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Analysis of Brain Tissue of Deceased Alzheimer's Patients Sheds More Light on Gene Networks at the Root of the Disease

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Researchers analyzing the brain tissue of deceased human patients of Alzheimer's disease have shed light on dysfunctions in molecular networks in the brain that are at the root of the disease formation, a new study published in the journal Cell reveals. By showing that the TYROBP gene plays a key role in disrupting immune system pathways in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, the study reveals a potential therapeutic target for preventing brain damage caused by ...

Suppressing Protein Regulator Activity can Stem Alzheimer's Disease Process

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A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health reveals that removing toxic debris that accumulates in patients' brains by blocking activity of a regulator protein called CD33 could be a potential strategy in stemming the process involved in Alzheimer's disease. "Too much CD33 activity appears to promote late-onset Alzheimer's by preventing support cells from clearing out toxic plaques, key risk factors for the disease," explained Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., of ...

Finnish Study Finds Presence of Metabolic Disorders in Children as Young as Six Years Old

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A new study conducted by researchers at University of Eastern Finland suggests that children as young as 6 to 8 years old can suffer from metabolic disorders, such as excess abdominal fat, raised blood pressure, higher levels of insulin, glucose and triglycerides and lower levels of the beneficial HDL cholesterol. These metabolic risk factors often accumulate in overweight children and, in the newly published study, this accumulation was linked with mild artery wall ...

Prolonged Cough and Breathlessness Should Not be Ignored

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With more than half a million people dying every year due to chronic lung disease, health experts said that people should be made aware not to ignore prolonged cough and breathlessness as it could lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. "We need to build awareness on chronic lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is the fourth leading cause of death globally. The early symptoms of COPD are cough, bringing up sputum and breathlessness," ...

Mothers More Likely to Leave Male-Dominated Jobs Than Other Women

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Mothers were more likely to quit their jobs in male-dominated fields compared to other women, a new study conducted by researchers at Indiana University reveals. This trend was not seen in balanced or female-dominated occupations. "Mothers were 52 percent more likely than other women to leave their jobs if they were working a 50-hour week or more, but only in occupations dominated by men," said Youngjoo Cha, assistant professor in the Department of ...

Study of Fruit Fly Leads to Discovery of Eight New Wound-Healing Genes

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Analyzing the laboratory fruit fly Drosophila, a team of biologists at UC San Diego have identified eight new genes that were found to play a role in would healing, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE reveals. But the biologists say many of the same genes that regulate biological processes in the hard exoskeleton, or cuticle, of iDrosophila/i also control processes in human skin. That makes them attractive candidates for new kinds of wound-healing ...

New Direct-Acting Antiviral Agents Show Promise in Hepatitis C Treatment

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A number of clinical trials reveal that new direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) are showing promise in treatment of hepatitis C according to data presented at the International Liver Congress 2013. The following covers key results from the much anticipated Phase III trials conducted among HCV patients with a range of genotypes (GT 1 to 6) on DAA treatment. POSITRONulliA study of interferon (IFN)-ineligible, IFN-intolerant, or IFN-unwilling ...

Research Sheds Light on the Brain's Guardian Cells

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New research by Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues published in iNature Communications/i sheds light on how the brain's guardian cells work. Researchers know very little about exactly how microglia work. At the same time, there is a lot of curiosity and high hopes among brain researchers that greater understanding of microglia could lead to entirely new drug development strategies for various brain diseases", says Johan Jakobsson, research group leader at the ...

British Men can Soon Purchase 'Male Lingerie'

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'Male lingerie' is quickly gaining popularity in the United States and now an Australian company has revealed plans of offering sexy skimpies to British men by opening up a number of stores in the UK. HommeMystere claims Britain is its second largest market after the US as men have been rushing to order this new bedroom trend, the Sun reported. Items which are marketed at straight men include bras, camisoles, teddies and even frilly knickers from 17 ...

Transvaginal Sonography Best Way to Determine Possibility of Ectopic Pregnancy

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A new study published in JAMA suggests that patient history and clinical examination are not sufficient in eliminating or confirming the possibility of ectopic pregnancy in women who suffer from abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy with transvaginal sonography being the single best diagnostic method for evaluating suspected ectopic pregnancy The rapid identification and accurate diagnosis of women who may have an ectopic pregnancy is critically ...

Norwegian Researchers Study Prevalence of Psychedelic Drug Use in United States

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Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Teri S Krebs and Pal-rjan Johansen have published a new article titled "Over 30 million psychedelic users in the United States", in which they have made use of data from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) involving more than 57,000 people to estimate the lifetime prevalence of psychedelic use. The authors estimate that approximately 32 million people have used LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), ...

Novel Thermosensitive Hydrogel Engineered With Gene-Modified BMSCs can Repair Articular Cartilage Defects

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A novel thermo-sensitive injectable hydrogel that has been engineered with gene-modified bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) can be effective in repairing articular cartilage defects, a new study by researchers at Micro Orthopaedics, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University reveals. The chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol composite hydrogel containing hTGF (and) #946;-1 gene modified BMSCs was injected into rabbits with defective articular cartilage. Sixteen weeks later ...

Vitamin E may Boost Heart Health for Ex-Smokers

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A specific form of vitamin E supplement may help give ex-smokers an extra boost towards living a healthier lifestyle. In the small study, improvement in blood vessel function associated with the added vitamin E potentially translates into an estimated 19 percent greater drop in future risk for cardiovascular disease. Smokers were recruited to participate in a study to quit smoking for seven days, with blood markers of inflammation and blood vessel function ...

Footprints may Help Decode Your Running Speed

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Two Spanish scientists have now designed a new equation that can help provide an estimate of an individual's speed. The result has applications in the study of fossil trackways of human footprints. Javier Ruiz, from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), and his colleague Angelica Torices, from the University of Alberta (Canada), just out of curiosity, wanted to check how accurately an individual's speed could be calculated based on their tracks. ...

Attitude of Boston Marathon Victim is Inspiring

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Thirty eight-year-old Heather Abbott, a Boston Marathon bombing victim, has just undergone a below the knee amputation on her left leg. When she can be expected to be forlorn, this marathon bombing victim has surprised everyone by being positive and in high spirits. "I really haven't had a moment yet of being devastated," she said. She attributed her positivism to the support she has received from family, friends and others who have helped her through ...

Bollywood Film Industry Celebrates 100th Birthday

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India's brash, song-and-dance-laden Bollywood film industry is set to celebrate its centenary, say sources. The milestone will be marked with the release of "Bombay Talkies", made up of short commemorative films by four leading directors, while India will be honoured as "guest country" at next month's Cannes festival. Exhibitions in the capital New Delhi are showcasing a century of cinema, including onscreen kissing scenes that originally fell foul ...

Cancer-struck Indian Professor Waits for Bone Marrow Donor

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Indian-origin professor at Stanford who is suffering from leukaemia is desperately waiting for a bone marrow donor match. Nalini Ambady, hailing from Kerala, practically has only around 7-8 weeks by which to find a matching donor, according to a close family friend Dilip D'Souza in Mumbai. "After around eight weeks or so, she may not be healthy enough to accept the treatment even if a matching donor is found," rued D'Souza, adding that they were ...

Fasting Helps Keep Diabetes, Heart Disease at Bay

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Fasting twice a week cuts the risk of a host of killer diseases, reveals study. Research shows dramatically cutting the amount of calories you eat for two days can keep obesity, heart disease and diabetes at bay, the Daily Express reported. The revolutionary weight-loss plan restricts calorie intake for 48 hours, like the 48 Hour Diet by top nutritionist Amanda Hamilton, published last week. She shared her easy to follow plan which promises ...

Link Between Depression and Stroke Identified

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One-third of patients suffer depression following a stroke, finds recent study. Antidepressant medications known as SSRIs, such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and escitalopram (Lexapro), are effective when given to stroke patients as a preventive measure, the physicians said. Murray Flaster, MD, PhD, who specializes in stroke care, and psychiatrists Aparna Sharma, MD, and Murali Rao, MD, who specialize in depression are authors of the study. ...

Awareness on Chronic Heart Disease Must, Says Doctor

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Awareness on chronic heart disease is the need of the hour to tackle the alarming situation with a special focus on youth, says a leading doctor. "We need to build awareness on cardio-vascular disease. Heart wellness programmes, with timely and effective medical and interventional management, may help us in curbing the rising menace of coronary artery disease in India," said Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director, Medanta Medicity told reporters. Medanta ...

Researchers Find New Approach to Possibly Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

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One of the recently identified genes contributing to the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease regulates the clearance of the toxic amyloid beta (A-beta) protein that accumulates in the brains of patients with the disease. This was determined by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators. In their report receiving advance online publication in iNeuron/i, the researchers describe a protective variant of the CD33 gene that promotes clearance of A-beta ...

Can You Imagine A World Without Antibiotics?

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Antibiotic resistance is a global problem. Every year the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that for tuberculosis alone multi-drug resistance accounts for more than 150,000 deaths. WHO warns of "a doomsday scenario of a world without antibiotics," in which antibiotic resistance will turn common infections into incurable killers and make routine surgeries a high-risk gamble. Certain types of bacteria are a scourge of the hospital environment because they ...

AIDS Vaccine Trial Ends in Failure: US Authorities

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US authorities halted clinical trials of an experimental vaccine designed to halt the virus that leads to AIDS after discovering it did not stop infection. The program, which began in 2009, is the latest in a series of unsuccessful studies of candidate vaccines aimed at tackling HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said volunteers in 19 US cities -- either gay men or transgender people who had ...

Are Living Liver Donors at Mortality Risk?

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A study reports that donor mortality is about 1 in 500 donors with living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). The research got published in iLiver Transplantation/i, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society. Research of transplant centers around the world found that those with more experience conducting live donor procedures had lower rates of aborted surgery and life-threatening ...

Scientists Use New Genre of Antibodies to Fight Bacteria

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Scientists are reporting development of a new family of selective antimicrobial agents that do not rely on traditional antibiotics. This is in an advance toward coping with bacteria that shrug off existing antibiotics and sterilization methods. Their report on these synthetic colloid particles, which can be custom-designed to recognize the shape of specific kinds of bacteria and inactivate them, appears in the iJournal of the American Chemical Society/i. ...

Invisible Barrier Cannot Protect Australia from Nipah Virus

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In Australia, an invisible barrier separates land animals from those in south-east Asia, and may also restrict the spillover of animal-borne diseases like avian flu. But researchers have found that fruit bats on either side of this line can carry Nipah virus, a pathogen that causes severe human disease. The findings are published April 24 in the open access journal iPLOS ONE/i by Andrew Breed from the University of Queensland, Australia and colleagues from other ...

In Adult Mice, Beta Cell Neogenesis is Not Possible

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The hormone responsible for stimulating cells to convert glucose to energy is pancreatic beta cells, that store and release insulin. The number of beta cells in the pancreas increases in response to greater demand for insulin or injury, but it is not clear if the new beta cells are the result of cell division or the differentiation of a precursor cell, a process known as neogenesis. Knowledge of how beta cells are created and maintained is critical to understanding ...

Dietary Substitution of Saturated Fats Prevent Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

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Scientists have determined that dietary substitution of saturated fats enriched in medium chain triglycerides (MCT) for polyunsaturated fat prevents the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The scientists did their study at the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Human Nutrition Research Center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, led by Dr. Martin Ronis. NAFLD ...

New Kind of Brain Cells Play Unexpected Role in Healing After Brain Injury

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Researchers at Duke Medicine reports that the production of a certain kind of brain cell that had been considered an impediment to healing may actually be needed to staunch bleeding and promote repair after a stroke or head trauma. These cells, known as astrocytes, can be produced from stem cells in the brain after injury. They migrate to the site of damage where they are much more effective in promoting recovery than previously thought. This insight from studies ...

Scientist Identify Protein Molecule Used to Maintain Adult Stem Cells

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The holy grail of regenerative medicine is understanding exactly how stem cells form into specific organs and tissues. Now a UC Santa Barbara researcher has added to that body of knowledge by determining how stem cells produce different types of "daughter" cells in iDrosophila/i (fruit flies). The findings appear today in the iProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences/i. Denise Montell, Duggan Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental ...

Scientists Develop Radioactive Bacteria to Attack Cancer Cells

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A new radioactive bacteria is being developed by scientists that could help treat patients who are suffering from pancreatic cancer. In lab tests, the modified microbes virtually halted the spreading of pancreatic cancer in mice without harming healthy tissue, the Daily Express reported. The bacteria, a weakened form of the Listeria bug, which causes food poisoning, and act like missiles tipped with atomic warheads. When the bacteria infect ...

In Older Patients With Hip Fracture, Surgical Delay of More Than 48 Hours Increases Mortality

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In older patients, hip fractures are known to be a major cause of long term disability and increased risk of death, less is known about the relationship between surgical delay after hip fracture and mortality risk. A study by Belgian investigators shows that that in older patients with hip fracture, surgical delay of more than 48 hours is significantly and independently associated with increased long-term mortality, even after adjusting for age, sex, and co-morbidities. ...