A research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) has discovered a gene that curbs liver cancer metastasis and another that triggers coronary artery disease, the team's instructor said yesterday.
Lin Shu-hua (林淑華), a professor at the university's Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, said her research team's discovery came from experiments with the "knockout mouse" technique, which uses a mouse that has had the function of one or more of its genes deleted or made non-functional, to study the correlations of genes and diseases.
LIVER CANCER
Lin said the team's discovery would help in developing new medicine and designing clinical experiments for liver cancer and cardiovascular disease.
She said that the X gene -- one of the two genes isolated -- helps curb liver cancer metastasis. Her team implanted liver cancer cells in mice, knocked out their X genes and observed metastasis and tumor clusters on them in the experiment.
The discovery might be helpful in improving the effects of liver cancer treatment if the correlation between the disease and the gene, which Lin described as "a guard" protecting the liver, is established through further experiments, she said.
In addition, the team found that the thromboxane A2 gene, or TXA2, causes coronary artery narrowing. The team's experiment knocked out that gene from mice, fed them high cholesterol food and found the percentage of coronary artery narrowing declined.
The team performed cardiac catheterization operations on the same mice and found that blood vessel damage was rare after the operations.
Lin said patients who receive cardiovascular stent operations usually have a 50 percent risk of suffering coronary artery narrowing following the operation.
LOWER CHANCES
The discovery assumes that medicine that curbs the TXA3 gene would lower the chances of getting cardiovascular disease, Lin said.
The knockout mouse technique has the greatest potential in the field.
Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine last year for producing the first knockout mice. Oliver Smithies, one of the scientists, was Lin's instructor.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
RSS