Puzzl

Scientists crack dengue fever puzzle

Experts may have solved the mystery of why dengue fever, unlike other infections, is usually more severe the second time around. Dengue is a debilitating, sometimes fatal illness endemic to much of the tropics. Caused by a virus, it is characterized by high fever, bone and muscle pain and -- in the most serious cases -- hemorrhage and fatal shock. Dengue is also unusual in that //symptom...

Genetic Therapy Could Solve Parkinson’s Puzzl

Researchers from the Northwestern University are developing a unique genetic therapy by which they can switch off a gene involved in Parkinson's disease. Martha Bohn and her laboratory team at// Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine designed this novel therapy, which is described in detail in the January online issue of the journal Experimental Neurology. The gene thera...

Bush’s new prescription drug plan, a complex puzzle for the citizen

President Bush’s prescription drug plan came in to effect on Jan 1st, but the governors of many states like those of Pennsylvania, have trouble dealing with the issue//. The plan has been under study for more than a year but members of Medicare came to know about it when they received a booklet declaring the new prescription drug plan. The plan was very difficult to understand which pre...

Strange Theft Of HIV Infected Blood Leaves Authorities Puzzled

In a strange robbery in Vancouver at the virology lab of the St. Paul's Hospital, 19 samples of HIV positive blood were taken from the locked freezer//. The vials were also labelled with the name and other confidential medical information of the persons the blood had been taken from. The police and hospital authorities are puzzled over this bizarre theft. The samples were being stored...

Depression - a Puzzle of Many Pieces

Medication in treating major depression is only one of many potential pieces in the puzzle according to a newly published UCLA study.// Published in the August 2006 edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the study used electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements to demonstrate an association between eventual clinical outcome and regional changes in brain activity during a placebo...

Weird Protein Puzzles Researchers

The surface of leukemia cells are thought to be inhabited by a rather peculiar protein, sobriquet as the “Frankenstein protein”, which has peptides attached// together in a pattern which is exactly the opposite of the code present in the DNA template. This revelation is far removed from the theory prescribed in the molecular biology textbooks. This discovery has meant a shift in the...

Most Suicide Rates Decline, but Findings Are Puzzling

First, the good news: Suicide rates among younger and older Americans have been declining since the early 1990s. Now, the puzzling news: No one really knows why// . Those are the findings of a study conducted by researchers at the University of South Carolina and released Thursday (Sept. 28) in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Robert McKeown,...

Biochemical Chip Solves Cell-mating Puzzle

Scientists have used a biochemical chip to explain the important role a certain protein plays in the mating habits of yeast cells. The finding could lead to new cancer drugs with fewer side effects. // A research team at The John Hopkins University, led by Andre Levchenko, have revealed in the journal Nature how they used their patented microfluidic chip to study yeast cells merging to...

MIT Biologists Solve Vitamin Puzzle

Solving a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard researchers have discovered// the final piece of the synthesis pathway of vitamin B12--the only vitamin synthesized exclusively by microorganisms. B12, the most chemically complex of all vitamins, is essential for human health. Four Nobel Prizes have been awarded for rese...

Boffins a Step Closer to Solving Puzzle of Lou Gehrig's Disease

Moving closer to solving Lou Gehrig's disease mystery, UCLA, Italian chemists may have solved an important mystery about a protein that plays a key role in a particular form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a progressive, fatal neuro-degenerative disorder that strikes without warning. Joan Selverstone Valentine, UCLA professor of chemistry...

Solving Puzzles Could Boost Brain Power

Solving crosswords and similar puzzles could boost brain power and improve one's concentration, suggests a new study. It could also help those who have increased risks of developing memory disorders later in life, says Jennifer Mozolic, a student at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, who studied 23 people aged 65-75. The preliminary findin...

Doctors Puzzled Over Man's Normal Life With Unusually Tiny Brain

French doctors are puzzling over the case of 44-year-old civil servant who has led a quite normal life -- but with an extraordinarily tiny brain . In a case history published in next Saturday's Lancet, doctors led by Lionel Feuillet of the Hopital de la Timone in Marseille say the father-of-two was admitted to hospital after suffering mild weakness in his left leg. Sca...