C. difficile spores spread superbug

New research suggests that antibiotic treatment could be asymptomatically inducing the transmission of the healthcare-acquired infection, C. difficile , contributing to the outbreaks that have recently been widely reported in hospitals and other settings. A team of scientists have successfully mi...

Scientists examine perceptions of risk and the spread of disease

KNOXVILLE -- As swine flu spread from Mexico to Texas and then fanned out farther in the United States, Americans began to alter their behavior. Families kept children home from school, postponed trips to the mall, and stayed home instead of eating out. In so doing, the American population may hav...

Bacteria play role in preventing spread of malaria

Bacteria in the gut of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito inhibit infection of the insect with Plasmodium falciparum , the parasite that causes malaria in humans, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Scientists with the Bloomberg School's Malaria Research...

TGen researchers discover possible way to block the spread of deadly brain tumors

PHOENIX, Ariz. April 17, 2009 Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) may have found a way to stop the often-rapid spread of deadly brain tumors. A gene with the playful-sounding name NHERF-1 may be a serious target for drugs that could prevent malignant tumors fro...

Minimizing the spread of deadly Hendra virus

Groundbreaking CSIRO research into how the deadly Hendra virus spreads promises to save the lives of both horses and humans in the future. CSIRO Livestock Industries' scientists working at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), in Geelong Victoria, have made a major breakthrough in bet...

New wheat disease could spread faster than expected

CORVALLIS, Ore. Both plant and human diseases that can travel with the wind have the potential to spread far more rapidly than has been understood, according to a new study, in findings that pose serious concerns not only for some human diseases but also a new fungus that threatens global wheat p...

Flies may spread drug-resistant bacteria from poultry operations

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found evidence that houseflies collected near broiler poultry operations may contribute to the dispersion of drug-resistant bacteria and thus increase the potential for human exposure to drug-resistant bacteria. The findings demons...

Grazing animals help spread plant disease

CORVALLIS, Ore. Researchers have discovered that grazing animals such as deer and rabbits are actually helping to spread plant disease quadrupling its prevalence in some cases and encouraging an invasion of annual grasses that threaten more than 20 million acres of native grasslands in Californ...

Common food additive found to increase risk and speed spread of lung cancer

New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in indivi...

Transporting broiler chickens could spread antibiotic-resistant organisms

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found evidence of a novel pathway for potential human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from intensively raised poultrydriving behind the trucks transporting broiler chickens from farm to slaughterhouse. A study by the...

Climate change opens new avenue for spread of invasive plants

GAINESVILLE, Fla. Plants that range northward because of climate change may be better at defending themselves against local enemies than native plants. So concludes a team of scientists including a University of Florida geneticist. The team's findings, reported in today's online edition of Na...

Mayo researchers identify dangerous 'two-faced' protein crucial to breast cancer spread and growth

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Two critical properties of cancer cells are their ability to divide without restraint and to spread away from the primary tumor to establish new tumor sites. Now, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found a protein they say acts as a deadly master switch, b...

West Nile's North American spread described

The rapid spread of West Nile virus in North America over the past decade is likely to have long-lasting ecological consequences throughout the continent, according to an article in the November issue of BioScience . The mosquito-borne virus, which was little known before its emergence in New Yo...

Masks, hand washing, prevent spread of flu-like symptoms by up to 50 percent

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Wearing masks and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers may prevent the spread of flu symptoms by as much as 50 percent, a landmark new study suggests. In a first-of-its-kind look at the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions in controlling the spread of the flu virus in...

How do race, genetics and health-care disparities affect spread of HIV?

WHAT: This half-day symposium, featuring speakers and panelists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, the UCLA AIDS Institute, and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, will address the ways in which genetics, race an...

Study shows continued spread of 'dead zones'

A global study led by Professor Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, shows that the number of "dead zones"areas of seafloor with too little oxygen for most marine lifehas increased by a third between 1995 and 2007. Diaz and collaborator Rutger Ro...

Midge-hunting scientists tackle spread of devastating bluetongue virus

Scientists at the BBSRC-funded Institute for Animal Health (IAH) are stepping up the battle against the devastating and economically damaging bluetongue virus. By combining ingenious ways to trap and monitor midges with cutting edge computer modelling and weather predictions the IAH team are gain...

Cells lining milk ducts hold key to spread of common form of breast cancer

BOSTON--When a form of cancer that begins in the milk ducts of the breast invades neighboring tissue to spread to other parts of the body, the cause lies not in the tumor cells themselves but in a group of abnormal surrounding cells that cause the walls of the duct to deteriorate like a rusty pipe...

Montana State researchers study spread of lake trout in Glacier National Park

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Natural barriers like waterfalls play an important role in preventing lake trout from spreading through Glacier National Park, so maintaining those barriers should be a priority, Montana State University researchers said after conducting a four-year study in the park. Park wor...

West Nile virus' spread through nerve cells linked to serious complication

Oct. 18, 2007 -- Scientists believe they have found an explanation for a puzzling and serious complication of West Nile virus infection. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Utah State University showed that West Nile virus can enter a nerve cell, replicate an...

Dietary calcium could possibly prevent the spread of breast cancer to bone

PHILADELPHIA A strong skeleton is less likely to be penetrated by metastasizing cancer cells, so a fortified glass of milk might be the way to block cancers spread, according to researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord, Australia. Using a mouse model of breast cancer metastasis, the...

Fighting the spread of food poisoning

A Queensland University of Technology researcher has developed a new technique that can help scientists and clinicians quickly and cheaply diagnose the bacteria which causes the most common bout of food poisoning in Australia. Erin Price, from QUT's Faculty of Science, has developed a novel set...

Targeting children effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine and could help control flu spread

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research at the University of Warwick funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the cu...

LSUHSC research describes function of key protein in cancer spread

New Orleans, LA Research led by David Worthylake, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, may help lay the groundwork for the development of a compound to prevent the spread of cancer. The research will be published in the May 29,...

3-D research model tackles prostate cancer spread

Shirly Sieh, a PhD student at IHBI, is studying the way cancer cells escape from the prostate through the bloodstream to form tumour colonies, most often in the spine and long bones. "It is an innovative study which uses a tissue engineering platform technology developed by IHBI's Professor Diet...

Researchers examine role of climate change in disease spread

GALVESTON, Texas Ever since scientists first proposed that our planet might be experiencing widespread climate change, concerns have been raised about its implications for the spread of arboviruses viruses carried by arthropods such as mosquitoes, midges and ticks. However, while alterations in ...

Landscape-scale treatment promising for slowing beetle spread

Mountain pine beetles devastating lodgepole pine stands across the West might best be kept in check with aerial application of flakes containing a natural substance used in herbal teas that the insects release to avoid overcrowding host trees, according to a team of scientists. Findings from t...

Team finds breast cancer gene linked to disease spread

A team of researchers at Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has identified a long-sought gene that is fatefully switched on in 30 to 40 percent of all breast cancer patients, spreading the disease, resisting traditional chemotherapies and eventually leading to death. Th...

Study links nicotine with breast cancer growth and spread

PHILADELPHIA A study published in Cancer Research , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, suggests a possible role for nicotine in breast tumor development and metastases. The study, conducted by researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is among the first...

Farmers can spot lame sheep, but fail to prevent footrot spread

Sheep farmers are highly able to spot even mildly lame sheep, but many do not take steps to prevent the spread of lameness in their flocks by catching and treating these animals. A study in the open access journal BMC Veterinary Research is the first to provide evidence for the accuracy of farme...

New synthetic form of protein holds promise to stop cancer spread

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee have a pending patent on a new synthetic form of a protein involved in certain types of cancers and immune system diseases. The protein, CXCL12, is known as a chemokine. Chemokines are proteins that regulate the movement of cells int...

How 'memory' T cells curb the spread of viruses throughout the body

A scientific discovery by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers helps explain how “memory” T cells protect the body from viral diseases. The research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Online Early Edition shows lymph nodes are not just organs where immune cells resid...

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

The genes that make up the immune system of the Aedes aegypti mosquito which transmits deadly viral diseases to humans have been identified in new research out today in Science. The immune system of this mosquito is of great importance as scientists believe it plays a key role in controlling the...

Catching cancer's spread by watching hemoglobin

In an advance that can potentially assist cancer diagnosis, a new optical technique provides high-resolution, three-dimensional images of blood vessels by taking advantage of the natural multiple-photon-absorbing properties of hemoglobin, the red-blood-cell molecule that carries oxygen throughout t...

A genetic 'gang of 4' drives spread of breast cancer

Studies of human tumor cells implanted in mice have shown that the abnormal activation of four genes drives the spread of breast cancer to the lungs. The new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers reveal that the aberrant genes work together to promote the growth of primary breast t...

Scientists discover how body fights to control spread of cancer

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found how two molecules fight in the blood to control the spread of cancer cells. Researchers discovered that a large protein, which forms a protective shield around cancer cells and prevents them from causing secondary tumours, is attacked by a smal...

How badger culling creates conditions for spread of bovine TB

A stable social structure may help control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (TB) among badgers, ecologists have found. The findings ?published online in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology ?have important implications for the role of badger culling as part of the strategy to...

Migration played key role in HIV spread in South Africa

Long-term exposure to marijuana smoke is linked to many of the same health problems as tobacco smoke, such as increased respiratory symptoms like cough, phlegm and wheeze, according to a new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the Un...

Rotavirus can spread beyond the intestine

A new study in PLoS Medicine has shown that children who have rotavirus, a very common cause of diarrhea in children, and who have antigens (protein fragments from the surface of the virus) in their blood, also have infectious virus in their blood. Margaret Conner and colleagues from Baylor College...

Study identifies risk factors for spread of respiratory infections in hospitals

The 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China has lessons to teach hospitals on how to prevent the spread of other respiratory diseases, according to new research appearing in the April 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, currently available online. Hospitals were epic...