarios have involved different phosphorylating agents for different types of molecule, as well as different and often uncommon reaction environments.
DAP could phosphorylate each of the four nucleoside building blocks of RNA in water or a paste-like state under a wide range of temperatures and other conditions.
With the addition of the catalyst imidazole, a simple organic compound that was itself plausibly present on the early Earth, DAP's activity also led to the appearance of short, RNA-like chains of these phosphorylated building blocks.
With DAP and water and these mild conditions, you can get these three important classes of pre-biological molecules to come together and be transformed, creating the opportunity for them to interact together.