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Scientists ID molecular 'switch' in liver that triggers harmful effects of saturated and trans fats

...s not only raise LDL levels in the bloodstream but lower high-density lipoproteins (HDL, or "good" cholesterol) and may have even stronger adverse effects than do saturated fats. The researchers report that when activated by harmful fats, PGC-1beta alters liver metabolism through a cascade of biochemical ...

Deficient DNA Repair Capacity Associated With Increased Risk Of Breast Cancer

... had not. They found that DNA repair capacity was lower in breast cancer patients than in the control subjects. Deficient DNA repair capacity was associated with a twofold increase in the risk of breast cancer. In addition, when the data were stratified into quartiles of DNA repair capacity, the risk of b...

Spleen may be source of versatile stem cells

...s the kind of payback that can come fromstudies of lower animals like newts and sponges. Combining theknowledge of Hox11's role in those animals with what we'd found aboutislet cell regeneration in mice helped us find this previously unknownexample of normal, controlled Hox11 expression in an adult mammal....

Novel antiviral technology inhibits RSV infection in mice

...and after infection with RSV, showed significantly lower levels ofvirus in the lung and less airway inflammation and hyper-reactivitythan untreated mice....

Male circumcision reduces risk of HIV transmission from women to men

...oursewas on the order of one in 1000 or less, much lower than theprobability of one in 160 found in this study. Taken with the authors'evidence that female-to-male infection rates may be more than two-foldgreater for uncircumcised men, this new information may help usunderstand why the virus is spreading r...

Study Demonstrates Gene Expression Microarrays are Comparable and Reproducible

...orrelation between separate labs was only slightly lower thancorrelation of duplicated experiments within the same labs. “Thisstudy is a key first step in moving gene expression data fromsmall-scale bench science into large-scale clinical evaluation,?saidJames Jacobson, Ph.D., chief of NCI’s Diagnostic Bi...

Researchers reveal the infectious impact of salmon farms on wild salmon

... times larger than the farm itself." Sea lice can lower the fitness of salmon - and in some cases be lethal - as they create open lesions on the surface of the fish that compromises a fish's ability to maintain its salt-water balance. When infection rates are high enough, the parasites feed on the fish at...

First-ever Compounds To Target Only Metastatic Cells Are Highly Effective Against Breast, Prostate, And Colon Cancers

...xury of time, we could treat that primary tumor at lower doses, too, with fewer side effects for the patient," Dr. Huang said. Until now, agents that specifically target metastatic cells have remained elusive. However, a new avenue of research opened up when Dr. Huang's team noticed that the Streptomyces ...

Open microfluidic and nanofluidic systems

...oplets, extended filaments, and thin wedges at the lower channel corners. Examples for these morphologies as observed by atomic (or scanning) force microscopy (AFM) are shown in Figure 1. When the AFM experiments were first performed, it was not known how to produce a certain liquid morphology since there...

Researchers add new tool to tumor-treatment arsenal

...here is need for drugs that can sensitize cells to lower doses of DNA-damaging agents to guarantee cell death, but without the toxic side effects. The researchers studied the results of combining a DNA-damaging agent called cisplatin with RAD001, a derivative of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin. Used ...

Why do insects stop 'breathing'? To avoid damage from too much oxygen, say researchers

...opose that most insects stop breathing in order to lower their internal oxygen concentration to physiologic... of oxygen in their respiratory systems, 4-5 times lower than the normal oxygen concentration in the atmosphere. In a normal oxygen-concentration environment...

Deficiency of growth hormone and IGF-1 reduces cancer and kidney disease, but creates other problems

... hormone treatment was stopped and the animals had lower growth hormone and IGF-1 levels the rest of their lives. That had an effect on cancer: 88 percent of "normal" male rats have tumors at death. The male rats that had a lifelong deficiency of growth hormone had substantially fewer tumors ?63 percent ?...

Examination of internal 'wiring' of yeast, worm, and fly reveals conserved circuits

...the central nervous system, would not be needed by lower organisms, such as yeast, which don't have nerves. Ideker predicted that protein-interaction studies will soon become indispensable tools for biologists seeking a better understanding of all cellular functions. He said that just as a species evolved...

South America's vast pantanal wetland may become next everglades, UNU experts warn

...ect designed also to regulate seasonal flooding. A lower and shorter flood peak in the Cuiabá River, however, could have profound ecological impacts in the northern Pantanal. "Inter-linkages approach" needed to manage the Pantanal The complex interconnections and inter-linkages at the ecological level ?a...

Scientists discover that host cell lipids facilitate bacterial movement

...o using PI3-kinase inhibitors or other agents that lower PIP2 and PIP3 levels to slow the spread of Listeria and control infection in patients who are not responding to antibiotics, although that application is a long way off, says Dr. Southwick. ...

In the migratory marathon, parasitized monarchs drop out early

...rs, could explain why parasite infections are much lower in migratory monarch populations compared to year-round residents that do not migrate. Habitat loss at overwintering sites and climate warming trends, combined with an increase of tropical milkweed species in milder climates, could ultimately replace...

FDA Approves New Drug to Treat Type I and Type II Diabetes

...o be used only in combination with insulin to help lower blood sugar during the 3 hours after meals. Symlin will have a Medication Guide (FDA-approved patient labeling) and a Risk Minimization Action Plan (RiskMAP) due to three areas of concern. First, the principle risk associated with Symlin therapy is h...

Sequencing of marine bacterium will help study of cell communication

...t and pathogenic Vibrio species. V. fischeri has a lower GC content than other sequenced Vibrio species, but it is still more closely related to them than other organisms. (Among the four nucleotides that make up DNA ?adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine (ATGC) ?'A' pairs with 'T' and 'G' pairs with 'C'...

Kinovate Life Sciences Launches Nittophase?High Performance Solid Support For Oligonucleatide Synthesis

...ease manufacturing costs due to it’s significantly lower unit cost, as well as potentially higher yield and...r high loading applications, and NittoPhaseROS?for lower loading applications. In this way, NittoPhase?offers a solution for the entire spectrum of oligonucl...

Vascular structure and function improve with diet and exercise

...improve the health of the vasculature, so it might lower the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks and stroke," said presenter and lead author Kunihiko Aizawa, M.Sc., a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. "We found that there probably are some thi...

Rats infected as newborns grew up vulnerable to memory problems during an immune challenge

...ted pups later injected with LPS had significantly lower concentrations of cytokines called interleukins than control pups (they tested 32 PUPS in all). Immune cells release these cytokines, or certain protein molecules, in response to germs. Prior research had suggested that higher IL-1BETA in the brain's...

Use of Insecticides Linked to Lasting Neurological Problems for Farmers

...rdeners, although in different formulations and in lower concentrations, which may make them less hazardous. "Because the participants in this study are telling us they have never been previously diagnosed with pesticide poisoning or medically treated for any exposure to any pesticide, we are led to concl...

How the environment could be damaging men's reproductive health

...rchidism at birth in Lithuania was 5.7%, which was lower than in Denmark (9%), but higher than Finland (2.4%). These figures are not consistent with the data on semen quality and testicular cancer in the Nordic-Baltic region. Based on these data, we could have expected the frequency of cryptorchidism in Li...

Drug-resistant bacteria on poultry products differ by brand

...t do. In fact, the only brand with a significantly lower rate of Campylobacter contamination was actually a...on and 43 percent from Perdue) while significantly lower proportions of 'antibiotic-free' products were contaminated with fluoroquinolone-resistant Campyloba...

Programmable cells: Engineer turns bacteria into living computers

... of the signal chemical and red when they sensed a lower concentration. In a Petri dish, they formed a bull's-eye pattern -- a green circle inside a red one -- surrounding the sender cells. In addition to demonstrating that the genetic programming techniques work, this sensing system could be useful for t...

PET/MRI scans may help unravel mechanisms of prenatal drug damage

...e the uptake of the tracer into the fetal brain is lower and slower than in the mother's brain, a measurable quantity of cocaine and/or its labeled metabolites does accumulate in the fetal brain, particularly in the striatum, where cocaine is known to bind to cell-surface receptors that result in a euphori...

Dead zone area in Gulf could be increasing, researchers say

...their findings show that the area's water contains lower oxygen levels than expected this time of year. That could mean the dead zone area could be more severe in 2005 and perhaps cover an even larger area than in previous years, says Steve DiMarco, associate professor in the Department of Oceanography at...

HIV vaccine trial breaks ground for future research

...nd, in general, those with a higher response had a lower rate of infection than the placebo group. In an ed...r a high vaccine antibody response is related to a lower incidence of HIV infection. Citing the possible slight vaccine efficacy for non-white and high-risk ...

Antiretroviral therapy may prevent excess risk of some cancers in people with HIV

...on-melanoma skin cancer. People who used HAART had lower risks of Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma c...ithout HIV/AIDS. HAART use was not associated with lower risks of Hodgkin lymphoma or other cancers. Although people infected with HIV had increased risks of...

Liposome finding implies electrical effect on cell development

... electric fields (5-10 volts per centimeter), much lower than the fields present in operating neurons (a fraction of a volt but operating over a very short distance--less than a micron--to produce a field up to one thousand times stronger). In images achieved through optical and scanning electron microscop...

Alaskan puzzles, monitoring provide insight about North Pacific salmon runs

... which is more valuable than all the salmon in the lower 48 combined back when those stocks were pristine. Kvichak stocks, however, have declined for a decade, failing even to replace themselves in spite of an almost complete halt to harvesting, says Ray Hilborn, UW professor of aquatic and fishery science...

Insight into natural cholesterol control suggests novel cholesterol-lowering therapy

...atins--may improve the drugs' long-term ability to lower cholesterol by stimulating reductase degradation. ### The other members of the research team include Bao-Liang Song and Russell A. DeBose-Boyd from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and Norman B. Javitt from New York University Schoo...

New winter hulless barley has high protein

...icantly higher in starch content and significantly lower in fiber than traditional hulled barley," he said. Virginia Tech released the first winter hulless barley cultivar, "Doyce," in 2003. The breeding program is developing both traditional soft red winter wheat cultivars and new cultivars with unique a...

Increased risk of osteoporosis associated with gene that one in five people have

...pulation, was found in women who had significantly lower blood estrogen levels and higher levels of urinary...at indicates bone resorption and had significantly lower than normal bone density in regions of the upper femur near the hip joint. "The data suggest that t...

FDA Clears the Way for Generic Versions of Transdermal Patches to Treat Chronic Pain

...l is expected to provide patients with access to a lower cost alternative of this pain management system. At the same time that FDA approved Mylan's generic product, it acted on several citizens' petitions requesting that FDA deny or delay approval of the product. The original Fentanyl Transdermal System ...

Scientists Propose Sweeping Changes to Naming of Bird Neurosystems to Acknowledge Their True Brainpower

...l is expected to provide patients with access to a lower cost alternative of this pain management system. At the same time that FDA approved Mylan's generic product, it acted on several citizens' petitions requesting that FDA deny or delay approval of the product. The original Fentanyl Transdermal System ...

Love's all in the brain: fMRI study shows strong, lateralized reward, not sex, drive

...r data indicate that lateralization also occurs in lower parts of the brain. Moreover, different kinds of rewards (in this case, the "rush" of romantic love, compared with the pleasing experience of looking at a pretty or handsome face) is also lateralized. These results give us a lot to think about how th...

Harmful chemicals may reprogram gene response to estrogen

...howed that those women born before 1940 had a much lower risk of developing breast cancer than women born after 1940. The researchers believe this discrepancy is due to differences in diet, exercise, hormonal factors and chemical exposures. Walker believes more research needs to be done to test this conce...

Solutions that reduce death of marine life reeled in by International Smart Gear Competition

...med. Sorting mature shrimp and finfish between the lower and upper parts of the net helps to reduce the time the trawler crew spends sorting on deck. This enhances profitability: it allows more time for productive fishing and also prevents shrimp from being crushed under the weight of fish and bycatch haul...

Super predators and mass extinctions

... cycle depends on mutation rates in the model. The lower the mutation rate, the longer the periods between super predators. For a sufficiently low mutation rate, the model can lead to cycles that correspond to our 26 million year mass extinctions. Previous models that do not show these sorts of cycles cou...

Researchers report new pro-inflammatory role for anti-inflammatory enzyme

...ion in response to bacterial endotoxin, as well as lower plasma levels of NO2- and NO3- and less mortality than normal mice. The scientists also showed that endotoxin activates eNOS in macrophages and that this effect is an essential trigger for the induction of iNOS. "eNOS has until recently been thought...

Canada approves marijuana-based pain spray

...sations usually of the limbs and most often of the lower extremities.5 Many individuals with neuropathic pain respond inadequately to current treatment options.6,7 “It’s hard to explain to someone who has never felt this type of pain. It’s like being plugged into an electric socket all the time,?said Stev...

Brain Scans Reveal How Gene May Boost Schizophrenia Risk

...ple with val fall on the left (rising) slope, with lower dopamine levels, while those with met fall on the right (falling) slope, with higher dopamine levels. The findings suggest that dopamine "tunes" prefrontal neurons (brain cells) to achieve an optimal signal-to-noise ratio, much like a fine-tuning di...

Live vaccines more effective against horse herpes virus

... the horses with MLV vaccinations consistently had lower fevers, no neurological disorders and less virus in nasal fluids. One horse vaccinated with the inactivated virus and one from the control group showed mild neurological symptoms. All the horses, however, have fully recovered. Osterrieder decided to...

Scientists journey to southern Africa to unravel the secret world of elephant communication

... elephants' reactions. Directly below them in the lower level, Dave Shriver and Colleen Kinzley acted as "blind observers," monitoring the herds but never knowing which recordings, if any, were being played back through the shaker. Their observations would provide an unbiased assessment of the elephants' ...

Mouse gene shows new mechanism behind cardiac infarction in man

...e, as mice with mutations in this gene displayed a lower degree of atherosclerosis, while mice with more active variants of the gene displayed the opposite. Studies of two patient groups revealed that a certain variant of the human homologue of the gene was more common in people who had a history of cardi...

Novel gene-silencing nanoparticles shown to inhibit Ewing's sarcoma

...ng siRNA for more specificity and potency so as to lower the required dose for efficacy." The study was a collaborative effort between the laboratory of Timothy J. Triche, at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles; and the laboratory of Mark E. Davis, at the Caltech. Also participating in the study were Jerem...

Study reveals dramatic difference between breast cancers in US and Africa

...kely to fall somewhere in between, with a slightly lower lifetime incidence of breast cancer than Caucasians but earlier onset and worse prognosis. African American women under the age of 35 have a 50 percent greater risk of developing breast cancer than Caucasians. This risk levels off by around age 50 an...

Red delicious, Northern Spy apples have most antioxidants, chemists find

...oxidants found in apple extracts could potentially lower "bad" cholesterol (low density lipoprotein, or LDL) by stimulating the production of LDL receptors in the liver, which help remove cholesterol from the blood. This mechanism is similar to that of statin drugs, researchers say. In March, these finding...

Protein prevents detrimental immune effects of bacterial sepsis

...ns can allow the modeling of new therapeutics with lower side effects." The importance of this work is underscored by the fact that bacterial sepsis ranked among the top ten causes of death in both adults and neonates in 2002 in the United States (Natl Vital Stat Rep 2005, 53:1-89). The patients at greate...

Findings have implications for tracking disease, drugs at the molecular level

...noparticles could be observed at laser intensities lower than those commonly used for multiphoton imaging, in which specific tissues or cells -- cancer cells, for example -- are fluorescently-labeled using special stains that enable them to be studied. "One of the most exciting aspects of this technique i...

Man-made wetland's effectiveness similar to natural marsh

...ward the river ?the second basin was at a slightly lower elevation than the first, the third basin was slightly lower than the second, and so on. Surface water would come into the first basin and slowly seep toward the...

New polysaccharide may help combat multidrug resistance in cancer

...ed in conjunction with chemotherapy such that much lower and less toxic doses of chemotherapeutic agents can be used." ...

Stanford gut check shows diversity of intestinal ecosystem

...ive study to date surveying the inhabitants of the lower digestive tract. In the three healthy subjects he studied, he found 395 unique bacterial species. "The intestinal flora is critical to human physiology and a wide spectrum of disease, but the first step in studying this ecosystem is to figure out wh...

Python a 'hearty' eater

...panied by a rapid remodeling of the ventricle--the lower portion of the blood-pumping organ. In experiments, the python's ventricle increased in mass by 40 percent within 48 hours. Unlike a human heart, which has two ventricles or pumping chambers, a reptile heart has only one. "In mammals, including hum...

Mouse with designer liver has enhanced glucose tolerance, insulin response

...the LGKO mice had reduced blood glucose levels and lower levels of serum insulin. The mice retained triglycerides in the liver with a commensurate decrease of circulating triglycerides in the bloodstream. Insulin response to glucose load was diminished in LGKO mice, thus glucose tolerance in the liver was ...

Purdue researchers use enzyme to clip 'DNA wires'

...used in the future to create electronic devices at lower cost than is possible with conventional manufacturing processes. Purdue researchers had previously developed a technique for precisely placing strands of DNA on a silicon chip and then stretching out the strands so that their encoded information mig...

Research shows smoking adds a decade to reproductive age of IVF patients

...d a body mass of 27kg/m2 or more. Older women had lower success rates no matter what was the cause of subf...onal year of age. "In all subgroups smokers had a lower delivery rate per treatment cycle than non-smokers," Dr Lintsen said. "The live birth rate for smoke...

Chemists synthesize molecule that helps body battle cancers, malaria

...he body to elicit an immune response, allowing for lower vaccine doses with greater effectiveness. The molecule could therefore save patients money on expensive drugs and stretch limited supplies of antigens and vaccines. Gin and his collaborators are now exploring ways to improve the molecule. By investi...

Atmosphere may cleanse itself better than previously thought

...y detectable. However, the weak absorptions in the lower region of the ultraviolet spectrum, from wavelengt...one of the substances that can absorb light in the lower UV spectrum, and the team theorizes that the sensitive laser technique, called action spectroscopy, ...