A team of researchers of Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca (IBSAL) has identified a family of proteins called NADPH oxidases that could be a good therapeutic target cell to fight chronic myeloid leukemia. Even though this type of cancer is caused by an oncoprotein for which there are treatments already, until now, scientists have been able to control the disease, but not heal it. They think that combining the existing therapy with inhibitors of this family of proteins will produce good results, just like cellular cultures and animal models have already confirmed.

A study performed at the Institute of Biosciences of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) in Botucatu (SP) has determined the effectiveness of natural products derived from Brazilian plants in treating inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The study also presents new molecular markers that may broaden the understanding of these diseases, whose etiology is yet unknown.

A study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Antioquia suggests that genetic factors may be to blame for metabolic syndrome (MS). People of African and Native American ancestry are more likely to develop abdominal obesity and diabetes.

A research project carried out by the UNal Genetics Institute’ (IGUN, for its Spanish acronym) Neurosciences Group determined that APOEe4 and TOMM 40 genes could be related to occurrence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The research project carried out by Jenny Consuelo Ortega Rojas as her Neurosciences thesis project was entitled, “Study of 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms -SNPs- in Alzheimer’s patients in a Colombian sample. Approach to haploid genotypes”.