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Tag: "quit" at biology news

Bound for destruction: Ubiquitination protects against improper Notch signaling

The .is an important molecular signaling mechanism whose existence has been.known, or at least hinted at, for nearly a century since the.identification of a mutant strain of Drosophila fruit flies with.“notched?wings in Thomas Hunt Morgan’s lab in 1910. Later studies.revealed that the Notch gene encodes a receptor protein that extends.through both sides of the cell membrane and which is capable...

University of Nevada, Reno research team discovers hormone that causes malaria mosquito to urinate

Discovery has implications for control of mosquitoes, malaria and West Nile Virus .. . .. Schooley's contribution to the development of methoprene wa...

Fighting malaria by manipulating mosquitoes' sense of smell

Combating the spread of malaria by manipulating the mosquitoes' sense of smell is the object of an ambitious research project, led by Vanderbilt University, that has been selected to receive $8.5 million as part of the Grand Challenges to Global Health. . The initiative, which was launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has just announced the selection of 43 "groundbreaking" research p...

Mosquito study shows new, faster way West Nile can spread

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have discovered a quick new way that mosquitoes can pass West Nile virus to each other. The new study challenges fundamental assumptions about the virus' transmission cycle and may help explain why it spread so rapidly across North America despite experts' predictions that it would progress more slowly or even die out. . In...

Mosquitoes are more attracted to individuals infected with malaria

Malaria remains a devastating problem in Africa and understanding the factors affecting its transmission remains a crucial part of the effort to combat the disease. A new study published in the premier open access journal PLoS Biology conducted in Western Kenya by Jacob Koella and colleagues now reveals that mosquitoes are more attracted to children with the infectious stages of malaria than to t...

Gene that helps mosquitoes fight off malaria parasite identified

Researchers have identified a gene in mosquitoes that helps the insects to fight off infection by the Plasmodium parasite, which causes malaria in humans. Anopheles mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite to nearly 550 million people worldwide each year with these cases resulting in more than 2 million deaths annually. The protective gene was identified in a study conducted by a team of investig...

Many smokers fail to quit after cancer diagnosis

A new report says despite a growing body of evidence that continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis has substantial adverse effects on treatment effectiveness, overall survival, risk of other cancers, and quality of life, up to one-half of cancer patients who smoke continue to do so or relapse after trying to quit. . .. The heal...

New GM mosquito sexing technique is step towards malaria control, report scientists

Scientists have genetically modified male mosquitoes to express a glowing protein in their gonads, in an advance that allows them to separate the different sexes quickly. . .. Research published online today in Nature Biotechnology, shows how a team from Imperial College London have altered male mosquitoes to express a green fluorescent protein in their gonads. Coupled with a high speed sorting t...

Researchers test new way to quit smoking

Smokers trying to kick the habit might stand a better chance of staying smoke-free if they begin using replacement nicotine patches or gum in the weeks before they quit cigarettes. . .. Principal investigator Dr Chris Bullen says the conventional wisdom is that people trying to quit throw away their cigarettes and immediately replace them with a nicotine substitute...

Genetically engineered mosquitoes show resistance to dengue fever virus

Researchers have successfully created a genetically engineered mosquito that shows a high level of resistance against the most prevalent type of dengue fever virus, providing a powerful weapon against a disease that infects 50 million people each year. . Anthony James, a UC Irvine vector biologist, is one of a team of researchers who injected DNA into mosquito embryos, creating the first stable t...

Oxidation defense in mosquitoes benefits malaria parasite

Scientists from two universities in Italy and Virginia Tech in the United States have determined the structure of a protein that is responsible for the production xanthurenic acid (XA) in Anopheles gambiae, the malaria carrying mosquitoes. XA plays a key role in the sexual reproduction of the malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) in A. gambiae mosquitoes. Interfering with the formation of XA c...

Mosquito spray increases toxicity of pyrethroids in creek, study finds

A relatively benign compound contained in a widely used group of insecticides can mix with and increase the toxicity of existing pesticides in the environment, according to a new study led by biologists at the University of California, Berkeley. . .. The study's results, reported in the July 26 online edition of Environmental Science & Technology, send a message to environmental regulators t...

Blood test predicts success of quitting smoking using the nicotine patch

A blood test may enable doctors to predict which smokers using the nicotine patch are likely to experience the least amount of cravings and have the highest probability of success in quitting cigarettes, according to the results of a study in the June issus of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. . The blood test, which is a measure of the rate at which nicotine is metabolized...

Quitting smoking improves lung function considerably

For smokers with asthma, quitting smoking can improve lung function test scores by more than 15 percent in less than two months. . .. Neil C. Thomson, M.D., of the Departments of Respiratory Medicine and Immunology at the University of Glasgow, and seven associates studied 11 asthmatics who continued to smoke and 10 who quit for six weeks. After only one week of no cigarettes, the researchers s...

When it comes to gene transcription, random pauses aren’t quite so random, study finds

Of the thousands of proteins produced in our cells, few are as important as the enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP), which has the unique ability to faithfully copy genetic information from DNA. In fact, all organisms--from bacteria to people--depend on RNAP to initiate the complex process of protein synthesis. Despite its crucial role in cell biology, fundamental questions remain about how the RNAP enz...

Malaria vaccine prompts victims' immune system to eliminate parasite from mosquitoes

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that could, theoretically, eliminate malaria from entire geographic regions, by eradicating the malaria parasite from an area's mosquitoes. . .. An article...

Mayo Clinic: Gene expression profiling not quite perfected in predicting lung cancer prognosis

While there have been significant advances in the use of gene expression profiling to assess a cancer prognosis, a Mayo Clinic review and analysis of existing lung cancer studies shows that this technology has not yet surpassed the accuracy of conventional methods used to assess survival in lung cancer patients. . The interest in and the knowledge of gene expression profiling in medical science h...

Small, smaller, smallest -- The plight of the vaquita

Research published in the academic journal Mammal Review has uncovered the missing link in the depleting population of the vaquita. With a body less than 1.5 m long, the vaquita is the smallest living cetacean (the order Cetacea consists of whales, dolphins and porpoises). It also has one of the smallest ranges (c. 2235 km2) and one of the smallest populations (< 600 individuals based on a 1997 s...

PET imaging shows young smokers quick benefit of quitting

The early stages of coronary artery disease in young smokers can be reversed quickly if they choose to put out their cigarettes for good, according to a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging study in the December Journal of Nuclear Medicine. . "I believe this is the first PET study that shows abnormal coronary function is reversible after only one month of smoking cessation," said Nagara Ta...

MRSA toxin acquitted: Study clears suspected key to severe bacterial illness

Researchers who thought they had identified the bacterial perpetrator of the often severe disease caused by community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) had better keep looking: Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have exonerated a toxin widely thought to be the guilty party. . Pa...

Smokers quit after damage to brain region

Smokers with a damaged insula ?a region in the brain linked to emotion and feelings ?quit smoking easily and immediately, according to a study in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Science. . .. .. The senior authors of the study are Antoine Bechara and Hanna Damasio, both faculty in the year-old Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, in collaboration w...

Quitting smoking reduces risk of lung cancer mortality by 70 percent

Giving up smoking is highly effective in preventing death from lung cancer and can reduce the risk of dying from the disease by up to 70%. In addition, new research from the Asia-Pacific region confirms that cigarette smoking substantially increases the risk of dying from lung cancer in both Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) and Asia, and importantly highlights the continuing popularity of cigarette sm...

Mosquito genes explain response to climate change

University of Oregon researchers studying mosquitoes have produced the first chromosomal map that shows regions of chromosomes that activate ?and are apparently evolving ?in animals in response to climate change. . The map will allow researchers to narrow their focus to identify specific genes that control the seasonal development of animals. Such information will help predict which animals may...

Mosquito repellents that emit high-pitched sounds don't prevent bites

A Cochrane Systematic Review of the use of electronic mosquito repellents (EMRs) failed to find any evidence that they work. The researchers therefore say that there is no reason for recommending their use, and that there is no reason for even trying to do more research with the devices. . .. To test these claims...

Genome of yellow fever/dengue fever mosquito sequenced

Developing new strategies to prevent and control yellow fever and dengue fever has become more possible with the completion of the first draft of the genome sequence of Aedes aegypti mosquito by scientists led by Vishvanath Nene at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and David Severson at the University of Notre Dame. The genome is the complete set of genetic material including genes and ot...

Revealed -- Mosquito genes that could be controlling the spread of killer viruses

. .. This study is the first of its kind on the newly-sequenced genome of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also published in this week’s Science. The rese...