Findings from a recently published research study confirm what many
scientists have long suspected. A high incidence of neurological
disorders among captive felids in the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
including demyelination of the spinal cord, correlates to copper and
Vitamin A deficiencies, which is attributable to meat diets not properly
supplemented nor based on mixed, whole carcass prey. The study was
conducted by the...
Wednesday
Cancer treatment potential discovered in gene repair mechanism
Case Western Reserve researchers have identified a two-pronged
therapeutic approach that shows great potential for weakening and then
defeating cancer cells. The team's complex mix of genetic and
biochemical experiments unearthed a way to increase the presence of a
tumor-suppressing protein which, in turn, gives it the strength to
direct cancer cells toward a path that leads to their destruction.
If the laboratory findings...
Malaria combination drug therapy for children
A drug combination of artemisinin-naphthoquine should be considered for
the treatment of children with uncomplicated malaria in settings where
multiple parasite species cause malaria according to Tim Davis from
University of Western Australia, Fremantle, Australia and colleagues in
new research published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic disease that kills
approximately 600,000 people...
Neonatal HBV vaccine reduces liver cancer risk
Neonatal HBV vaccination reduces the risk of liver cancer and other
liver diseases in young adults in China, according to a study published
by Chunfeng Qu, Taoyang Chen, Yawei Zhang and colleagues from the Cancer
Institute & Hospital at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences,
Qidong Liver Cancer Institute, China, and Yale School of Public Health
and School of Medicine, USA in this week's PLOS Medicine.
The researchers...
Nanotechnology used to engineer ACL replacements
Lindsey Vonn. Derrick Rose. Tom Brady. Mickey Mantle.
They have all fallen victim to the dreaded pop of the knee.
Connecting the femur to the tibia, the anterior cruciate ligament
(ACL) rupture is one of the most devastating injuries in sports. No
other injury has sidelined more athletes for a season or even the rest
of a career. And ACL sprains and tears affect more people than just the
pros. According to the American...
Children with autism who live with pets are more assertive
Dogs and other pets play an important role in individuals' social lives,
and they can act as catalysts for social interaction, previous research
has shown. Although much media attention has focused on how dogs can
improve the social skills of children with autism, a University of
Missouri researcher recently found that children with autism have
stronger social skills when any kind of pet lived in the home.
"When I compared...
New treatment strategy allows lower doses of toxic tuberculosis drug without compromising potency
While an effective treatment is available for combating
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, it carries serious side effects for
patients. New research conducted at the Center for Tuberculosis Research
at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine shows that lower
doses of the toxic drug bedaquiline -- given together with verapamil, a
medication that's used to treat various heart conditions -- can lead to
the same antibacterial...
Molecular network identified underlying autism spectrum disorders
Researchers in the United States have identified a molecular network
that comprises many of the genes previously shown to contribute to
autism spectrum disorders. The findings provide a map of some of the
crucial protein interactions that contribute to autism and will help
uncover novel candidate genes for the disease. The results are published
in Molecular Systems Biology.
"The study of autism disorders is extremely...
Bats are a possible source of Ebola epidemic in West Africa
The outbreak of the Ebola virus disease occurring in West Africa may
have originated from contact between humans and virus-infected bats,
suggests a study led by researchers from the Robert Koch-Institute in
Berlin, Germany. The report, published in EMBO Molecular Medicine,
identifies insectivorous free-tailed bats as plausible reservoirs and
expands the range of possible Ebola virus sources to this type of bats.
The results...
Heart drugs offer new hope to slow cardiac damage in muscular dystrophy
Early use of available heart failure drugs slows the progressive decline
in heart function before symptoms are apparent in boys and young men
with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), according to a new study
published online by The Lancet Neurology.
Dr. Subha Raman, a cardiologist and professor at The Ohio State
University Wexner Medical Center, led a team of DMD experts at multiple
sites in a clinical trial that tested...
Lung cancer metastases may travel through airways to adjacent or distant lung tissue
A new study by researchers in Canada supports the hypothesis that lung
cancer, particularly adenocarcinoma, may spread through the airways. The
putative occurrence of intrapulmonary aerogenous metastasis of lung
cancer has staging, management, and prognostic implications.
Lung cancer is the most common and most lethal cancer worldwide. Its
prognosis remains poor: The 5-year survival rate is 6-18%.
Adenocarcinoma has surpassed...
Tuesday
Tracing evolution of chicken flu virus yields insight into origins of deadly H7N9 strain
An international research team has shown how changes in a flu virus that
has plagued Chinese poultry farms for decades helped create the novel
avian H7N9 influenza A virus that has sickened more than 375 people
since 2013. The research appears in the current online early edition of
the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The results underscore the need for continued surveillance of flu
viruses...
Lyme disease enhances spread of emerging tick infection
Ninety-five percent of all Lyme disease cases are reported from 14
states (primarily on the East Coast and in the Midwest), and there are
approximately 30,000 new cases reported each year. Babesiosis is found
in similar regions, but 95% of cases are concentrated in the seven
“core” Lyme disease states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New...
Sugar molecule links red meat consumption and elevated cancer risk in mice
While people who eat a lot of red meat are known to be at higher risk
for certain cancers, other carnivores are not, prompting researchers at
the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine to
investigate the possible tumor-forming role of a sugar called Neu5Gc,
which is naturally found in most mammals but not in humans.
In a study published in the Dec. 29 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National...
Breast reconstruction using patient's own tissues yield higher satisfaction rates
For women who have undergone mastectomy, breast reconstruction using the
patient's own tissues -- rather than implants -- provides higher
satisfaction scores, reports a study in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
But the findings may at least partly reflect differences in the
characteristics of women choosing different...
Report on remission in patients with MS three years after stem cell transplant
Three years after a small number of patients with multiple sclerosis
(MS) were treated with high-dose immunosuppressive therapy (HDIT) and
then transplanted with their own hematopoietic stem cells, most of the
patients sustained remission of active relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and
had improvements in neurological function, according to a study
published online by JAMA Neurology.
MS is a degenerative disease and most...
How economic insecurity impacts diabetes control among patients
Difficulty paying for food and medications appears to be associated with
poor diabetes control among patients in a study that examined the
impact of economic insecurity on managing the disease and the use of
health care resources, according to a report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Increased access to health insurance offered by the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act may not improve diabetes control...
Year of birth significantly changes impact of obesity-associated gene variant
“Looking at participants in the Framingham Heart Study, we found that
the correlation between the best known obesity-associated gene variant
and body mass index increased significantly as the year of birth of
participants increased,” says Harvard Medical School instructor James
Niels Rosenquist of the Massachusetts General Hospital...
Complications after thigh lift surgery common, but usually minor
Performed as part of body contouring procedures in patients with massive
weight loss, a procedure called medial thigh lift carries a substantial
risk of complications, reports a study in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
"Wound complications in medial thighplasty are common, but most are
minor and can be managed without...
What are mechanisms of zooxanthella expulsion from coral?
Coral bleaching, which often results in the mass mortality of corals and
in the collapse of coral reef ecosystems, has become an important issue
around the world, with the number of coral reefs decreasing annually.
Associate Professor Kazuhiko Koike and Ms. Lisa Fujise of the Graduate
School of Biosphere Science at Hiroshima University and their
collaborators have proposed mechanisms that might cause coral bleaching
and...
Study sheds light on what causes cells to divide
A time series of a single E. coli cell from birth to division.
When a rapidly-growing cell divides into two smaller cells, what
triggers the split? Is it the size the growing cell eventually reaches?
Or is the real trigger the time period over which the cell keeps growing
ever larger?
A novel study published online in the journal...
For facial transplantation patients, blink assessment is essential
Face transplantation can dramatically enhance a patient's quality of
life after severe facial trauma, but lack of attention to eyelid
function and vision can leave patients with impaired vision, corneal
exposure, eyelid retraction that occurs when the upper or lower eyelid
pulls away from the eyeball, and other eyelid-related complications. A
new retrospective study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center
makes...
Mechanism of toxin's inflammatory effect on lungs found
A study released Dec. 23 describes a never-before-seen mechanism by
which a bacterial toxin leads to severe inflammation in asthma and other
acute and chronic pulmonary diseases. Researchers from The University
of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio said the discovery could
result in development of therapeutic strategies that improve health in
individuals who suffer from airway diseases.
The offending party is...
Reprogramming stem cells may prevent cancer after radiation
The body has evolved ways to get rid of faulty stem cells. A University
of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Stem Cells
shows that one of these ways is a "program" that makes stem cells
damaged by radiation differentiate into other cells that can no longer
survive forever. Radiation makes a stem cell lose its "stemness." That
makes sense: you don't want damaged stem cells sticking around to crank
out...
Protein identified as possible universal therapeutic target for many infections, including Ebola
A protein called GRP78 could be a universal therapeutic target for
treating human diseases like brain cancer, Ebola, Influenza, Hepatitis
and superbug bacteria such as MRSE and MRSA, according to a Virginia
Commonwealth University-led pre-clinical study published this month in
the Journal of Cellular Physiology.
By using a drug combination of the clinically tested OSU-03012
(AR-12) and FDA approved Phosphodiesterase 5...
Binge drinking disrupts immune system in young adults, study finds
Binge drinking in young, healthy adults significantly disrupts the
immune system, according to a study led by a researcher now at Loyola
University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
Depending on their weight, study participants drank four or five
shots of vodka. Twenty minutes after reaching peak intoxication, their
immune systems revved up. But when measured again, at two hours and five
hours after peak intoxication,...
Enzyme's alter ego helps activate the immune system
Already known to cut proteins, the enzyme SPPL3 turns out to have
additional talents, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins. In its
newly discovered role, SPPL3 works without cutting proteins to activate T
cells, the immune system's foot soldiers. Because its structure is
similar to that of presenilin enzymes, which have been implicated in
Alzheimer's disease, the researchers believe their findings could shed
more...
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