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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...

UCLA Study Shows One-Third of Drug Ads in Medical Journals Do Not Contain References Supporting Medical Claims

UCLA investigators reviewed pharmaceutical ads in American medical journals and found that nearly one-third contained no references for medical claims; while the majority of references to published material was available, only a minority of company data-on-file documents were provided upon request; and the majority of original research cited in the ads was funded by or had authors affiliated with...

Genome of deadly amoeba shows surprising complexity, evidence of lateral gene transfer

The genome sequence of the parasitic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica, a leading cause of severe diarrheal disease in developing countries, includes an unexpectedly complex repertoire of sensory genes as well as a variety of bacterial-like genes that contribute to the organism's unique biology. The report, which appears in the February 24 issue of Nature, presents the first genome-wide study...

“Nano-scissors?laser shows precise surgical capability

)is quite a challenge; its about 1 mm in length. A research team fromthe University of Texas at Austin developed a method of laser-assistedsurgery to work on these little beasts, being able to section a singleaxon (the "arms" of a neuron) with g...

Novel Enzyme Shows Potential As An Anti-HIV Target

At just 9.8 kilobases, the HIV genome pales in comparison to the 3.2 gigabases of its human and nonhuman primate targets. The compact retrovirus encodes just 14 proteins, which play different roles in promoting viral infection and virulence. As a retrovirus, HIV uses the host’s cellular machinery—including RNA polymerases, which carry out transcription—to copy its RNA genome into DNA and infiltra...

Clam embryo study shows pollutant mixture adversely affects nerve cell development

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...

New imaging method gives early indication if brain cancer therapy is effective, U-M study shows

A special type of MRI scan that measures the flow of water molecules through the brain can help doctors determine early in the course of brain cancer regimen if a patient's tumor will shrink, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center developed the assessment, which they call a functional diffusion map. They used a magnetic resonance imaging sc...

Study shows nanoshells ideal as chemical nanosensors

'Nanoshells' enhance sensitivity to chemicaldetection by factor of 10 billionNew research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy ofScience finds that tailored nanoparticles known as nanoshells canenhance chemical sensing by as much as 10 billion times. That makesthem about 10,000 times more effective at Raman scattering thantraditional methods. Whenmolecules and materi...

UCSD Discovery Shows How Embryonic Stem Cells Perform 'Quality Control' Inspections

A team led by Johns Hopkins scientists hasfound the first clear evidence that the process behind the human immunesystem's remarkable ability to recognize and respond to a milliondifferent proteins might have originated from a family of genes whoseonly apparent function is to jump around in genetic material. essentially cut...

Gene vaccine for Alzheimer's disease shows promising results

UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallasresearchers have found a way of stimulating the immune systems of miceto fight against amyloid proteins that cause the devastating plaquesthat are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.For years scientists have examined the possibility of using aprotein-based vaccine to slow the progression of the disease in itsearly stages. UT Southwestern researcher...

Special Imaging Study Shows Failing Hearts Are 'Energy Starved'

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for the first time to examine energy production biochemistry in a beating human heart, Johns Hopkins researchers have found substantial energy deficits in failing hearts. The findings, published in the January 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirm what many scientists have conjectured for years about heart fail...

Molecular Motors Cooperate In Moving Cellular Cargo, Study Shows

Researchers using an extremely fast and accurate imaging technique have shed light on the tiny movements of molecular motors that shuttle material within living cells. The motors cooperate in a delicate choreography of steps, rather than engaging in the brute-force tug of war many scientists had imagined. "We discovered that two molecular motors -- dynein and kinesin -- do not compete for...

Flocking together: Study shows how animal groups find their way

A study led by Princeton biologists has revealed a remarkably simple mechanism that allows flocking birds, schooling fish or running herds to travel in unison without any recognized leaders or signaling system. The finding, published in the Feb. 3 issue of Nature, helps settle age-old questions about how animals coordinate their actions. Previously, scientists had looked for subtle signal...

Stem Cell Research Shows Potential for Replacing Tissue Damaged in Heart Attacks

A Medical College of Wisconsin research team, led by John W. Lough, Ph.D., professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy has found that embryonic stem cells (ES cells) in animals can be cultivated to form new tissue, which eventually may help doctors learn how to replace tissue damaged as a result of a heart attack. The potential for ES cells to replace damaged or diseased cells in...

New drug shows promise as powerful anticancer agent

Research published in the March issue of the journal Cancer Cell describes a small molecule inhibitor of polo-like kinase1 (Plk1) that could lead to a new avenue for targeted cancer therapy. The compound, ON01910, is a potent inhibitor of human tumors in a mouse model system and has low toxicity. The results of this study have led to clinical evaluation of this compound in phase I clinical trials...

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

You just can't tell where you might find love these days. A team led by a neuroscientist, an anthropologist and a social psychologist found love-related neurophysiological systems inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine. They detected quantifiable love responses in the brains of 17 young men and women who each described themselves as being newly and madly in love. The multidisciplinary...

Test for early detection of prostate cancer shows promise

In the first clinical study of a new blood protein associated with prostate cancer, researchers have found that the marker, called EPCA or early prostate cancer antigen, can successfully detect prostate cancer in its earliest stages. At the same time, the marker successfully avoids the problem of false positive results that plagues prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. Study results ap...

Mouse gene shows new mechanism behind cardiac infarction in man

A gene that, in different variants, increases or decreases the level of atherosclerosis has been identified in mice. The corresponding human gene has been shown to play a role in the development of myocardial infarction. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with the Jackson Laboratory in th...

Stanford gut check shows diversity of intestinal ecosystem

The universe of microbes that lives in your stomach may be nearly as unique as your fingerprint, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine who have embarked on the early stages of exploring the intestinal ecosystem. Using molecular techniques that detect all known types of microbes and borrowing statistical techniques from field ecology and population genetics,...

Fox Chase study shows that weakened T-cell receptor signals change T-cell lineage

The immune system is a marvel of versatility, creating a variety of cells that develop in different ways to protect the body. To carry out these tasks, immune cells follow a career path that forks at various points in their development. In a report in the May 2005 issue of Immunity, Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists led by immunologists David L. Wiest, Ph.D. and Dietmar J. Kappes, Ph.D., show th...

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

A major new Dutch study has found that smoking adds the equivalent of ten years to a 20-year-old subfertile woman's reproductive age and has a "devastating" impact on a couples' chances of having a live birth after IVF. Being overweight also seriously damages their chances. The harmful effects of smoking or being overweight were strongest among those women who had no obvious cause for not...

Single-donor Islet Transplantation Procedure Shows Promise For Patients With Type 1 Diabetes

Patients with type 1 diabetes who received islet transplantation from a single donor pancreas were insulin independent one year later, according to a study in the February 16 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical applications of biotechnology. Type 1 diabetes remains a therapeutic challenge, according to background information in the article. The success rate of islet (cells that produc...

Columbia study shows widely used artery clearing device does not help patients during heart attack

Interventional cardiologists from Columbia University Medical Center have shown that a commonly used procedure to remove fatty debris from blocked arteries during a heart attack does not improve patient outcomes. The procedure, called distal microcirculatory protection, is commonly and successfully used during angioplasty in vein grafts and stenting in carotid arteries. The study, publish...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

One traditional approach to pharmaceutical design uses so-called "first messengers" ?hormones, other natural facilitators or synthetic products ?to initiate various cellular cascades for the desired physiological effect. To date, despite concerted efforts at all levels of research, this approach has failed to develop a truly successful obesity drug to address this major global health problem....

Diabetic nerve therapy shows 'striking' results

Research into a new treatment for nerve damage caused by diabetes could bring relief to millions of diabetic patients, say experts. The treatment might also reduce the number of amputations of toes and feet if early effects on nerve protection and regeneration are borne out long-term. Nerve disease in diabetes is the major cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations in Europe and North...

New method shows it is possible to grow bone for grafts within a patient's body

An international team of biomedical engineers has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to grow healthy new bone reliably in one part of the body and use it to repair damaged bone at a different location. The research, which is based on a dramatic departure from the current practice in tissue engineering, is described in a paper titled "In vivo engineering of organs: The bon...

Study shows humans have ability to track odors, much like bloodhounds

Though humans may never match the tracking ability of dogs, we apparently have the ability to sniff out and locate odors, according to a new study by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley. Student volunteers presented with odors to one nostril or the other could reliably discern where the odor was coming from, and functional magnetic resonance images of their brains showed...

Study shows how retinoic acid enters a cell's nucleus

Cornell University researchers have revealed a process that has stumped scientists for many years: exactly how an acid derived from vitamin A enters a cell's nucleus, where it has strong anti-carcinogenic effects. Discovery of this basic transport mechanism opens a new door for future research on related compounds. The finding has important implications for the fight against cancer and ot...

OHSU research shows vitamin C counteracts some negative impacts of smoking on unborn babies

Research conducted in monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, suggests high doses of vitamin C may have potential to counteract some negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies. The research may benefit thousands of babies born to mothers who continue to smoke throughout pregnancy despite physician warnings. The research is published in the...

VCU study shows hormone-like molecule kills cells that cause inflammation in allergic disease

Virginia Commonwealth University immunologists studying mast cells, known to play a central role in asthma and allergic disease, have identified a hormone-like molecule that can kill these cells by programming them to die in studies with mice. The findings move researchers another step closer to understanding the life cycle of mast cells, and may help researchers develop new treatments fo...

New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing

New research from Columbia University Medical Center may explain why people who are able to easily and accurately recall historical dates or long-ago events, may have a harder time with word recall or remembering the day’s current events. They may have too much memory ?making it harder to filter out information and increasing the time it takes for new short-term memories to be processed and store...

Thinking the pain away? Study shows the brain's painkillers may cause 'placebo effect'

Sham painkiller prompts brain to release endorphins, bringing real relief to those in pain The study provides the first direct evidence that the brain's own pain-fighting chemicals, called endo...

Compound from Chinese medicine shows promise in head and neck cancer

A compound derived from cottonseed could help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy at treating head and neck cancer, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found. The findings, which appear in the July issue of the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, could lead to a treatment that provides an effective option to surgically removing the cancer, he...

Expanding forests darken the outlook for butterflies, study shows

Changing environmental conditions in the Canadian Rockies are stifling the mating choices of butterflies in the region, say University of Alberta researchers. Smaller and less abundant alpine meadows--largely the result of human activities--are diminishing the alpine butterfly gene pool, creating a pattern that could lead to the butterflies being less able to survive, said Dr. Jens Roland,...

Slipping past the blood brain barrier: Research shows potential treatment for brain cancer

A compound that kills cancer can sneak past the blood brain barrier, which protects the brain from foreign substances, to do its work in fighting a particularly invasive brain cancer, according to a new Saint Louis University animal study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition the week of Aug. 22. "The bottom line is, if you can get drugs into...

Study shows eutrophic lakes may not recover for a millennium

Although it has taken just 60 years for humans to put many freshwater lakes on the eutrophication fast track, a new study shows their recovery may take a thousand years under the best of circumstances. Writing in today's (June 13) online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), University of Wisconsin-Madison limnologist Stephen R. Carpenter reported results...

VCU Massey Cancer Center study shows enzyme linked to spread of breast cancer cells

Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have found a new signaling component that influences movement of human breast cancer cells toward epidermal growth factor. In the August issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers showed that epidermal growth factor, which plays a critical role in breast cancer progression, stimulates sphingosine kinase...

Industrial contaminants spread by seabirds in High Arctic, new Canadian study shows

Seabirds are the surprising culprits in delivering pollutants ?through their guano ?to seemingly pristine northern ecosystems, a new Canadian study shows. The most common form of wildlife in the Arctic, seabirds are responsible for transporting most of the human-made contaminants to some coastal ecosystems, the researchers found. "The effect is to elevate concentrations of pollutants such...

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....

New study shows SARS can infect brain tissue

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), by its very name, indicates a disease of the respiratory tract. But SARS can also infiltrate brain tissue, causing significant central nervous system problems, according to an article in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. SARS, a potentially fatal illness caused by a coronavirus, was first reported in Asia in F...