Health
'Transcription' Gene Influences Blood Vessel Formation
April 30, 2013 10:42 am | News | CommentsResearchers have discovered that disrupting a gene that acts as a regulatory switch to turn on other genes can keep blood vessels from forming and developing properly. Further study of this gene– a “transcription factor” called CASZ1– may uncover a regulatory network that influences the development of cardiovascular disease.
Body Image Disorder Linked to Abnormal Brain
April 30, 2013 10:14 am | News | CommentsBody dysmorphic disorder is a disabling but often misunderstood psychiatric condition in which people perceive themselves to be disfigured and ugly, even though they look normal to others. New research shows that these individuals have abnormalities in the underlying connections in their brains.
FDA 'Concerned' About Added Caffeine
April 30, 2013 3:12 am | by MARY CLARE JALONICK - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsLooking for a new way to get that jolt of caffeine energy? Food companies are betting snacks like potato chips, jelly beans and gum with a caffeinated kick could be just the answer. The Food and Drug Administration is closely watching the marketing of these foods and wants to know more about their safety.
Cancer Cell Mapping May Yield New Drugs
April 29, 2013 12:13 pm | News | CommentsFor the first time, researchers have managed to obtain detailed images of the way in which the transport protein GLUT transports sugars into cells. Since tumours are highly dependent on the transportation of nutrients in order to be able to grow rapidly, the researchers are hoping that the study will form the basis for new strategies to fight cancer cells.
Brown, White Fats Can Interconvert
April 29, 2013 11:42 am | News | CommentsScientists have shown for the first time that white and brown fat cells can directly interconvert in a living organism from one type to the other. This finding challenges the prevailing belief that white and brown fat cells arise solely from distinct precursor cells.
Genetic Link Between Early Pregnancy, Breast Cancer Risk
April 29, 2013 11:09 am | News | CommentsBeing pregnant while young is known to protect a women against breast cancer. But why? New research finds that Wnt/Notch signalling ratio is decreased in the breast tissue of mice which have given birth, compared to virgin mice of the same age.
Mouse Brains Mapped in Greatest Detail Yet
April 29, 2013 10:44 am | News | CommentsHopes for a cure for many brain diseases may rest on the humble mouse, now that scientists can map the rodents' brains more thoroughly than ever before. Researchers have created the most detailed atlas of the mouse brain, a development that is helping in the fight against brain disease.
Hospitals See Surge of Superbug-fighting Products
April 29, 2013 3:01 am | by MIKE STOBBE - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsThey sweep. They swab. They sterilize. And still the germs persist. In U.S. hospitals, an estimated 1 in 20 patients pick up infections they didn't have when they arrived, some caused by dangerous 'superbugs' that are hard to treat. The rise of these superbugs, along with increased pressure from the government and insurers, is driving hospitals to try all sorts of new approaches to stop their spread.
Scientists Report 'Squishy' Cells in Cancer Research
April 26, 2013 1:18 pm | by Arizona State University | News | CommentsA team of student researchers and their professors from 20 laboratories around the country are seeing a new view of cancer cells. The work could shed light on the transforming physical properties of these cells as they metastasize. Metastasis is a critical step in the progression of cancer– a period when the cancer spreads from one organ, or part, to another.
Approach Isolates Memory-storing RNAs
April 26, 2013 11:35 am | News | CommentsScientists have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating neurons that enables cell to cell communication.
Rare Bacteria Helps Identify Alcohol Brain Gateway
April 26, 2013 10:24 am | News | CommentsThanks to a rare bacteria that grows only on rocks in the Swiss Alps, researchers have identified how alcohol might affect key brain proteins. It’s a major step on the road to eventually developing drugs that could disrupt the interaction between alcohol and the brain.
Missing Parkinson’s Link Found
April 26, 2013 9:32 am | News | CommentsResearchers have described a missing link in understanding how damage to the body’s cellular power plants leads to Parkinson’s disease and, perhaps surprisingly, to some forms of heart failure. These cellular power plants are called mitochondria.
New View of How Embryos Develop
April 25, 2013 2:31 pm | by Harvard Medical School | News | CommentsIn a factory, outside forces dictate the assembly of parts. Robots lift widgets from trays, assemble them and send them on their way. Even though embryos are not factories, theories about embryonic development cast cells as parts to be assembled by outside forces.
Hormone is Potential Diabetes Breakthrough
April 25, 2013 12:47 pm | by Harvard Medical School | News | CommentsResearchers have discovered a hormone that holds promise for a dramatically more effective treatment of type 2 diabetes, a metabolic illness afflicting an estimated 26 million Americans. The researchers believe that the hormone might also have a role in treating type 1, or juvenile, diabetes.
New Antibodies Help Fight Stubborn Bacteria
April 25, 2013 12:03 pm | News | CommentsIn an advance toward coping with bacteria that shrug off existing antibiotics and sterilization methods, scientists are reporting development of a new family of selective antimicrobial agents that do not rely on traditional antibiotics.
China Bird Flu Jumped Directly from Chickens
April 25, 2013 11:48 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsChinese scientists have for the first time found strong evidence of how humans became infected with a new strain of bird flu: from chickens at a live market. Chinese scientists compared swabs from birds at markets in eastern China to virus samples from four patients who caught the new H7N9 virus. The scientists found the virus from one patient was nearly identical to one found in a chicken.
Research Explains How EVOO Protects Against Alzheimer’s
April 25, 2013 11:30 am | News | CommentsThe mystery of exactly how consumption of extra virgin olive oil helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may lie in one component of olive oil that helps shuttle the abnormal AD proteins out of the brain, scientists are reporting in a new study.
Air Pollution a Possible Link to Hardened Arteries
April 25, 2013 10:53 am | News | CommentsLong-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries," according to new research. The study that found that higher concentrations of fine particulate air pollution were linked to a faster thickening of the inner two layers of the common carotid artery.
Video Reveals How Drugs Kill Cancer
April 25, 2013 10:14 am | News | CommentsScientists have discovered why a particular cancer drug is so effective at killing cells. Their findings could be used to aid the design of future cancer treatments. Using high-powered laser-based microscopes, researchers made videos of the process by which rituximab binds to a diseased cell and then attracts white blood cells known as natural killer (NK) cells to attack.
Tiny, Untethered Surgical Tools Aid Biopsies
April 24, 2013 11:30 am | News | CommentsBy using swarms of untethered grippers, each as small as a speck of dust, engineers and physicians say they have devised a new way to perform biopsies that could provide a more effective way to access narrow conduits in the body as well as find early signs of cancer or other diseases.
Breast Cancer Drug Enhanced for Aggressive Types
April 24, 2013 11:15 am | News | CommentsTamoxifen is a time-honored breast cancer drug used to treat millions of women with early-stage and less-aggressive disease. Now, a team of researchers has shown how to exploit tamoxifen’s secondary activities so that it might work on more aggressive breast cancer.
Kidney Disease Linked to Facial Structure
April 24, 2013 10:34 am | News | CommentsResearchers have shown that people with a certain kind of kidney disease have characteristic facial features that may reflect the genetic mutation they carry. Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic kidney disorder. In the UK, it accounts for around 1 in 10 people on dialysis and 1 in 8 of those with a kidney transplant.
Novel Therapy Safe for ALS
April 24, 2013 9:24 am | News | CommentsAn investigational treatment for an inherited form of Lou Gehrig’s disease has passed an early phase clinical trial for safety, researchers report. The researchers have shown that the therapy produced no serious side effects in patients with the disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The phase 1 trial’s results also demonstrate that the drug was successfully introduced into the central nervous system.
New Flu Passes More Easily from Bird to Human, WHO Says
April 24, 2013 3:35 am | by GILLIAN WONG - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsA lethal new strain of bird flu that emerged in China over the past month appears to jump more easily from birds to humans than the one that started killing people a decade ago, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. Scientists are watching the virus closely to see if it could spark a global pandemic.
The Real Threat of Ricin
April 23, 2013 1:45 pm | by Christina Smith | Articles | CommentsMail-based bioterror attacks made headlines last week when traces of ricin, a poison derived from the castor bean and a common by-product of castor oil, was found in letters addressed to President Barack Obama, Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and Lee County, Miss., Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland, according to reports from the Associated Press.
