Fatal

UCSD research reveals mechanism involved with type of fatal epilepsy

Researchers at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have found that Lafora disease, an inherited form of epilepsy that results in death by the age of 30, can be caused by mutations in a gene that regulates the concentration of the protein laforin. These findings are reported in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Lafora disease is characterize...

Important discovery about second most fatal cancer

An international team of medical scientists has made an important advance in our understanding of the second most fatal form of cancer in the industrialized world. Professor Jeremy R. Jass, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Gastrointestinal Pathology at McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues in Australia and Japan have shown that in some cases colorectal cancer can be inherited. The new...

New study shows measles immunization may prevent fatal brain infection

A new study has found wild-type measles virus in tissues from patients who died of a fatal brain infection, providing evidence against the notion that the strain of virus in the measles vaccine caused the infection. The study, in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, also concludes that vaccination against measles could prevent many more cases of the...

Patients now surviving once-fatal immune disease

Individuals who have a rare genetic immune system disorder that prevents them from making antibodies nevertheless appear to be moderately healthy and lead productive lives, according to results of a study by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. A report on this study appears in the current online edition of Clinical Immunology. The study of 41 adults with X-linked agamm...

Cincinnati surgeons report new treatment for often-fatal injury

University of Cincinnati (UC) surgeons have developed a new, minimally invasive method for repairing a common and deadly form of aortic injury--an advance that could help reduce the number of deaths caused by auto accidents and major falls. The potentially life-saving technique is reported by Joseph Giglia, MD, interim director of UC's division of vascular surgery, and his team in the Marc...

Three-in-one virus killer prevents common, often fatal infections

A novel combination therapy drastically reduces the infection rate of three viruses ?and risk of death ?in transplant patients with compromised immune systems. The findings, to be reported in the Nov. 1 print edition of Nature Medicine, originate from a study conducted at Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital, and Texas Children's Hospital. The journal has posted the findings...

New study may show how to forestall a fatal, virus-caused immune-system meltdown

When a virus infects a person, it triggers a series of biochemical reactions in immune-system cells that literally may have life or death consequences. Usually, the result is an effective immune response, leading to the elimination of the virus and the infected person’s recovery. But in the case of some of the world’s deadliest pathogens ?including the Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever virus...

Wheat can fatally starve insect predators

A newly identified wheat gene produces proteins that appear to attack the stomach lining of a crop-destroying fly larvae so that the bugs starve to death. The gene's role in creating resistance to Hessian flies was a surprise to U.S. Department of Agriculture and Purdue University researchers, discoverers of the gene and its function. They made the finding as they investigated new, long-t...

Thymus transplants gives hope to babies with fatal immune disease

"My baby is doing what other babies her age are doing -- she's feeding herself, putting on her own clothes and she loves to dance." Lolita Harding is describing her daughter Dave'yana, who will turn three in September, thanks in large part to a thymus transplant she received at Duke University Medical Center in April 2005 to reconstitute her absent immune system. Dave'yana was the 31st bab...