IPL

Novel Asthma Study Shows Multiple Genetic Input Required; Single-gene Solution Shot Down

For patients with high-risk breast cancer treated with radical mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy, the addition of radiation therapy leads to better survival outcomes with few long-term toxic effects, according to a 20-year follow-up of a randomized trial, which appears in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The British Columbia randomized radiation the...

Study identifies predictors of HIV drug resistance in patients beginning triple therapy

A scientist at the Marine BiologicalLaboratory (MBL) has published the results of an EPA-funded clam embryostudy that supports her hypothesis that, when combined, the pollutantsbromoform, chloroform, and tetrachloroethylene--a chemical cocktailknown as BCE--can act synergistically to alter a key regulator in nervecell development. While scientists have previously studied the effectsof these...

Multiple Campylobacter Genomes Sequenced

In 1995, the first complete bacterial genome sequence was published. Now, nearly 200 bacterial genomes have been completed, and a new one hits the scientific press most weeks. This burgeoning industry is not just scientific “stamp collecting,?however. Having all these genome sequences may provide useful clues about why some bacteria cause human disease, how to control their spread, and how to tre...

Gene Signatures Predict Interferon Response For Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Multiple sclerosis (MS) can be an unpredictable disease. It develops when the body's immune system attacks healthy nerve cells and disrupts normal nerve signaling. Patients experience a wide range of symptoms—including tingling, paralysis, pain, fatigue, and blurred vision—that can appear independently or in combination, sporadically or persistently. Although symptoms appear in no particular orde...

Multiple-drug resistant gene expression pattern predicts treatment outcome for pediatric leukemia

A new study is providing scientists with a better understanding of why some pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients fail to respond to treatment even when existing clinical predictive criteria point towards a positive treatment outcome. The research, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, is likely to facilitate development of new strategies to combat drug resistance and treat...

Researchers discover mechanism for multiplying adult stem cells

While the field of human embryonic stem cell research receives a tremendous amount of public attention, many scientists are also exploring the potential of adult stem cells for possible therapies. But this field raises other difficulties. Although adult stem cell research isn't fraught with the controversies that surround embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells are extremely difficult to isolate a...

Higher risk for cervical cancer seen among women infected with multiple HPV types

Although doctors have known that the cervical tissue at the opening to the womb can harbor multiple HPV types, this study is the first to document that the risk for developing cervical cancer, the second most common form of cancer in women worldwide, is higher in females infected with multiple HPV types than those infected with just one HPV type. In addition, the study's findings provide...

New technique helps identify multiple DNA regulatory sites

Just as the printing press revolutionized the creation of reading matter, a "nano-printing" technique developed at MIT could enable the mass production of nano-devices currently built one at a time. The most immediate candidate for this innovation is the DNA microarray, a nano-device used to diagnose and understand genetic illnesses such as Alzheimer's, viral illnesses such as AIDS, and c...

OHSU researchers discover potential mechanism to repair brain damage linked to Multiple Sclerosis

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have identified some of the key factors that prevent the repair of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), complications of premature birth, and other diseases and conditions. The findings offer important clues about why the nervous system fails to repair itself and suggest ways that at least some forms of brain damage could be reversed....

Wright bros. upstaged! Dinos invented biplanes

The evolution of airplanes from the Wright Brothers' first biplanes to monoplanes was an inadvertent replay of the much earlier evolution of dinosaur flight, say two dino flight experts. According to paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee and retired aeronautical engineer R.J. Templin, a small early Chinese dinosaur called Microraptor gui used a two-level, biplane wing configuration to fly from...

New technique multiplies life span in simple organisms

A counterintuitive experiment has resulted in one of the longest recorded life-span extensions in any organism and opened a new door for anti-aging research in humans. That finding was covered widely and incorporated into anti-aging drug development pro...

Multiple genes permit closely related fish species to mix and match their color vision

Vision, like other biological attributes, is shaped by evolution through environmental pressures and demands, and even closely-related species that are in other ways very similar might respond to their particular environments by interpreting the visual world slightly differently, using photoreceptors that are attuned to particular wavelengths of light. By studying a special group of closely-relat...

Compound from marine bacteria shows potential as multiple myeloma therapy

An anti-cancer compound derived from bacteria dwelling in ocean-bottom sediments appears in laboratory tests to be a potent killer of drug-resistant multiple myeloma cells, and potentially with less toxicity than current treatments, report Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers in the November issue of Cancer Cell. The experimental compound, NPI-0052, has been found to block or inhibit c...

Guiding principles for facial transplantation unveiled

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM) today unveiled a landmark joint document, Facial Transplantation-ASPS/ASRM Guiding Principles, to assist plastic surgeons considering participation in facial transplantation procedures. "This is truly a remarkable and historic time in plastic surgery," said Bruce Cunningham, MD a...

Powerful technique for multiplying adult stem cells may aid therapies

Adult stem cells may be free of the ethical concerns that hamper embryonic stem cell research, but they still pose formidable scientific challenges. Chief among these is the doggedness with which adult stem cells differentiate into mature tissue the moment they're isolated from the body. This makes it nearly impossible for researchers to multiply them in the laboratory. And because adult stem cel...

Genome changes tracked during multiple myeloma initiation, progression and treatment

Scientists have made significant progress toward elucidating key genetic events associated with the development and progression of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable malignancy that is the second most common cancer of the blood. The results, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, provide new genetic and biological insights that open innovative directions for the discovery of effective ther...

Epstein-Barr virus may be associated with multiple sclerosis

Young adults with high levels of antibodies against the Epstein-Barr virus, the virus that most often causes mononucleosis, may be more likely to develop multiple sclerosis 15 to 20 years later, according to a study posted online today that will appear in the June 2006 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Researchers have long suspected that external fac...

Chimpanzees can transmit cultural behavior to multiple 'generations'

Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, according to new findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. For the first time, researchers have shown chimpanzees exhibit generational learning behavior similar to that in humans. Unlike previous findings that in...

Airborne mold spores increase kids' risk for multiple allergies

University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers say exposure to a certain group of fungal spores--abundant in the air that we breathe every day--can make young children more susceptible to developing multiple allergies later in life. The team found that infants who were exposed to basidiospores and other airborne fungal spores--specifically penicillium/aspergillus and alternaria--early in life...

Triple threat polymer captures and releases

A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a remarkable nanostructured material that can repel pests , sweeten the air, and some day might even be used as a timed drug delivery system –as a nasal spray, for instance. Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., Washington University James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, has taken the same materials...

Whiplash injuries ?are they caused by startle reflexes?

New research published in The Journal of Physiology suggests that a cause of whiplash injuries could be startle reflexes elicited by unexpected loud sounds. Whiplash injuries most commonly result from seemingly minor low-speed rear-end collisions. The reason for the injury is not known but it is generally thought that the sudden acceleration of the body relative to the head damages the jo...

Epstein-Barr virus might kick-start multiple sclerosis

Researchers have found that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) carry a population of immune cells that overreact to Epstein-Barr virus. The virus, which causes mononucleosis and may contribute to some cancers, has long been suspected to play a role in MS. However, the mechanism linking the virus to the disease was poorly understood. Scientists think that MS--which can cause vision prob...

An advanced genetic diagnostic method for multiple myeloma

A researcher at the University of Navarra, Borja Sáez Ochoa, has proposed a new genetic diagnostic method for multiple myeloma (MM), a type of bone marrow cancer, which permits the detection of this disease in earlier stages. The dissertation of this biologist, produced in the Department of Genetics of the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra, and in the Institute of Human Genet...

'GreeneChip' -- New diagnostic tool that rapidly and accurately identifies multiple pathogens

Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and their colleagues in the WHO Global Laboratory Network have developed a new tool for pathogen surveillance and discovery—the GreeneChip System. The GreeneChip is the first tool to provide comprehensive, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses,...

Triple threat: World fin trade may harvest up to 73 million sharks per year

The first real-data study of sharks harvested for their valuable fins estimates as few as 26 million and as many as 73 million sharks are killed each year worldwide--three times higher than was reported originally by the United Nations, according to a paper published as the cover story in the October 2006 edition of Ecology Letters. "The shark fin trade is notoriously secretive. But we w...

Multiple malaria infection inhibits spread of parasite

People who are frequently infected with malaria parasites can develop immunity against the gametocyte, the infectious stage. This immunity inhibits the spread of the parasite. Dutch researcher Mike van der Kolk discovered this during his research into malaria transmission under the inhabitants of Cameroon, Senegal and Indonesia. After just a few infections, people can develop immunity that inhibi...

Triplex assay used to assay duplex genomic DNA

Direct detection of base sequence in duplex nucleic acid has long been an unfulfilled objective. Ingeneus Research will publish "Heteropolymeric Triplex-Based Genomic Assay® to Detect Pathogens or Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Human Genomic Samples" in the March 21st issue of the international, peer-reviewed, open access, online journal, PLoS ONE. In the article they present a wealth...

Stem cells act through multiple mechanisms to benefit mice with neurodegenerative disease

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold great promise for benefiting degenerative diseases, and do so by invoking multiple mechanisms. Such cells can be grown in a manner compatible with clinical use (i.e., without animal feeder layers) and even without the need for immunosuppression. These were a few of a number of conclusions arrived at by an international collaboration led by Evan Y. Snyder, M...

Investigating the measles virus as a tool to kill multiple myeloma

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has opened a new Phase I clinical trial testing an engineered measles virus against multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow that currently has no cure. This is the third of a series of molecular medicine studies in patients testing the potential of measles to kill cancer. “This is the beginning of a long but exciting process,?says Angela Dispenzieri, M.D.,...

New collaborative research reveals chimpanzees can sustain multiple-tradition cultures

The study, available in today’s online edition of Current Biology, confirms captive chimpanzees have the capacity to sustain...