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Injuries such as spinal; & infections: African sleeping sickness, Anthrax, Colds, Cancer, Chagas disease, Dengue Fever, Flu, Leishmaniasis, Leptospirosis, Leprosy, Malaria, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Plague, Smallpox, Typhus, Plague, Typhus, metapneumovirus; rhinoviruses; coronaviruses, parainfluenza; respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)...
. . "Flu" comes from Italian: influenza di freddo --influence of the cold (wrong idea). It's also known somewhere/when, I think, as the "grip".
. . NON-HUMAN, but can jump: mousepox!, Bird Flu, Parvo virus
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Dec 31, 06: UK scientists have discovered a new gene linked to breast cancer. Women with a damaged copy of the gene called PALB2 have twice the risk of breast cancer, the Institute of Cancer Research scientists found. They estimate that faulty PALB2 causes about 100 cases of breast cancer in the UK each year. Two damaged copies of the gene also appears to cause a serious blood disorder in children.
. . It is PALB2's job to repair mutant DNA, so people who have a faulty copy of the gene are more likely to accumulate other genetic damage too, leading to problems like cancer. Carrying a faulty version of PALB2 more than doubled a woman's risk of developing breast cancer --taking her lifetime risk from one in nine to about one in five.
. . Professor Nazneen Rahman and her team studied the DNA of 923 women with breast cancer and a family history of the disease, not caused by the known breast cancer genes BRCA1 or BRCA2. Ten of the breast cancer patients had a damaged copy of PALB2, as against none of 1,084 healthy women used as a comparison.
. . Although they only studied women, the scientists suspect the same gene fault may also put men at increased risk of breast cancer.
Dec 27, 06: Scientists are closer to understanding why a common parasite is harmless to most people, while causing severe illness in others. Toxoplasma is carried by cats and rats, and a large proportion of humans are also thought to carry the parasite, without any ill effects. But it can cause toxoplasmosis, which can lead to brain damage or even death. Toxoplasma is particularly dangerous for people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, and for women in the first three months of pregnancy, as it can cause severe birth defects.
. . Stanford University scientists say the behavior of a single protein determines what happens. Its normal lifecycle starts in cats. It is then passed, usually via the cat's faeces, to rats and then back to cats when they catch and eat the infected rats. Humans can become infected either when they come into contact with cat feces, or by eating undercooked mutton, as sheep can also become carriers.
. . Their study reveals how the parasite injects a single protein into a cell it wants to invade, and how this protein makes its way to the nucleus of the cell and interferes with the ability of the cell to trigger an immune defence. The strategy was very effective: "The nucleus is the heart of the cell, the ultimate prize. If you want to affect the cell in a dramatic way, go straight there."
. . The other finding was subtle differences in this key protein between different types of Toxoplasma --each different strain perhaps tailored to infecting different types of host cell with the minimum damage.
. . Severe toxoplasmosis may happen when the "wrong" strain, one not suited to infecting humans, tries to invade our cells with the protein either too powerful --overwhelming and destroying them, or ineffective-- triggering a massive immune system response.
. . They suggest that their discoveries about how Toxoplasma is so successful could also apply to our parasite invaders --such as malaria.
Dec 24, 06: The most commonly used osteoporosis drug protected most women from broken bones for five years after they stopped using it, indicating they can take a break from it without losing benefits, a study found. It's alendronate, sold by Merck & Co. as Fosamax. The study was funded by Merck. [usually a suspicious thing, but here, it works vs them!]
. . The exception was for spine fractures, the study found, with the risk of these significantly higher among the women who discontinued taking the drug after five years.
Dec 24, 06: A heart pacemaker that does not need a battery is being developed under a government-sponsored technology scheme. Currently, some patients who have implanted pacemakers and defibrillators need surgery once every 7 to 10 years to fit a new battery. The new device would use a microgenerator producing electricity every time the patient moves.
. . Other research teams are racing to find alternatives to conventional pacemakers, including tiny generators that use body heat to create the electricity needed, and 'biological pacemakers' that would correct heart problems without the need for a mechanical device.
Dec 24, 06: Having low levels of alcohol in the blood may protect the brain from the effects of a head injury, a study says. The U of Toronto team found head injury patients who had drunk low amounts were 24% less likely to die than those who had not had any alcohol. They said alcohol might one day be used as part of emergency treatment for some head injury patients.
. . When the brain suffers a severe injury, it is not just the immediate damage caused by the accident that can cause problems. Over the next few hours, the body launches a natural defence mechanism which can lead to swelling, inflammation and further destruction of brain cells. In some cases, it is this reaction, called "secondary brain injury", which can kill or leave the victim with severe disabilities. The researchers believe that alcohol, in small doses, could lessen its impact.
Dec 21, 06: Scientists at Cardiff University have developed a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Researchers say they have created an antibody which could block the production of brain chemicals linked to it. The disease affects one in 20 people aged over 65 and a fifth of all people over 80.
. . The results of the study show that it is possible to decrease production of the protein amyloid, which is believed to be the main cause of the disease. Deposits of amyloid build up in the brain, preventing it from functioning properly. The antibody will reduce this build-up.
Dec 21, 06: A team of Japanese researchers found that blasting the heart with shock waves helps patients grow new blood vessels and increase blood flow.
. . Coronary artery disease --a leading cause of death in men and women in the US-- happens when plaque builds up in blood vessels, blocking the flow of oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. Medication, angioplasty or bypass surgery can sometimes treat the disease. But when these approaches aren't enough, the only hope is to grow new blood vessels. Gene and cell therapies can also engender new blood vessels, but those procedures require surgery, which is risky for elderly or severely sick patients.
. . The researchers used a shock wave generator made especially for the heart. Using its fine adjustments, they could focus waves on a 2-square-millimeter area, and aim them virtually anywhere.
Dec 20, 06: U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study.
Dec 20, 06: Researchers are developing a malaria vaccine which blocks development of the disease-causing parasite while it is still inside the mosquito.
. . The vaccine targets Pfs25, a protein key to the parasite's development during its time in the mosquito's gut. When a mosquito bites a vaccinated person, it would ingest antibodies which would block the protein's action. The vaccine has so far only been tested in mice.
. . The researchers said the vaccine had the potential to eliminate malaria from entire geographic regions. However, experts warned that the vaccine would not prevent or limit disease in the person who had been vaccinated, and predicted this could make it difficult to sell the idea to infected communities.
. . Malaria kills between one and three million people worldwide each year, with most of the deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. More than a million children in Africa die from malaria each year.
Dec 20, 06: A common asthma drug slowed pancreatic cancer tumor growth in mice and made standard chemotherapy more effective, scientists said, indicating a possible new way to fight the deadly disease.
. . Researchers at the U of Texas Cancer Center examined the effects of cromolyn, an asthma and allergy medication that has been used for more than 40 years, against cancer of the pancreas. They said combining cromolyn with chemotherapy was nearly three times better at retarding growth of pancreatic tumors in mice compared to the use of chemotherapy agent gemcitabine alone.
. . Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly cancers, killing more than 95% of people diagnosed with it. Half die within six months of being diagnosed.
Dec 18, 06: Research on embryonic stem cells continues to ignite national debate over the beginning of human life. And with the Legislature likely to take up the issue in its next session, many worry that inaccurate information is being perpetuated by stem cell proponents and their counterparts.
. . In reality, the earliest results from embryonic stem cell research is five to 10 years down the road, Crouse said. "With a cloud of political debate, there's not been a lot of progress", he said.
Crouse, who specializes in embryonic stem cells, said it boils down to a difference in perspective about when human life begins. He said, "There is no baby, no abortion." In fact, Crouse said, the embryos that are used are essentially medical waste.
. . Most embryonic stem cells used in U.S. research come from embryos left over from in vitro fertilization — where a woman's eggs are fertilized outside the womb and the resulting embryos are implanted in the uterus. If the embryos are not implanted, they are typically destroyed. "If it's unethical to destroy an embryo", Crouse asked, "why is it so much more evil to use a stem cell for a good purpose?"
Dec 18, 06: French scientists have identified genetic mutations in a small number of children with autism which could provide insight into the biological basis of the disorder. They sequenced a gene called SHANK3 in more than 200 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which includes autism, and found mutations in the gene in members of three families. ASD, which affect six out of 1,000 children, range from mild to severe forms. The disorders are caused by chromosomal rearrangements in 3 - 6% of cases.
. . In people with cognitive deficits and with autistic behavior, a part of their chromosome 22 is often affected. That region contains the SHANK3 gene. A girl with a deletion of SHANK 3 in the third family suffered from autism while her brother, who had an additional copy of the gene, had a mild form of autism called Asperger syndrome.
. . The cause of autism is unknown. It usually develops before the age of 30 months. A minority of autistic children, who are known as autistic savants, show remarkable artistic, musical or mathematical skills. The protein encoded by SHANK3 interacts with other proteins called neuroligins, which have a role in giving impulses to the brain, spinal column and nerves.
Dec 18, 06: Cases of drug resistant tuberculosis are higher than previously estimated and three nations --China, India and Russia-- account for more than half of all cases worldwide, according to new research. Researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States estimate there were 424,000 cases of MDR-TB in 2004. TB affects about 9 million people each year and kills 2 million.
. . XDR-TB, or extensive drug resistant TB, is resistant to three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs. "MDR-TB is the preamble of XDR-TB."
Dec 14, 06: Mouse embryos created through a "virgin birth" process called parthenogenesis show that egg cells can be a source of valued embryonic stem cells, researchers said. The process occurs when an egg cell starts dividing to produce an embryo without the use of sperm to fertilize it. The cells can be closely matched to the immune system of the recipient, making them a potential source for transplants
. . There are fewer obstacles to developing these stem cells than by using cloning technology, also called somatic cell nuclear transfer, researchers said. If the experiment could be reproduced in humans, such cells might provide an alternative way to produce tailored tissues for transplanting, or for studying disease
. . Scientists have done this before with mice. In mammals, parthenotes --embryos made using this process-- stop developing very early because they need genes from a father to complete development.
Dec 11, 06: Toxin from a deadly sea snail found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could revolutionize the treatment of chronic pain relief, scientists from the University of Queensland said.
. . "Normal pain (relief) drugs such as morphine have a lot of side effects such as drowsiness, nausea and vision disturbances because they are not very specific," said Ekberg. "This toxin targets only pain, it doesn't affect anything else. What we are trying to do now is to synthesize it chemically or artificially and that is going to reduce the cost enormously." The toxin is currently very expensive to produce as scientists must extract it from the sea snail which measures just 6 cm.
. . Ekberg said she was hopeful of starting human trials in about a year.
Dec 11, 06: British scientists have supported the use of primates in medical research to improve human health and reduce deaths from disease but only if no alternatives were available.
Dec 7, 06: A team of Japanese scientists have found a gene closely linked to nicotine addiction, which could lead to more effective ways for smokers to kick the habit.
Dec 4, 06: 83% of chicken sold in U.S. grocery stores may contain bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses, a consumer group said, 34% higher than the rate it found three years ago.
Dec 6, 06: Researchers are creating a global malaria map to tackle the killer disease by pinpointing the areas where it strikes most often. About 40% of the world's population, mostly people living in poor countries, is at risk of malaria.
. . The map, the first in 40 years, is designed to spot mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite and determine where they are likely to infect people so the best control and treatment strategies can be implemented. "Once these data become available and the early models are generated, it will become increasing obvious to people that we can eliminate malaria from some parts of the world, and we can begin to tailor what resources we have more efficiently."
Nov 30, 06: The chemical compound in the abortion pill RU-486 blocked formation in mice of breast tumors caused by a mutant gene blamed in many women's breast and ovarian cancers, researchers found.
. . The study suggests a potential new path to protect women genetically predisposed to these cancers by using drugs to interfere with a hormone called progesterone. They found that progesterone, which is involved in the female reproductive cycle, stimulates the proliferation of breast cells carrying a gene linked to breast cancer, possibly feeding tumor growth.
. . Women with a mutated version of the gene, known as BRCA-1, face a much higher risk of breast and ovarian cancers. By age 70, more than half of them end up with one of the two types of cancer. Mice given mifepristone were tumor-free by the time they were a year old, while the mice that did not get it all developed tumors by the time they were 8 months old, the researchers found.
. . Progesterone stimulates the development of tumors when the mutated gene is present because it accelerates cell division, but mifepristone interfered with a process needed for progesterone to spur the division of cells, the study found.
Nov 29, 06: A young woman, confined to a wheelchair, is told to think about moving another wheelchair in front of her, first to the left and then forward. As if by magic, the wheelchair follows her mental commands.
. . The woman had a tiny sensor that analyzes brain signals implanted on the part of her brain that controls hand movement. A small plug protruding from just above her ear is connected to a computer that in turn has a wireless connection to the electronic wheelchair she was controlling.
. . "What we are doing now is just the tip of the iceberg", Dr. Ali Rezai. The goal is to make the components small enough and wireless, thus eliminating the need for a plug on the scalp.
. . Northstar Neuroscience, another company attending the meeting at Cleveland Clinic, is testing a device that aims to help stroke victims recover from disabilities such as impairment of hand and arm movement. The therapy identifies specific areas of the brain that are trying to compensate for lost function and implants electrodes there.
. . When part of the brain dies because of a stroke, another part of the brain attempts to take over that function. The trouble is, in most cases the process doesn't go far enough and relatively little function is recovered. "What Northstar has discovered is that if you stimulate the neurons in the new neuroplastic area, you can dramatically enhance the neuroplasticity and enhance function", he said.
. . For several years, doctors have been implanting brain pacemakers into patients with Parkinson's disease or other disorders that cause severe tremors. Medtronic is testing to see if it might also help cases of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression and obesity.
. . Cleveland Clinic's Rezai said using electricity to stimulate various parts of the nervous system or organs may soon help people who suffer such varied afflictions as OCD, migraine headaches, sleep apnea, incontinence, obesity, impotence, hypertension and even heart failure.
Nov 26, 06: A new type of ultrasound was highly effective at determining whether lumps in the female breast were cancerous or harmless, U.S. researchers who conducted a small study said.
Nov 23, 06: Scientists have discovered what they believe could be cardiac master cells, capable of developing into different tissues in the heart. There are two separate candidates: one has the capacity to produce all three major tissues in the heart, the other two of the three.
. . The breakthrough raises hopes for new treatments for heart disease. The findings challenge the notion that the heart's different cell types are so diverse they must have come from separate sources.
Nov 20, 06: One dose of an antibiotic just before surgery is as good as several spread over 24 hours to fight infections at the operation site, saving money and easing fears about bacterial resistance, a study said.
Nov 18, 06: Stem cells --the master cells that give rise to all the blood and tissue in the body-- may also be responsible for tumors, according to two separate studies. Canadian and Italian researchers both found that specialized colon cancer stem cells appeared to be the sources of colon cancer tumors in mice. Their findings support the idea that future cancer treatments will have to home in on cancer stem cells.
. . Similar findings have been seen for leukemia, breast and brain cancers, but the two studies are the first to show cancer stem cells are also responsible for colon tumors.
. . They implanted human colon cancer cells into mice with a deficient immune system --a standard way of studying cancer. Only certain cells, those with a protein on the surface called CD133, were able to initiate a new tumor
Nov 16, 06: An Indian blood bank plans to take advantage of the country's booming birth rate by opening a repository for blood taken from umbilical cords. But critics worry that without proper oversight, the massive bank could put a price tag on umbilical cords, putting the country's millions of impoverished women and children at risk of exploitation.
. . Cord blood is used in the treatment of many ailments, especially blood diseases like leukemia, thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. With 43 million births a year, India is poised to be the largest supplier of umbilical cord blood in the world. LifeCell, based here, hopes to open a cord-blood bank in December. The bank would serve anyone in the world with access to FedEx.
. . Most experts agree that public cord-blood banking is a good idea. Stem cells from both cord blood and bone marrow treat many blood diseases, but cord blood is easier to obtain. Cord blood is also less likely to be rejected than bone marrow, which requires an exact match, usually from a family member.
. . But in India, where female infanticide and body-organ sales are not uncommon, watchdog groups worry that a massive cord-blood bank like LifeCell's could create a dangerous demand for umbilical cords. Given the reality of poverty, it is not impossible to imagine a situation where people would have (or even abort) babies simply in order to sell umbilical cord blood."
. . The United States has seven public cord banks that charge up to $18,000 per unit --a fee that is often paid by insurers. But in India, this is the kind of profitability that raises eyebrows. Mangalpudi says LifeCell will never pay for umbilical cord blood.
Nov 16, 06: New vaccine strategies could wipe out lingering reservoirs of polio in northern India and lead to global eradication of the crippling disease by the end of the decade, scientists said.
Nov 15, 06: A stem cell breakthrough could lead to a treatment for muscular dystrophy (MD), research has revealed. An Italian-Frence team found transplanting stem cells into dogs with a version of the disease markedly improved their symptoms.
. . Muscular dystrophy is a group of genetic disorders that cause the muscles in the body to gradually weaken over time and mobility to be lost. It shortens life span and there is currently no cure.
. . They turned to dogs for their next trial because they replicate the muscle-wasting disease more accurately. The researchers used a form of stem cells, gathered from blood vessels, called mesoangioblasts, which are "programmed" to turn into muscle cells. They isolated the stem cells from both healthy dogs and also from MD dogs, which they then modified to "correct" the mutated gene.
. . Four out of the six dogs who received these stem cells saw the return of dystrophin and regained muscle strength. One dog who was injected at an early-stage of the disease retained the ability to walk, and two dogs injected at a late-stage of the disease had their mobility returned.
Nov 15, 06: People who ate soy regularly as children have a lower risk of breast cancer, researchers reported. And men who eat fish several times a week have a lower risk of colon cancer, a second team of researchers told a meeting in Boston of the American Association for Cancer Research.
. . The studies add to a growing body of evidence about the role of diet in cancer. Cancer experts now believe that up to two-thirds of all cancers come from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet and lack of exercise.
. . The women who ate the most soy-based foods such as tofu and miso when aged 5 to 11 reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by 58%, the researchers found. "Childhood soy intake was significantly associated with reduced breast cancer risk in our study, suggesting that the timing of soy intake may be especially critical."
. . It is not clear how soy might prevent cancer, although compounds in soy called isoflavones have estrogen-like effects.
. . A second study presented at the same meeting showed that men who ate fish five times a week or more had a 40% lower risk of developing colorectal cancer compared to men who ate fish less than once a week. Many kinds of fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which in turn interfere with the cyclooxygenase-2 or COX-2 enzyme. COX-2 affects inflammation, which may play a role in tumor growth.
. . Men who ate the most fish had a 40% lower risk of developing colorectal cancer over the next 19 years, the researchers found. Eating fish twice a week lowered the risk by 13%. Aspirin did not add any extra benefit or risk.
. . A separate study found that eating red meat raised the risk of breast cancer in women.
Nov 15, 06: Researchers have found a way to spur the growth of neural stem cells in the brains of adult mice with an eye toward harnessing the brain's innate capacity for repair to help people with diseases such as Alzheimer's.
. . Determining how these stem cells can be deployed to replace cells in mice whose brains are damaged in ways resembling Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis in people is the next key step.
. . They injected a natural protein from the body --leukemia inhibitory factor, or LIF-- into a part of the brain of adult mice where stem cells reside. This fostered the production of up to six times the usual count of adult neural stem cells.
. . Using a person's own cells, rather than foreign cells, in future regenerative therapies avoids the transplantation of stem cells that the body's immune system might reject. While this study involved mice, the researchers noted that human adults also harbor neural stem cells in their brains. The brains of neurodegenerative disease patients appear to try to marshal their own neural stem cells to replace dying cells, but not in the numbers sufficient to do the job.
Nov 15, 06: University of Utah researchers have harvested a substance from the venom of a cone snail that shows promise in treating some human pain. The Conus regious cone snail is tiny worm-hunting sea creature found in coastal waters between Georgia and Brazil. The snails produce poisonous venom to paralyze prey.
. . Previous studies of cone snails found compounds from venom effective in treating pain in terminal cancer patients. This new research shows other venom-derived compounds may ease pain associated with nerve damage from diseases like diabetes or traumatic injury.
. . The discovery is important in part because scientists have found a previously unsuspected molecular target for painkillers. It's that receptor —one not previously thought to be involved with pain-— that when bound with the cone snail substance seems to reduce pain by preventing the body from triggering inflammation. That's the opposite effect of most drugs, which prompt the body to release natural substances in response to injury or pain.
. . It could be 10 years before any drugs reach the market.
Nov 15, 06: The human body produces a natural painkiller several times more potent than morphine, research suggests. When given to rats, the chemical, called opiorphin, was able to curb pain at much lower concentration than the powerful painkiller morphine. The French team said their findings could be lead to new pain treatments.
. . The researchers isolated the chemical in human saliva, although they believe it may also be present in other parts of the body.
. . To study its pain-beating effects, they injected opiorphin into rats, who had either chemically-induced chronic pain or mechanically-induced acute pain. The researchers found injections of one milligram per kilogram bodyweight (mg/kg 1 millionth) of opiorphin could suppress the rats' pain to the same extent as injections of 6mg/kg of morphine, which is used to manage severe pain.
Nov 11, 06: Younger women who eat more red meat may be at higher risk of a certain kind of breast cancer, perhaps because of hormonal residues in beef cattle and other factors, according to a study.
Nov 11, 06: The US election outcome boosted embryonic stem cell work. The religious protesters are gone and expansion plans are back on track at a top Kansas City stem-cell research lab after Missouri voters endorsed the controversial field in last week's elections.
Nov 10, 06: German scientists called on the government to change the country's laws on the production of stem cells to enable experts to keep up with global advances in research.
Nov 8, 06: British doctors said today they plan to inject stem cells into heart attack patients in an experimental treatment aimed at preventing heart failure and deaths.
. . About 100 patients will receive stem cells from their own bone marrow --or a placebo-- within five hours of a heart attack in the study, expected to begin early next year. The stem cells will be taken from the bone marrow of patients after treatment for the heart attack. Once the cells have been prepared, they will be injected into the body.
"We are hoping that the patients will have an increased quality of life six months after the procedure."
. . The scientists believe that if the therapy is delivered quickly after an attack it can stop the damage to the heart. Earlier stem cell studies have tried to repair the heart *after it has been damaged.
. . Within two years, doctors should know the results of the study.
Nov 8, 06: British and American scientists have restored vision in blind mice by transplanting light-sensitive cells into their eyes in a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments of human eye diseases.
. . The mice suffered from eye damage called photoreceptor loss which occurs in macular degeneration, the leading cause of sight loss in the elderly, and other eye disorders. But instead of using stem cells, which could form into any cell type, the scientists transplanted cells that had reached a later stage of development toward becoming photoreceptor cells.
. . The scientists believe further research could lead to the first human retinal cell transplants for people with blinding diseases within a decade. Researchers had thought that the mature retina, the part of the eye that senses light and forms images, did not have the capacity for repair. MacLaren and his collaborators showed using precursor cells that are already programmed to become photoreceptors but are not quite there yet was the key to successful transplantation.
. . Scientists have recently found cells on the margin of the retina in humans which have stem-cell like properties and could potentially be grown in the lab to become photoreceptor precursor cells for treatment.
Nov 7, 06: Australia's Senate narrowly voted to end the country's four-year ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research, ruling that the potential for medical breakthroughs outweighed moral doubts.
Nov 7, 06: Scientists in Israel say they hope to use highly concentrated light from commercial light bulbs to fight tumors, providing an effective and cheap replacement for laser surgery.
. . The study, recently published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, showed that light from an ultra-bright commercial bulb, similar to that used in movie projectors, could be concentrated by a special optical system to burn away healthy tissue in rats. "For the first time ever, we were able to kill tissue using the non-laser lamp."
. . He said the tests would be repeated on cancerous tissue in larger animals and eventually in humans in the next few years, in the hope of producing similar results with malignant tumors.
. . Laser systems currently used to treat tumors can cost up to $100,000. Gordon said the new light bulb systems may eventually be sold for about $1,000.
Nov 6, 06: Californian researchers are now using light to control biological nanomolecules and proteins. They think it can help them to develop treatments for eye diseases, such as the loss of the light detectors in the retina which is a major cause of blindness. So they envision to put some of their nano-photoswitches in the cells of the retina, 'restoring light sensitivity in people with degenerative blindness such as macular degeneration.' It will be a long time before this comes out of the lab.
Nov 6, 06: UK children with type 1 diabetes are being recruited to test an artificial pancreas next year.
Nov 2, 06: A device that helps severely damaged hearts pump may be able to do what was once thought impossible --reverse heart failure in people who are weeks away from death, British researchers reported. The left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, can boost the heart's ability to function, allowing it to recover if used with the right drugs, the researchers said in a study.
. . Meanwhile, a second study found that statin drugs, already found to lower the risk of heart attack, stroke and other heart conditions, reduced the rate of death from heart failure by 24%.
. . The statins reduced the risk of death by 24%, they reported. Statins were designed to lower cholesterol but researchers are finding they have a range of effects on the blood vessels and possibly the heart.
. . They said 11 of them recovered enough after about a year to have the artificial pump removed. The patients also were given a combination of commonly used heart drugs to shrink the heart and rebuild its muscle. The pump --a device made by Thoratec was used in this study-- is designed to relieve stress on the heart by vigorously pushing blood from the main pumping chamber into the body's main artery. Thoratec helped pay for the study.
Nov 1, 06: New targeted combination therapy for an eye cancer in children has been shown in an animal study to be more effective, less toxic and easier to use than existing treatments, scientists said.
Nov 1, 06: Brain abnormalities which affect breathing and temperature control could increase a baby's risk of cot death, a study has suggested. US researchers found infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) had flaws in their brainstem. The team said this meant the babies were unable to process the brain chemical serotonin.
. . The researchers found that brainstems from babies affected by SIDS contained more nerve cells that make and use serotonin than the brainstems of the other infants. But there were fewer serotonin receptors in SIDS babies' brains, meaning they could not process the brain chemical as they should. Around 300 babies under the age of one die each year in the UK from SIDS.
Nov 1, 06: India is even worse off than some other places, Subrammaniyan said. He predicts that by 2015, 10 to 15 percent of the population will suffer from some form of diabetes, up from 4 percent today. That would mean more than 100 million diabetics in a country still racked with severe poverty and weak medical infrastructure.
. . A significant advance in stem-cell therapy could mean the difference between patients walking away from treatment and spending their lives in wheelchairs. When Vamal, a 68-year-old diabetic, finally sought treatment for the nasty-looking wound, many doctors said it was too late to save her leg.
. . Subrammaniyan, who works closely with a stem-cell research facility, came to the conclusion that an experimental treatment involving stem cells harvested from Vamal's bone marrow could be her only hope for saving the leg. An angiogram showed she had almost no circulation in the limb.
. . Bone marrow was drawn from her hip and the sample was rushed to a nearby lab, where technicians used a specialized cold centrifuge to extract stem cells. The results were nothing less than miraculous. Within 60 days, the ulcer had visibly healed, and bright, white signatures of arteries streaked across her post-treatment angiograms. The stem cells had apparently re-formed significant lengths of her atrophied circulatory system.
Oct 31, 06: Scientists in the UK say they have grown tiny sections of human liver. The sections of liver were created using stem cells from umbilical cords by a team at Newcastle University. It is hoped the "mini-livers" will be used to test drugs, avoiding incidents like the Northwick Park trial in which six patients became seriously ill.
. . But other experts warned, because the work was unpublished, it was not possible to assess its worth and that cells made in this way were unreliable.
. . Researchers Dr Nico Forraz and Professor Colin McGuckin have started a company called ConoStem in an effort to market their stem cell work. They believe it will be decades before a grown liver can be used in a human transplant operation. But they say the use of small sections of liver, which are less than the size of a penny, could be used to treat patients within 10-15 years.
. . It is estimated that up to 10% of the UK population have problems with their liver - most are linked to lifestyle factors, such as heavy drinking and obesity.
Oct 31, 06: A vaccine to guard against hospital superbug MRSA is a step closer, according to scientists. US researchers have developed a vaccine that protected mice from four potentially deadly strains of MRSA. The team said the study could lead to a human vaccine, though more work was needed.
. . Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus often strikes in hospitals where patients' immune systems are weak. It is difficult to fight because it has developed a resistance to certain antibiotics.
. . The team looked for a vaccine using a technique called "reverse vaccinology", which builds on recent genetics advances.
Oct 31, 06: Women with close relatives suffering from breast cancer who do not have the main genetic mutations linked to the illness still have a higher than average risk of developing the disease, doctors said.
. . Even if they test negative for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 faults, they are three times more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 50 than other women. "Despite the fact they have not inherited the BRCA 1 or BRCA2 faults, they have a risk of inheriting other genetic faults, many of the genes of which we have not identified."
Oct 31, 06: US scientists have cracked the entire genetic code of breast and colon cancers, offering new treatment hopes.
. . The genetic map shows that nearly 200 mutated genes, most previously unknown, help tumours emerge, grow and spread. The discovery could also lead to better ways to diagnose cancer in its early, most treatable stages, and personalised treatments. The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center says the findings suggest cancer is more complex than experts had believed.
. . The mutated genes in breast and colon cancers were almost completely distinct, suggesting very different pathways for the development of each of these cancer types. Now researchers will study how these mutations occur in breast and colon cancers.
. . Previous cancer gene discoveries have already led to successful detection and treatment strategies. For example, the breast cancer drug Herceptin targets a breast cancer cell receptor made by the Her2-neu gene. Blood tests for hereditary bowel cancer are based on the APC gene.
Oct 30, 06: The pressure of the eyelid on the eyeball could cause one of the most common vision problems, new research shows. The work builds on previous research showing that heavy reading can change the shape of the eye during the day, temporarily degrading eyesight.
. . Imperfections in the shape of the cornea, a transparent shield that protects and covers the front of the eyeball, often causes corneal astigmatism. The condition, which affects somewhere between 33 and 60% of all people, can lead to distorted vision. The study of 100 normal-sighted young subjects showed that the shape of the eyelid opening at different angles of gaze affected the shape of the cornea.
Oct 30, 06: A 15-second emergency room test can determine which patients with chest pain have heart problems and which do not, potentially saving lives by allowing doctors to focus on those in urgent need, according to a study.
Oct 28, 06: It could be a rave result for people with Parkinson's. It seems that ecstasy boosts the number of dopamine-producing cells in the brain --the type that decline in those with the disease. Or so rat studies suggest.
. . Previous human studies have suggested that ecstasy is bad for the brain because it damages serotonin signalling neurons, which play a role in memory. When Jack Lipton of the University of Cincinnati and his colleagues gave pregnant rats the drug they found no signs of damage in newborn pups. Instead, they saw a threefold rise in the number of dopamine producing cells. These cells were also more highly branched and developed than normal, suggesting they functioned better.
. . Similarly, when cultured embryonic dopamine cells were exposed to ecstasy, roughly three times as many cells survived. The effect didn't vary much with increasing concentration, although particularly high doses did kill the brain cells.
. . Lipton believes that ecstasy prevents the programmed cell death that normally occurs when neurons are stressed, as happens in certain degenerative diseases including Parkinson's, and in cell cultures.
. . Lipton suggests that some promising new ecstasy-like drugs might one day be used to boost dopamine-producing cells in people with Parkinson's --without damaging other neurons in the brain. The work was presented at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta, Georgia, last week.
Oct 27, 06: Facial transplants come with many difficulties. The patient must remain on immunosuppressive drugs for life. Transplant recipients also have to deal with the bizarre and sometimes disturbing feeling of walking around with a dead person's face.
. . Scientists are poised to perform the first full-face transplant, but a group of Stanford surgeons hopes to eliminate the need for the drastic surgery altogether by learning to regenerate the skin. Gurtner and his team want to use stem cells to regenerate skin.
. . Because of improved body armor, more soldiers survive injuries, but many suffer wounds to unshielded areas, typically the face and extremities, that lead to long-term disabilities.
. . Dr. Roxanne Guy, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, believes stem cells and regenerative medicine are likely the future of treating facial injuries, but when treatments might arrive is hard to tell.
. . Levin believes the solution to the rejection problem will be finding a way to build immuno-tolerance in patients instead of putting them on drugs for the rest of their lives. "That'll be a permanent solution to immune rejection if we can do this on a cellular basis rather than a pharmacological one."
Oct 26, 06: BILL CHOISSER WAS 48 when he first recognized himself. He was standing in his bathroom, looking in the mirror when it happened. A strand of hair fell down – he had been growing it out for the first time. The strand draped toward a nose. He understood that it was a nose, but then it hit him forcefully that it was his nose. He looked a little higher, stared into his own eyes, and saw... himself.
. . Bill Choisser reports that he has more trouble perceiving women's faces, and that could be one of the reasons he's gay. Another prosopagnosic says that his inability to distinguish between men and women explains his bisexuality. Is it possible that our sexuality is influenced by the wiring in the face-processing system?
. . Prosopagnosia (in Greek, prosopo is face, and agnosia: without knowledge). He defined it as "the selective disruption of the perception of faces, one's own face as well as those of others, which are seen but not recognized as faces belonging to a particular owner."
. . A small number of stroke victims develope prosopagnosia, but their lesions often continued to grow, preventing reliable comparisons and, in many cases, causing death.
. . Nancy Kanwisher is an MIT vision researcher. "If you look at prosopagnosia, you start to realize that the brain may actually be a grouping of stand-alone computational machines that are wired together." The question is, how many machines are there and how do they work? On a basic level, we know that there are distinct visual, auditory, memory, and motor systems. But within each of these, are there further specializations? For instance, within the visual cortex, is there a specialized part of the brain devoted to faces?
. . As functional MRI came into use in the 1990s, neuroscientists rolled people under the magnets to track blood flow to specific parts of their brain. They learned that a small part of the visual cortex – eventually dubbed the fusiform face area – showed increased blood activity whenever a subject looked at a face. Researchers had discovered what appeared to be a computational machine devoted specifically to processing faces. Stroke or gunshot victims tended to develop prosopagnosia if they sustained injuries to that area. But that was about as much as this relatively crude imaging technique could reveal.
. . There is strong evidence that the brain's system for processing faces is separate from its system for discerning other objects.
. . There is the Caucasian man who upset a colleague by telling him a racial joke, not recognizing that the listener was black. There is the woman who waved to someone in a hotel, only to discover that it was a mirror. There is the man who takes emotional cues from the way a person's pants crease and bunch.
. . Two studies suggested a prevalence of roughly 2 percent. If the ratio held, it would mean that nearly 6 million people in the US are face blind. So... the reliability of eyewitness identification should be reconsidered in the courtroom. "You'd want to know if the witness was drunk, right?" Duchaine says. "Well, we should also know if they're face blind."
. . Now Duchaine is trying to prove that the condition is inherited. He plans to spend this New Year's in Las Vegas at a reunion of a family full of prosopagnosics. By sequencing DNA samples from every attendee and looking at the differences between those who do and don't have the condition, Duchaine hopes to pinpoint a particular gene or set of genes that code for face perception. It's unlikely to lead to a cure, but it could illuminate how the brain builds specialized abilities.
. . These studies may hold the key to a deeper understanding of the way we assemble reality. [my emphasis --assemble!] See www.faceblind.org.
Oct 26, 06: Microbubbles first catapulted to prominence in the mid-'90s, when the FDA cleared them for use in imaging applications. They quickly became a cheap alternative to expensive scans –-all that's needed is a shot and a portable ultrasound machine. Plus, the technique is fast; microbubbles can be imaged in minutes, while CTs and MRIs take hours.
. . Another use: delivering pharmaceutical payloads inside the body. Bubbles coated with specific molecules will selectively bind to certain cellular receptors. Once they're attached, a strong burst of ultrasound is all that's needed to pop the bubbles and free what's inside. Delivering drugs directly to a tumor this way would allow for smaller doses – no more bombarding the whole body with radioactive material – thereby radically reducing side effects.
. . It has the ability to get drugs across the blood-brain barrier. Small molecules like alcohol can make it into the gray matter, but anything larger is typically kept out –-a trait that protects us but has severely limited the treatment options for neurological diseases like Alzheimer's. Over the past few years, scientists at UC Davis have been working to show that microbubbles can be "pushed" to the barrier and then exploded, opening up small pores through which drugs can pass. The result may eventually give doctors a much larger palette of drugs for brain diseases.
Oct 26, 06: Scientists in Hong Kong have identified a protein that can help suppress the growth of prostate cancer cells, the third most common cancer in men worldwide. With half a million new cases a year, prostate cancer afflicts one in every six men in the US, but only one in 50 males in Hong Kong. Current therapies for advanced prostate cancer, such as chemotherapy, are far from satisfactory and carry side effects.
. . The researchers found that when the protein was blocked in laboratory mice, prostate cancer cells in the rodents grew more quickly, and vice versa. sPDZD2 influences the production of p53, a human protein that is widely known to suppress tumors. "P53 is produced by all cells but the amount varies. When it senses stress signals, more of it will be produced. In the absence of stress, the level of p53 is very low," Yao said. "SPDZD2 ... turns on p53. More p53 is produced and there is a slowing down of the growth of these cancer cells."
. . The finding might pave the way for the making of a new drug but that is not expected to materialize anytime soon. "It would take at least 10 years." "We want (the drug) to mimic the effect of sPDZD2. We want to turn on the pathway so more p53 can be made. It is the guardian angel and it can slow down (cancer) cell cycle progression."
Oct 25, 06: A new brain chip under development established new connections in the brains of monkeys in a region that controls movement. Scientists hope to eventually make a version that could help humans with movement disorders.
. . The scientists tested a tiny device with a computer chip placed atop the heads of monkeys. The device, called Neurochip, interacted with the brain's motor cortex, where neurons direct the body's movements.
. . This recurrent brain-computer interface creates an artificial motor pathway that the brain may learn to use to compensate for impaired pathways." Future implantable versions of the device might aid rehabilitation of patients with brain injuries, stroke, or paralysis, the researchers speculated.
. . Meanwhile, several other research teams are working on related technologies. In a breakthrough earlier this year, scientists for the first time fused living brain cells with silicon circuits. Other brain-computer interface systems have allowed a quadriplegic to move a cursor using only thoughts while another man moved a robotic arm using brainwaves. Earlier this month, a teenager played Space Invaders by employing mind control.
Oct 23, 06: People who say they are less sensitive to pain than others could be right. Researchers said today they had found a gene that appears to affect how people feel discomfort.
. . Tests in rats showed that blocking increased activity of the gene after nerve injury or inflammation could prevent the development of chronic pain, a finding that points to possible ways to develop new pain drugs. And studies in volunteers showed that about a quarter of them had the genetic variant that protects them from pain somewhat, and 3% carried two mutated copies that make them exceptionally insensitive to pain, the researchers reported. An estimated 40 million people in the United States alone, or nearly 1 in 5 adults, suffer from chronic pain.
. . The affected gene is called GCH1, which codes for an enzyme called GTP cyclohydrolase. This enzyme in turn is needed to produce a chemical called tetrahydrobiopterin or BH4. "Our results tell us that BH4 is a key pain-producing molecule --when it goes up, patients experience pain, and if it is not elevated, they will have less pain. The data also suggest that individuals who say they feel less pain are not just stoics but genuinely have inherited a molecular machinery that reduces their perception of pain. This difference results not from personality or culture, but real differences in the biology of the sensory nervous system."
Oct 23, 06: A prion becomes infectious when it misfolds. It's almost the only protein that can do this --I can only think of one other. This contradicts what we thought we knew about biology because prions have no nucleic acid, no DNA. According to basic biological theory, if you're going to create an infection you need to replicate yourself, and the only way to do that is with nucleic acid. That's the central dogma of the field.
. . The way prions get around this is by something called conformational influence, which simply means that one misfolded protein comes into contact with another and then, whoosh, that protein misfolds, too.
. . WN: Your book contends that cannibalism nearly killed off the human race 800,000 years ago. How did that happen?
. . Max: There's a genetic oddity that suggests that humans in prehistory suffered an attack of a prion plague, and those individuals who had the preferred genome survived in disproportionate numbers. To this day, (some humans) continue to have that signature in our genes. When mad cow came along, we were fortunate to have it. It helped limit the damage that mad cow disease did. Cheap hamburger comes from old dairy cows, and the older the animal, the more the possibility of prion diseases.
Oct 23, 06: Injecting human embryonic stem cells into the brains of Parkinson's disease patients may cause tumors to form, U.S. researchers reported. Human stem cells injected into rat brains turned into cells that looked like early tumors. The researchers said the transplants clearly helped the rats, but some of the cells started growing in a way that could eventually lead to a tumor. Various types of cell transplants are being tried to treat Parkinson's disease, caused when dopamine-releasing cells die in the brain.
Oct 19, 06: Young female rats afraid of new environments developed cancer tumors sooner than their more adventuresome sisters, a new study finds. The researchers called the difference "striking."
. . The apprehensive rodents died sooner than others in the study because they got cancer earlier in life, on average. The scientists studied 81 female rats of a type known to develop breast and pituitary tumors. The researchers measured how far each one, at 20 days old, was willing to venture into a new, non-threatening environment.
. . By middle age, which is 390 days for these rats, 80% of the fearful females had mammary cancer, compared to just 38% of the adventuresome rats. During puberty, the fearful rats were twice as likely as the adventuresome rats to have irregular reproductive cycles, the study showed. The cycles stabilized during adulthood but then became irregular again for the fearful rats during middle age. The irregular cycles might account for hormonal differences linked to the development of cancer earlier, the researchers conclude.
. . Previous research at the university found that adventuresome males lived longer. The findings suggest research is needed into the possibility that human personality could predict cancer risk, the researchers write.
Oct 19, 06: A protein that prevents blood vessels from forming in the cornea could become the basis of new treatments for cancer and macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the elderly, scientists said.
. . The team of international researchers identified a protein called sVEGFR-1 and found that when levels are low, blood vessels begin to form in the eye, impairing vision. They believe therapies that boost levels of the protein could prevent the formation of blood vessels, which are a component in the spread of cancers and the cause of macular degeneration.
. . What causes blood vessels to form is a fundamental question for vision and also for diseases like cancer. "This finding teaches us what keeps the cornea clear and gives us the ability to exploit it in other diseases, both in the eye and systemically because now you have a protein that blocks blood vessel growth that the body itself makes." The lack of blood vessels has been perplexing researchers because the cornea contains vast amounts of a chemical called VEGF-A, which promotes blood vessel growth.
. . The new protein discovered by Ambati and researchers from the United States, Japan, Italy and Australia provides the answer. It is produced in the cornea and acts like a mop, absorbing VEGF-A which would otherwise make blood vessels grow.
. . In one type of macular degeneration, new blood vessels grow behind the eye causing bleeding and scarring which leads to distorted vision and impaired sight.
Oct 18, 06: Scientists have created a miniature endoscope with a flexible probe about the size of a human hair that produces high definition, three-dimensional images from inside the body.
Oct 17, 06: New research could help solve the long-standing problem of monitoring the health of farmed Atlantic salmon.
. . It is hoped a new "DNA chip" will save the salmon industry thousands of pounds and conserve dwindling stocks. The chip technology, developed by scientists at three UK universities, aims to provide a more reliable assessment of the condition of fish. The chip, the result of a four-year study by scientists at the Universities of Stirling, Aberdeen and Cardiff, aims to identify changes in gene activity to flag up potential problems.
Oct 17, 06: Using grammar rules alongside test tubes, biologists may have found a promising new way to fight nasty bacteria, including drug-resistant microbes and anthrax.
. . Studying a potent type of bacteria-fighters found in nature, called antimicrobial peptides, biologists found that they seemed to follow rules of order and placement that are similar to simple grammar laws. Using those new grammar-like rules for how these antimicrobial peptides work, scientists created 40 new artificial bacteria-fighters. Nearly half of those new germ-fighters vanquished a variety of bacteria and two of them beat anthrax, according to a paper in Nature.
. . This potentially creates not just a new type of weapon against hard-to-fight germs, but a way to keep churning out new and different microbe-attackers so that when bacteria evolve new defenses against one drug, doctors won't be stymied.
. . Using grammar as their guide, scientists could easily produce tens of thousands of new bacteria-fighters and test them for use as future drugs.
Oct 17, 06: According to researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, it's now possible to detect skin cancer cells present in blood samples by listening to the sound of melanoma cells. The scientists have used a method named photoacoustic detection, which uses a laser to make cells vibrate and ultrasound techniques to pick the sound of cancerous cells. This technique is so precise that it's possible to identify the spread of cancer even if there are only ten melanoma cells in a blood sample. Still, large clinical tests must be done before this method can be widely used.
. . When a cell, suspended in a liquid, absorbs a laser pulse, the resulting heat generated causes it to rapidly expand and contract producing an acoustic wave that travels through the surrounding liquid. Detection of these waves after pulsed laser illumination indicates the presence of the light-absorbing cells — in effect, laser-induced ultrasound.
Oct 16, 06: Stem cells show potential for treating the debilitating nerve condition motor neuron disease, research suggests. A US team found injecting rats with stem cells delayed the onset of MND.
. . Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions warned clinical use of stem cells was still a long way off. But they said their findings would help scientists to better understand how stem cells behaved when they were transplanted into the body.
. . They found that 70% of the transplanted cells developed into new nerve cells, and many of them had grown new endings connecting with other cells in the rats' spinal cords. The onset of the disease, marked by weight loss, was also delayed.
Oct 16, 06: The federal government is moving aggressively to create the first national banking system for umbilical cord blood, which contains the same potentially lifesaving stem cells as bone marrow —-but with a distinct advantage. They don't require that the donor and recipient share the same group of genes essential to getting a transplant to take. As a result, they are less likely to be rejected by the recipient.
Oct 14, 06: Spider web silk, the strongest natural fiber known, could possess untapped medical potential in artificial tendons or for regenerating ligaments, scientists now say.
. . While research has found no evidence so far that spider webs can kill germs, Lewis explained, studies on animals have revealed that spider silk triggers little if any immune responses, which cause rejection of medical implants. So his lab and others are spinning spider silks into fibers that they hope might be useful in medicine.
. . Lewis said researchers at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., have found that spider webs could be used as scaffolds for regenerating ligaments damaged in one of the world's most common knee injuries—ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments, or ACLs. "We're also looking at spider silk in artificial tendons." To mass-produce spider silk, Lewis said "our lab is pursuing the production of spider silk in alfalfa." Other researchers are experimenting with producing spider silk proteins in goat milk. Scientists generate these proteins outside spiders by inserting the genes for them into target cells.
. . Scientists are also developing spider silk to make exceptionally fine sutures for stitching up surgeries or wounds to nerves or eyes, to potentially help them heal without scarring.
Oct 13, 06: Obesity surgery without a scalpel may be a decade away: Stomach-stapling surgery to combat obesity may be done in the future with a tube inserted through the mouth, making the procedure safer than using an incision and opening the way for more people to undergo it, doctors say.
Oct 13, 06: Chrysotile asbestos, a known human carcinogen, will remain off a global "watch list" of toxic substances for at least two more years after countries led by Canada blocked consensus in United Nations talks. WHO) estimates at least 90,000 people die every year of asbestos-related diseases.
. . Canada, whose French-speaking Quebec province is a major asbestos producer and exporter, led opposition to its addition to the list, according to environmentalists tracking the talks. Canadian officials say putting chrysotile asbestos on the list would be tantamount to banning international trade in it and threaten jobs.
. . "At least 200,000 workers will be killed by asbestos disease before the proposal to list asbestos can be tabled again", said Laurie Kazan-Allen of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, who called the failure to act "truly tragic."
. . Countries will revisit the asbestos issue at a 2008 meeting of the Rotterdam Convention signatories, where they will also consider the addition of tributyl tin, used in paints for ship hulls, and the insecticide endosulfan.
Oct 11, 06: New Mexico Tech researchers have developed a sensor that uses the light-emitting properties of some nanoparticles to analyze and identify individual components of single strands of DNA and RNA.
. . Team members hope they can refine the emerging technology and eventually adapt the tiny sensors to detect cancer cells in their early stages and to target and destroy cancerous cells and tissue.
. . Zhang said, "The next step will be to modify these nanoparticle sensors ... and actually kill cancer cells with them." It "displays high sensitivity and specificity" —-attributes that will be important in studying and treating many genetic-based diseases, such as sickle cell anemia.
Oct 10, 06: Scientists have deciphered the structure of a "Pac Man"-like enzyme that could form the basis of new treatments for diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) breaks down insulin and amyloid-beta protein which forms plaque in the brain that is the hallmark of Alzheimer's.
. . Like the video game character that it resembles, IDE has two bowl-shaped halves that are held together by a type of hinge. But instead of gobbling up everything that gets in its way like Pac-Man, IDE's mouth is usually tightly closed.
. . Researchers at the University of Chicago have described the structure of IDE which could reveal clues about developing novel drugs. They have also figured out how to accelerate its activity. "We deciphered the three-dimensional makeup of this enzyme. By having that, now we understand how the enzyme recognizes specific hormones."
. . Tang and his team also made small changes to the enzyme that speeded up its activity, which could help in the design of treatments for Alzheimer's. "It demonstrated that we can make this enzyme more active in a simple way by making a simple mutation."
Oct 9, 06: British researchers said they had found a new genetic mutation that doubled the risk of breast cancer in women who carry it. [this is good news... now they can study it and someday counteract it.]
Oct 8, 06: Individuals who develop multiple sclerosis (MS) later in life do not always have worse outcomes than those who develop the disease in early adulthood, according to a report.
Oct 6, 06: A schizophrenia drug from Johnson & Johnson won U.S. approval as the first medicine to treat symptoms of autism in children and adolescents, the Food and Drug Administration said.
Oct 5, 06: Deer probably spread a brain-destroying illness called chronic wasting disease through their saliva, concludes a study that finally pins down a long-suspected culprit.
Oct 5, 06: The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's than any currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of the disease. About 4.5 million Americans suffer from it. As more people survive into old age, cases of Alzheimer’s disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. There is no known cure.
. . The researchers looked at THC, the compound inside marijuana responsible for its action on the brain. Computer models suggested THC might inhibit an enzyme with the tongue-twisting name of acetylcholinesterase (also called AChE) that is linked with Alzheimer's.
. . AChE is known to help accelerate the formation of abnormal protein clumps in the brain known as amyloid plaques during Alzheimer's. This enzyme also helps break down the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is linked to memory and learning. Acetylcholine levels are reduced during Alzheimer's.
. . In lab experiments, the scientists found THC was significantly better at disrupting the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins. THC could completely prevent AChE from forming amyloid plaques, while two drugs approved for use against Alzheimer's, donepezil and tacrine, reduced clumping by only 22 and 7%, respectively, at twice the concentration of THC used in the tests.
. . However, marijuana is not necessarily good for the mind. Prior investigations have shown that years of heavy marijuana use, consisting of four or more joints a week, can impair memory, decision making, and the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
. . Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.
Oct 5, 06: More people survive cancer than ever before. With early detection, for example, women stricken with breast cancer are often successfully treated and go on to live long lives. But concomitant with this cheering rise in cancer survival is a worrying increase in complaints about cognitive impairment as life goes on. Some cancer survivors have trouble with concentration or fatigue. New research shows this is not just in their minds but, in fact, in their brains.
. . Using positron emission tomography (PET) the researchers tracked both blood flow in the brain as well as the presence of a glucose analogue to examine brain metabolism.
. . The chemotherapy patients showed a significant jump in blood flow to the frontal cortex and cerebellum compared with the controls. "They had to work harder to carry out the same cognitive tasks. That correlation did not exist with people who did not get chemotherapy."
. . Basal ganglia is an executive center believed to link thought and action. The tamoxifen-treated women showed an 8 percent drop on average in metabolism in this region.
Oct 4, 06: A strain of tuberculosis that caused an unusally aggressive outbreak in the U.K. might have done so by dialing down the immune response of its hosts, allowing the bacterium to sicken lung cells more readily.
. . Researchers may have glimpsed a means by which the tuberculosis bacterium could adapt itself to different human populations. The loss of a gene from one strain of tuberculosis (TB) allows the bug to subvert the immune response of its host, potentially explaining why the strain caused an unusually severe outbreak at a U.K. school, researchers report. Related strains are a major cause of the disease in India and among Asians living in the U.K., raising the possibility that the mutation could be part of an adaptation to those populations.
. . Despite being a scourge that kills more than two million people each year, Mycobacterium tuberculosis is believed to cause significant disease in only 5 to 10% of exposed individuals.
. . Strains of tuberculosis vary widely in their genetic makeup.
Moles are more than a sometimes unsightly skin growth. Most harbor mutations that can trigger deadly skin cancer --melanoma-- and most fair-skinned humans have at least 10 such moles. Yet, only one in 65 of such people will develop melanoma in their lifetimes. And research has now pinpointed how a series of mechanisms prevents the cells that produce pigment--known as melanocytes--from fulfilling any cancerous destiny.
. . When cells in a mole (or nevus, in scientific terms) begin to show signs of mutation, a genetic program kicks in that prevents them from continuing to divide. Known as premature senescence--shutting down the melanocyte before the end of its natural life span--this mechanism keeps a specific tumor-promoting protein from completing its work. But there are at least 20 different types of moles, along with several oncogenes, which create tumor-promoting proteins that might also be at work.
Previous research has shown a possible anti-cancer effect for aspirin. Now, new findings suggest that the drug achieves this by cutting off the tumor's blood supply, not just by blocking an enzyme called cyclooxygenase.
Oct 3, 06: Treatment with progesterone, a well-known hormone that prepares the womb for pregnancy, safely reduces the risk of death and disability in people who suffer a traumatic brain injury, new research suggests.
Oct 2, 06: Wild salmon migrating downstream toward the sea are being killed en route by sea lice from salmon fish farms, a new study finds.
. . The fatalities range from 9% in the early spring, when lice populations are low, to 95% in late spring, when the parasites form massive clouds that young salmon have to swim through. "Here is a case where humans are making wildlife sick."
. . The researchers studied chum and pink salmon, which, unlike most other salmon species, begin their seaward trek shortly after hatching. Due to their large mass--up to 40 pounds--and protective body scales, adult salmon are better protected against the lice and can carry the parasite without becoming sick. Juvenile salmon, meanwhile, are about an inch long, weigh only about half a gram and are still without armor. "All it takes is one or two lice to kill one of these juvenile fishes."
5 items on prostate cancer --having had it myself...]
Oct 2, 06: Combining hormone and radiotherapy can improve survival in men suffering from locally advanced prostate cancer, Italian scientists said. They told a cancer conference in Istanbul that men whose disease had spread beyond the prostate but not widely throughout the body could benefit from hormone therapy.
. . "The most intriguing result was the improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival --10.5% and 6.2%, respectively", Bria said in a statement. "Also, long-term hormone therapy seemed to have greater impact on progression-free survival than short-term treatment --12% and 9.3% respectively."
. . Prostate cancer kills about 200,000 men each year worldwide, mainly in developed countries. Most men diagnosed with the disease are usually 65 or older. The incidence of prostate cancer is rising in many countries but experts believe that is due largely to improved screening. Prostate cancer depends on the male hormone testosterone to grow. Hormone therapy consists of drugs that reduce levels of testosterone.
. . Bria said the combination treatment decreased the recurrence of the cancer. He suggested that the hormone therapy may increase the efficacy of radiotherapy.
Sept. 13, 2006 (Chicago) -- A novel blood test that spots a protein that is elevated in people with prostate cancer could spare thousands of men from the pain and discomfort of unnecessary biopsies, researchers report.
. . The test, which zeroes in on a protein called human aspartyl (asparaginyl) beta-hydroxylase, or HAAH, appears to be more accurate than current methods for the early detection for prostate cancercancer, says Stephen Keith, MD. Keith is president and chief operating officer of Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in Gaithersburg, Md., which is developing the new test.
. . Researchers at Panacea developed a test in which they could detect HAAH in the blood. According to Keith, elevated levels of HAAH have been found in more than 99% of tissue samples from more than 20 different cancer types, including liver, breast, ovarian, colon, esophageal, and prostate. In contrast, it was not found in more than 1,000 normal tissue samples. The enzyme is responsible for cell division, movement, and invasion.
. . The latest research, presented here at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, involved 16 men with prostate cancer and 23 healthy individuals, all of whom had elevated PSA. Results showed that all the men with prostate cancer had elevated levels of HAAH in the blood, while none of the healthy men did.
. . "It's painful; terrible actually", he says of the biopsy. "The last time, they took 24 tissues samples with a very big, fat needle. Then I had to take antibiotics for three or four weeks to avoid infection." But had the new test been available, Ghanbari says this all may have been avoided. "My blood HAAH level is zero", he says.
. . The same test could also be used to monitor response to therapy, Keith says. "If treatment is working, HAAH would basically go back down to zero. If it in fact goes up, that would lead the physician to investigate whether the cancer has returned locally or has spread."
. . Additionally, the company is developing a drug to target HAAH. "If you hit it with a monoclonal antibody, you can basically turn it back to normal", Keith says. This in turn, would hopefully help to halt abnormal cell division, movement, and invasion --in other words, stop the growth of cancer, he says.
. . http://www.webmd.com/content/article/127/116689.htm
July 28, 2006 -- The bark of the white birch tree contains a compound that might help fight prostate cancerprostate cancer. That's the early word based on research in mice. The compound, called betulinol, hasn't been tested on people.
. . Preliminary tests show that betulonic acid, made from betulinol, may discourage human prostate cancercancer cells from dividing, and spur those cells to die. In a lab, the researchers exposed isolated human prostate cancer cells to betulonic acid for up to three days. For comparison, they also grew prostate cancer cells not exposed to the compound.Three days later, all the prostate cancers had grown. But those with betulonic acid grew 88% less, the study shows. Normal cells didn't appear to be affected by betulonic acid.
June 7, 2004 (New Orleans) -- Cancer researchers say they have found a combination of cancer-fighting drugs that prolongs the life of men with advanced prostate cancer. The medication that has cracked the code is the same drug that transformed cancer therapy for advanced breast cancer --Taxotere.
. . Researchers revealed that cancer therapy combinations that include the cancer-fighting drug Taxotere increased the life span of cancer patients by almost 20%.
. . On average, the increased life span amounted to a difference of less than three months, but "it is the first time we've been able to move that survival line, and that is important." "Taxotere is now the standard of care, no question", says Petrylack. Asked about the relatively small increase in average survival, Petrylack says that while the average increase in life span was about three months, "I have patients that have survived for years on this regimen."
. . The Taxotere-treated men survived an average of 18 months while patients receiving standard therapy survived about 15 months.
July 5, 2006 -- A glass of pomegranate juice a day may keep prostate cancer recurrence away, UCLA researchers report.
. . Treatment cures two out of three men with early prostate cancer. But after treatment, a third of men have rising levels of prostate-specific antigen --PSA-- in their blood. Of these men, 34% of them progressed to deadly, metastatic prostate cancer within 15 years. The faster PSA levels double, the sooner a man is likely to see his prostate cancer return.
. . Cancer-fighting chemicals are found in many foods. One food rich in these kinds of chemicals is pomegranate juice. Might pomegranate juice slow --or even reverse-- this post-treatment increase in PSA? Yes, find UCLA researcher Allan Pantuck, MD, and colleagues.
. . The team enrolled 46 men in a study funded by the owners of POM Wonderful Co., the maker of the pomegranate juice used in the study. The men all had detectable PSA after cancer treatment; all drank 8 ounces of pomegranate juice every day.
. . The men's overall PSA doubling time was nearly four times slower after they began drinking pomegranate juice. Sixteen of the 46 patients had a decrease in PSA levels --and in four, PSA levels dropped by half. "I was surprised when I saw such an improvement in PSA numbers", Pantuck said, in a news release. "This is not a cure, but we may be able to change the way prostate cancer grows." He says that pomegranate juice may allow 65- to 70-year-old men treated for prostate cancer to outlive their risk of dying from their cancer.
. . Prostate cancer patients with rising PSA levels usually opt for treatment with drugs that block testosterone. This "chemical castration" can have serious side effects, including bone loss, depression, and sexual dysfunction. It's possible that drinking pomegranate juice can delay the need for such treatments.
. . Pantuck says that some men in the study have been drinking pomegranate juice --and keeping their PSA levels stable-- for more than three years. "The juice seems to be working", he notes. Because of these promising results, pomegranate juice will be studied in a major, placebo-controlled clinical trial at 10 U.S. medical centers.
. . The study findings appear in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
Oct 2, 06: The same brain circuits are involved when obese people fill their stomachs as when drug addicts think about drugs, a finding that suggests overeating and addiction may be linked, U.S. researchers reported.
. . "We were able to simulate the process that takes place when the stomach is full, and for the first time we could see the pathway from the stomach to the brain that turns 'off' the brain's desire to continue eating."
. . Wang and colleagues tested seven obese volunteers who had been fitted with a gastric stimulator --a device that tricks the body into thinking the stomach is full, a state known as satiety. They used a positron emission tomography or PET scan to see which parts of the brain activated when the stimulator was activated.
. . Wang and colleagues said the hippocampus was 18% more active when the gastric stimulator was on. The stimulators also sent messages of satiety to brain circuits in the orbitofrontal cortex and striatum, which have been linked to craving and desire in cocaine addicts.
. . The volunteers had been fasting for 16 or 17 hours when the PET scans were run. The stimulator succeeded in making them feel less hungry, Wang said.
Oct 2, 06: Scientists in Japan have identified a molecule responsible for making mammals feel full, a discovery that could lead to new ways to treat obesity in humans.
. . Scientists believe appetite is controlled in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus, and the group of researchers claims to be the first to pinpoint an agent that triggers an increase or decrease in appetite.
. . The scientists identified the molecule as nesfatin-1, which is produced naturally in the brain. After injecting the molecule into the brains of rats, the scientists observed that the rodents began to eat less and lose weight. The researchers also were able to induce the rats to eat more, by blocking nesfatin-1.
. . There are at least a billion overweight adults across the world, 300 million of them considered obese.
Oct 1, 06: U.S. researchers said they had found a more efficient way to clone mice, and said their experiment solved a basic question about cloning science --whether it truly is possible to clone animals from mature cells.
. . Dolly the sheep made headlines around the world in 1997 because she was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell --a cell taken from a grown animal. These master cells of the body retain an ability to form various tissues, and they are not always easy to pick out from the cells around them.
. . Dr. Jerry Yang of the University of Connecticut noted that cloning is still very difficult to do. Only about 2 or 3 out of 100 tries generally works.
. . They cloned mice using fully differentiated, or mature, white blood cells called granulocytes. They used somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which the nucleus from a cell of the animal to be cloned is injected into an egg whose nucleus has been removed. This process works very poorly in mice and usually a two-step procedure is needed --first growing tiny embryos, then removing their embryonic stem cells to generate mouse pups.
. . Yang's team tried cloning using the blood cells at various levels of development -- from the stem cells stage through full maturity, called full differentiation. "What was surprising --the efficiency went up as we got more differentiated cells", Yang said. "That was very, very surprising, very shocking to us."
. . Supporters of so-called therapeutic cloning want to some day be able to take a single cell from a patient, perhaps a skin cell, and use it to generate tailor-made tissue or organ transplants.
Oct 2, 06: Premature births accounted for more than one-third of U.S. infant deaths in 2002, twice what was previously reported, making it the leading cause of infant mortality, government researchers said.
Sept 29, 06: Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have found evidence that trichotillomania, a psychiatric disorder that causes people to compulsively pull their hair, has a basis in genetics.
. . Trichotillomania is an impulse control disorder that affects 3 to 5% of the population. It is often accompanied by other psychiatric conditions such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome.
. . he Duke researchers studied 44 families with one or more members who had trichotillomania and found that two mutations in a gene called SLITKR1 were associated with about 5% of trichotillomania cases. Even a small relationship like this provides evidence of a biological basis for mental illnesses, which have long been blamed on life experiences, according to Stephan Züchner.
Sept 28, 06: Researchers in Israel are developing a new technique for administering drugs that could help prevent heart attacks after angioplasty to clear clogged arteries, a research institute said.
Sept 27, 06: A few diabetics have been able to give up their daily insulin shots after getting transplants of pancreas cells, according to the broadest study of this experimental treatment. But for most patients, the results fell short of the cure researchers have been seeking. They did not know why it worked in some people and not others.
. . The patients had severe cases of Type 1 diabetes, the less common form once known as juvenile diabetes, which is not linked to obesity. Nearly half of the 36 patients who received the cell transplant achieved insulin independence by one year after the treatment. The benefits were mixed for the others, and about three-quarters of the whole group relapsed and needed insulin injections again.
Sept 27, 06: The 1918 Spanish Flu that killed up to 50 million people worldwide caused a severe immune response which may help to explain why it was so deadly, American scientists said today. The pandemic was one of the worst in recorded history and killed more people than World War I. But researchers did not understand what made it so lethal.
. . By infecting mice with a reconstructed version of the 1918 virus and monitoring their response, a team of scientists believe they have found some clues to solve the puzzle as well as a possible new way to fight pandemic flu.
. . "What we think is happening is that the host's inflammatory response is being highly activated by the virus, and that response is making the virus much more damaging to the host." They believe targeting the patient's immune system response against the infection, as well as the virus itself, could provide a two-pronged attack against pandemic flu.
. . Scientists fear the next pandemic could occur if the H5N1 bird flu virus that has killed more than 145 people since late 2003 mutates into a strain that becomes highly infectious in humans.
. . The Spanish Flu pandemic was caused by the H1N1 influenza strain. Unlike other flu viruses that afflict mainly the elderly and children, the 1918 pandemic struck young adults in their prime and people without immune system problems.
. . One theory to explain its deadly impact was that a secondary infection may have attacked Spanish Flu sufferers whose immune systems were already weakened. But Kash and his colleagues discovered that the reconstructed virus activated immune system genes in the rodents and caused serious lung damage and death.
. . When they looked more closely at the animals' response, they found several genes had been activated including those that are linked to cell death. A second group of mice infected with a benign flu virus had a less serious immune response and none died. The scientists are planning further studies to try to understand why the immune system reacts so strongly to the virus.
Sept 26, 06: Lots of people wish they could jack their brain directly to their computer and toss out those annoying keyboards and joysticks --especially people who can't use keyboards or joysticks.
. . Five quadriplegic patients might be months away from testing a brain-computer interface created by Cyberkinetics. The company's system, called BrainGate, could help patients with no mobility to control a computer, a robot or eventually their own rewired muscles, using only their thoughts. If the trials go well, a product could be on the market by 2007.
. . "Once you can control a computer, there are technologies out there to do everything else", Surgenor said. "It turns out, with a joystick and a few buttons, you can do incredible things."
Sept 26, 06: U.S. researchers said today they are starting trials of a new vaccine aimed at wiping out childhood ear and sinus infections and many cases of bronchitis in adults. Unlike virtually all other vaccines on the market, this one will not be aimed at saving lives, but at preventing nuisance illnesses, the researchers said.
. . The vaccine will target Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae or NTHi, which is the main remaining cause of ear and sinus infections and bronchitis, now that vaccines exist for various forms of streptococcal bacteria and Haemophilus influenzae B, the previous leading causes. It uses little pieces of the bacteria that cause the infections to stimulate an immune response. As the bacteria are all in the same family, it should protect against a broad range of strains, Pichichero said.
. . While ear infections are never fatal, they can cause serious damage in some children, Pichichero noted. He said 83% of U.S. children experience one or more ear infections by age 3 and in some cases hearing loss becomes permanent. And the infections force children to visit clinics and emergency rooms, and are the leading reason for antibiotic prescriptions. Experts agree antibiotics are overused in the United States, which wastes money and also helps "superbug" bacteria evolve that resist the drugs.
. . The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Prevnar's use has reduced pneumonia rates from the streptococcal strains it targets by 78%. Testing has begun. "Our ultimate goal would be to combine the three ingredients from the Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae vaccine with the streptococcal vaccine, giving a vaccine that would prevent 90% of ear infections, sinus infections and bronchitis."
Sept 25, 06: Smokers of menthol cigarettes find it harder to quit than those smoking regular cigarettes, researchers said on Monday, perhaps explaining why blacks in the United States suffer disproportionately from smoking-related ailments.
. . For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, including targeted advertising, about 70% of black smokers smoke menthol cigarettes such as Kool or Newport compared to about 30% of white smokers
. . This, combined with the difficulty in kicking the menthol cigarette habit, could help researchers figure out why blacks in the United States have higher rates of cancer, heart disease and other smoking-related illnesses even though they generally smoke less, the study said.
. . The study, which looked at the smoking habits of 1,535 people over 15 years, did not determine why menthol cigarettes were harder to kick than regular tobacco cigarettes. Menthol "was associated with a lower likelihood of trying to quit in the first place", the study said. It added that menthol smokers, if they did quit, were almost twice as likely to relapse after trying to stop and also less likely to stop for a sustained period of time. "Menthol and non-menthol cigarettes seem to be equally harmful per cigarette smoked" in terms of heart disease and declines in lung function, the study concluded.
Sept 26, 06: Scientists say they have created a stem cell line from a human embryo that had stopped developing naturally, and so was considered dead. Using such embryos might ease ethical concerns about creating such cells, they suggested.
. . One expert said the technique makes harvesting stem cells no more ethically troublesome than organ donation. But others said it still carries scientific and ethical problems.
. . They studied embryos donated by an in vitro fertilization clinic with consent of the patients. Part of the work focused on 132 "arrested" embryos, those that had stopped dividing for 24 or 48 hours after reaching various stages of development.
. . Thirteen of these embryos had developed more than the others, reaching 16 to 24 cells before cell division stopped. Scientists were able to create a stem cell line from just one of these embryos.
These stem cells performed normally on a series of tests.
. . "Regardless of how you feel about personhood for embryos, if the embryo is dead, then the issue of personhood is resolved. This then reduces the ethics of human embryonic stem cell generation to the ethics of, say, organ donation. So now you're really saying, `Can we take live cells from dead embryos the way we take live organs from dead patients?'"
Sept 21, 06: Stem cells drawn from bone marrow might be coaxed into making fresh blood vessels by racking them up inside specialized laboratory dishes and pulling them like taffy, according to new research.
. . Repeatedly stretching and relaxing the stem cells caused them to morph into something resembling smooth-muscle tissue --the raw material that the body builds into blood vessels. When the cells are stretched, Kurpinski explained, "it mimics the forces a cell might find" growing naturally alongside other muscle tissue.
Sept 21, 06: Scientists have given mice a tan without exposing them to the sun. They developed a cream, which has not yet been tested on humans, that switches on the tanning machinery in skin cells.
. . The cream contains a small molecule that essentially mimics the process that occurs when skin cells are struck by ultraviolet light from the sun. It is thought people with fair skin and red hair cannot tan properly because of a defect. Fair-skinned people tend to burn, rather than tan in the sun, increasing the risk of DNA damage to skin cells which can lead to cancer.
. . The World Health Organization has estimated that as many as 60,000 people a year worldwide die from skin cancer as a result of too much exposure to the sun. "A UV-induced tan only provides protection equivalent to that of sunscreen with SPF4."
Sept 21, 06: Human embryonic stem cells can partly restore vision in blinded rats, and may offer a source of transplants for people with certain eye diseases, researchers at a U.S. company reported. It might offer a way to use stem cells that now exist in laboratories, the researchers said.
. . "We have developed a technology that we hope can be used to treat degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration", said Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, who led the study. They transplanted the cells into rats genetically engineered to have defective eyes. The rats usually go completely blind.
. . The cells grew normally. The rats had about 70% of the spatial acuity of a normal, healthy rat. When their eyes were examined, they had grown layers of the retinal cells.
. . Macular degeneration affects more than 30 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of blindness in patients over 60 in the United States.
Sept 21, 06: If a new method works, scientists could derive embryonic stem cells --without destroying embryos-- from more than 3,000 cells discarded annually at fertility clinics.
. . Scientists could take advantage of this discovery by using cells already being extracted from embryos during a technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. The technique allows fertility clinics to choose the embryos most likely to lead to a healthy baby. If parents undergoing treatment agreed to donate that single cell used for diagnosis (which is otherwise tossed), scientists would have a whole new, and presumably ethically acceptable, source of material from which to derive embryonic stem cells.
. . Lanza repeatedly tried to make it clear that this technique is already performed at clinics across the country. But religious leaders and senators seemed to have a hard time understanding that.
. . # PGD is used in up to 6% of IVF cycles.
. . # Clinics reported performing 3,000 cycles of PGD in 2005. (according to the CDC, more than 100,000 cycles were reported in 2001 -- assuming the numbers stay about the same annually that would be more than 6,000 cells that could provide embryonic stem cells every year, based on the 6% figure above).
Sept 21, 06: Hong Kong's bad air may be responsible for a significant jump in children being admitted to hospital for asthma, a six-year study has found.
Sept 19, 06: The last couple of weeks have brought much needed good news about cancer. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute used gene therapy for the first time to completely cure two patients with an advanced and deadly skin cancer called melanoma.
. . Three science teams reported a major link between tumor suppression and stem cell division. And on the same day, doctors announced the continued, dramatic decline in cancer deaths, which began in the early 1990s. These studies follow separate statements from the World Health Organization and the
American Cancer Society that over half of all cancers are preventable.
. . Myth 1: "The single bullet": Cancer is a group of diseases. In the same way there is no single cure for infectious diseases, cancers have many different origins and must be treated differently.
. . Myth 2: "A modern epidemic": Another cancer misconception bandied about is that cancer is a modern-day scourge occurring with greater frequency with each passing year because of our polluted world. Cancer is ancient and affects most animals, from dinosaurs of old to modern sea creatures and dogs. Incidence rates have climbed in the United States largely because we are detecting cancer with greater accuracy and we aren't dying as much from other diseases, such as malaria. Pollutants can cause cancer, and the most common is tobacco smoke. Radiation and industrial solvents also are clear-cut causes of cancer.
. . Myth 3: "The cancer conspiracy": that there are cheap cures, such as hydrogen peroxide, vitamin regimens or shark cartilage, that doctors don't want you to know about because they can't profit from them. It's an inane argument. Medical professionals dedicate their lives to find a cure, and many indeed die of cancer. They can't save themselves because cancer is complicated. Sharks do get cancer. Cartilage has long been known to have anti-cancer properties. Taking shark cartilage in pill form, where it dissolves in your stomach acid and never reaches a tumor, won't cure a thing. But serious research is underway in turning cartilage into medicine.
. . No one needs to die of colon cancer, which takes about 10 years to turn from polyp to cancer. A colonoscopy can spot and remove polyps. Millions of cancers would vanish if everyone stopped smoking, and millions of cancers would be prevented if we started exercising and stopped killing sharks.
Sept 19, 06: Swedish women who ate fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and herring at least once a week had a significantly lower risk of kidney cancer compared to consumers of lean fish, researchers said.
. . The 15-year study found those who regularly ate fish containing lots of fish oil that is rich in omega-3 acids and Vitamin D had a 74% lower risk of getting kidney cancer compared to those who ate no fish at all. Lean varieties such tuna, cod and fresh-water fish did not confer the same benefit.
. . Compared to lean fish, fatty fish have up to 30 times the amount of certain acids and up to five times the level of Vitamin D. The fatty acids have been reported to slow development of cancer and people with kidney cancer often have low levels of Vitamin D. "The name fatty fish may frighten some people but this kind of fat is healthy so I would recommend to eat fatty fish, not lean, because you can get much more benefits."
. . In the US, there is a one in 77 lifetime risk of kidney cancer. The disease is twice as common among men than women.
Sept 19, 06: Mosquitoes' thirst for sugar could help kill the pests and eradicate the malaria they spread, scientists in Israel said today.
. . Yosef Schlein and Gunter Muller of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said they wiped out virtually the entire mosquito population of a southern Israeli oasis by spraying a sugar solution mixed with "Spinosad" insecticide on acacia trees.
. . "The mosquitoes are about 30 times more attracted to the acacia than other plant life", Schlein said, explaining why that particular tree was chosen. Acacias are also common in Africa, where malaria has been on the rise due to environmental changes, drug resistance and mosquito resistance to conventional insecticides.
Sept 18, 06: Deterioration of body and mind are the prices our bodies pay for protection against cancer as we grow older, new studies suggest.
. . Scientists have discovered that a gene involved in tumor suppression also plays an important role in determining when certain cells in the body cease multiplying and start deteriorating. As cells age, the gene, called p16INK4a, becomes more active. The cells have greater protection against cancer but lose the ability to divide. Cells that don't divide, die off and are not replaced.
. . The studies, detailed together in the journal Nature, suggest the physical and mental ravages that accompany aging are not the result of simple wear and tear of the body, but of a cellular decline that is programmed into our genes -—one designed to safeguard us against copying mistakes that become more frequent as we grow older.
. . "It's not that old tissues wear out—they're actively shutting themselves down, probably to avoid turning into cancer cells." cells taken from old animals remember their "age" and continue to deteriorate at their previous rate even when transplanted into young animals. This last finding raises new questions about the usefulness of adult stem cells in tissue and organ repair compared to embryonic stem cells.
. . Morrison, the University of Michigan researcher, said these tumor-suppression "mechanisms probably don't exist in embryonic stem cells, and that's why they can proliferate indefinitely, while adult stem cells can't."
. . The findings might also lead to new kinds of therapies aimed at slowing or reversing the effects of aging, the researchers say. In the experiments, shutting down p16INK4a activity relieved only some, but not all, of the negative repercussions of aging. But scientists know of other tumor suppressor genes, and manipulating many of them at once might have a greater effect, Morrison said.
Sept 16, 06: The World Health Organization (WHO) has reversed a 30-year policy by endorsing the use of DDT for malaria control. The chemical is sprayed inside houses to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
. . In 2004 the global treaty on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) made the prohibition global --except for a clause allowing its manufacture and use in disease control. South Africa was one country that switched, but it had to return to DDT at the beginning of the decade after mosquitoes developed resistance to the substitute compounds.
Sept 14, 06: Scientists have devised a blood test for tuberculosis which they hope will help doctors in the developing world.
Sept 14, 06: Marfan syndrome causes a heart defect that can be fatal without notice at a young age. Scientists are learning how a common hypertension drug might prevent sudden death for hundreds of patients.
Sept 13, 06: The body, and not the mind, might be the first thing to go in people with Alzheimer's and related dementias. New studies show that brain tissue and body weight are lost before memories begin fading in elderly people who go on to have the diseases. The findings could lead to new types of early-warning tests for dementia before the diseases cause lasting damage.
. . In a separate study, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, Missouri, found that the steady weight loss normally associated with aging doubles in the year before symptoms of Alzheimer's-type dementia first become evident.
. . "The two groups lost weight at about the same rate for four to five years, and then one year before the detection of even the mildest cognitive symptoms, weight loss increased in the group that would eventually be diagnosed with mild dementia."
. . Interestingly, the group of volunteers who did experience dementia weighed about eight pounds less on average at the beginning of the study than those who did not develop dementia. The reason for the difference is unclear, but one hypothesis is that a process related to Alzheimer's becomes active earlier in the lives of the affected individuals, driving their weight down. Another is that people with lower average weight are more vulnerable to Alzheimer's.
Sept 10, 06: Food allergies could be virtually eradicated in 10 years, according to scientists at a major conference.
. . Experts at an Expo heard that vaccines could be created against the molecules which trigger allergies. The scientist leading the research --Dr Ronald van Ree, from Amsterdam U-- said a vaccine with no side effects was in sight. About one in 70 people have an allergy to foods such as peanuts or shellfish.
. . New genetic engineering techniques are being tested to reduce the effect of the proteins in food that cause adverse --sometimes fatal-- reactions. It is hoped that scientists will be able to make the molecules safe enough to use in drugs that fight food allergies via the immune system. These would be used in conjunction with compounds designed to reduce inflammation --one of the most dangerous effects of allergic reactions.
. . Foods which carry a high allergy risk include milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, shellfish, fish, soya, and tree nuts such as brazils or cashews.
. . Despite possibly fatal effects, deaths from food allergy are rare. Only eight children in the UK died from food allergy reactions between 1990 and 2000.
Sept 8, 06: Medical breakthroughs hold out the prospect of living longer and healthier lives, with current life span norms set to be turned on their head, an expert on anti-aging said today. "Life begins at 100? This is an unthinkable today, but in the future, 100 can be pretty young", Robert M. Goldman, chairman of the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine, told a conference on the resort island of Bali.
. . Stem cells, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and therapeutic cloning are being used in the relatively new field of anti-aging medicine.
. . Michael Klentze, director of the Klentze Institute of Anti-aging in Munich, said a new method called proteomic diagnostics could detect prostate cancer through a mere urine test years before regular scans discovered it. "We can stop the progress of a prostate cancer and we don't need a biopsy or anything else. No operation, no nothing."
Sept 7, 06: The first genetic map of colon and breast cancer shows that nearly 200 mutated genes --most of them previously unknown-- help tumors start, grow and spread, U.S. researchers reported today. It showed that cancer was more complex than even experts in the genetics of the disease had believed. "We expected to find a handful of genes, not 200."
. . The findings could lead to new treatments for cancer, better ways to diagnose it, and certainly will provide insights into the second-leading cause of death in the developed world, the researchers said.
Sept 6, 06: A "virtually untreatable" form of TB has emerged, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Extreme drug resistant TB (XDR TB) has been seen worldwide, including in the US, Eastern Europe and Africa, although Western Europe has had no cases. Dr Paul Nunn, from the WHO, said a failure to correctly implement treatment strategies was to blame. Drug resistance is caused by poor TB control, through taking the wrong types of drugs for the incorrect duration.
. . TB presently causes about 1.7 million deaths a year worldwide, but researchers are worried about the emergence of strains that are resistant to drugs. Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR TB), which describes strains of TB that are resistant to at least two of the main first-line TB drugs, is already a growing concern.
. . Globally, the WHO estimates there are about 425,000 cases of MDR TB a year, mostly occurring in the former Soviet Union, China and India.
. . XDR TB is defined as strains that are not only resistant to the front-line drugs, but also three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs. He added that it was key that new drugs were developed in future. He said work was underway looking at new drugs, including research into TB vaccines.
Sept 6, 06: Ultrasound energy can briefly open a door into cells to let drugs and other compounds inside, U.S. researchers reported in a study that could lead to improvements in medical care.
. . Ultrasound causes the violent collapse of bubbles, which in turn creates enough force to open holes in the outer membranes of cells, the team reported. The holes, which close quickly, allow the entry of molecules as large as 50 nanometers in diameter --larger than most oral drugs, many proteins and similar in size to the DNA used in gene therapy.
. . "You could give a chemotherapeutic drug locally or throughout the body, then focus the ultrasound only on areas where tumors exist", That would increase the cell permeability and drug uptake only in the targeted cells and avoid affecting healthy cells elsewhere."
Sept 4, 06: Vaccinating all 12-year-old girls against the virus which causes most cervical cancers could cut deaths from the disease by 75%, a study suggests. GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix jab targets two strains of the human papillomavirus. Gardasil was found to be effective on more strains of HPV than first thought.
Sept 2, 06: Two men have been cleared of deadly skin cancer using genetically modified versions of their own immune cells.
. . The US National Cancer Institute team in Bethesda has also shown it can manipulate immune cells to attack breast, liver and lung cancers. The modified T cells persisted in 15 other patients treated, but their malignant melanomas remained. Before the experiment, the patients were expected to only live for three to six months because their disease was so advanced.
. . Tests showed the genetically modified T cells used in the new treatment became specialized tumor fighters. Although only two of the 17 people with advanced melanoma who received the treatment were completely free of cancer 18 months later, experts say the results are extremely exciting and proof that this new therapy can work.
Sept 1, 06: The growth of cervical and womb cancers may be fuelled by a hormone-like molecule in semen, a study suggests. But a cancer expert said the chances of unprotected sex affecting a patient's outcome was "slight". Scientists believe other factors are involved in causing the virus to develop into cancer.
. . The Medical Research Council team found that the exceptionally high levels of prostaglandin fuelled tumour growth. They told the journals Endocrinology and Human Reproduction that women with either cancer should ask their partners to wear condoms during sex. Cervical cancer is usually triggered by the human papilloma virus.
. . There are about 2,800 cases each year in the UK. In 2004, the latest year for which there are figures, there were just over 1,000 deaths. It is the second most common cancer in women under 35.
Aug 29, 06: Scientists say they have made a blocker that could stop the lethal anthrax toxin from attacking the body. The inhibitor binds to the receptors in the body where anthrax attaches. Using receptors as the treatment target rather than the toxin itself should get round the problem of antibiotic resistance, PNAS journal reports.
. . The same approach could also be used to stop other deadly invaders such as SARS, influenza and Aids, the US and Canadian researchers said.
. . Inhalation anthrax still has a fatality rate of 75% even after antibiotics are given. Antibiotics can slow the progression of the infection, but they do not counter the advanced destructive effects of the anthrax toxin in the body.
. . Work is now needed to see whether the inhibitor will do the same in humans.
Aug 28, 06: The doctors of ancient Greece and China had it right when they applied cool and minty salves to soothe aches and pains, a new study suggests.
. . A synthetic treatment with the same properties as mint oil is an effective painkiller when applied directly to the skin. The new cooling compounds could be especially beneficial to millions suffering with the chronic pain of arthritis and diseases affecting nerve endings, scientists say.
. . Special analgesic ingredients in the compounds —telling the receptor to turn off pain messages going to the brain— make them even more effective, the results showed. The minty formula offers significant advantages versus some other pain medications, which do not always work on sufferers of long-term pain, say the researchers.
. . Because the compounds are applied externally, they should also come with a shorter list of potential adverse reactions, she said. “They seem to be just as powerful as morphine, but work through an entirely separate mechanism, with what we think will be less side effects.
Aug 25, 06: Scientists have for the first time erased long-term memories in rats and also directly seen how the brain is changed by learning. These findings could prove key "to understanding how memories can be augmented, for example in diseases that affect memory, like Alzheimer's", said neuroscientist Mark Bear. The research could also help treat pain that does not go away.
. . The investigators separately examined the hippocampus, a structure critical for memory. Three decades ago, scientists discovered the existence of persistent increases in the strength of the connections, or synapses, linking brain cells in the hippocampus. This mechanism is largely believed to help in memory formation.
. . Sacktor and his collaborators worked on rats trained to avoid a shock zone on a rotating platform. If they received an injection of a chemical dubbed ZIP into the hippocampus one day to one month after they learned to keep away from the shock zone, they no longer shunned it. "It doesn't have an effect on short-term memory, and afterward they can continue to store long-term memories."
. . "This same process might be hijacked in psychiatric diseases, such as anxiety disorders and even depression", Bear said. "What is cool is that we know how to reverse some of the changes we measure after learning, which suggests the possibility of new treatments."
Aug 23, 06: Nicotine withdrawal symptoms, which include craving for cigarettes, mood disturbances, appetite increase, and sleep problems, are signs of a smoker's body and mind adjusting to being without the stimulant. These symptoms peak within the first three days of quitting and last for two weeks or longer.
. . The researchers studied 50 people who smoked one pack a day and randomly selected half of them to continue smoking as usual while the other half were deprived of cigarettes. Within a half-hour, those who were not smoking reported cravings. In an hour, they were angry. And within three hours, they were anxious, sad, and had trouble concentrating, all symptoms that generally drive a potential quitter to smoking again, researchers report.
. . "The study indicates that nicotine withdrawal is not only a barrier to quitting smoking, but that it likely plays a subtle role in the decision to smoke nearly every cigarette of the day." Smokers seek this temporary relief by smoking as soon as the effects of the last cigarette have left their brain. They average one cigarette about every 40 minutes, Brandon said.
. . According to the American Lung Association, of the current 44.5 million smokers, more than 32 million reported they wanted to quit smoking completely. Smoking-related diseases kill approximately 438,000 people in this country each year.
Aug 23, 06: A Massachusetts company said today it had developed a way to make human embryonic stem cells without harming the original embryo, a finding it said could dispel ethical objections to promising medical research using such cells. "It at least takes away the president's last excuse to oppose the research", Lanza, who led the company's research team, said.
. . The scientists used a method already employed in fertility treatments to remove one cell from a human embryo without harming it. Then they grew stem cells from that single cell. Although the source embryos were not then implanted in a woman, the Advanced Cell scientists said they could have been, with the potential to develop normally.
. . The team used embryos taken from fertility clinics. Usually such clinics make many embryos for a couple using eggs and sperm, and implant a few to try to start a woman's pregnancy. The rest are frozen and eventually usually discarded. [ It's very very very strange that P. Bush and the anti-stem cell Luddites don't complain about the hundreds of thousands that AREN'T used!! FLUSH 'EM!!]
. . Lanza's team let its fertilized eggs grow to the 8- to 10-cell stage. The embryo at that stage is no longer able to divide into twins but the cells can still form any cell or tissue in the body.
. . Genetic experts can take one cell from such embryos to test for inherited genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The embryos can be safely implanted, and Lanza said statistics suggest up to 1,500 healthy children are born this way yearly.
. . Lanza's team managed to get 19 different cells to grow and got two stem-cell batches, called lines. He said his company would make any stem-cell lines available to scientists for free.
Aug 23, 06: Venom from an ocean snail may have benefits for people with addictions, depression and Parkinson's disease, University of Utah researchers reported Monday. They said they produced a synthetic version of the toxin that can block or stimulate receptors that release chemicals in the brain.
. . "A snail is a treasure chest. They have tens of thousands of compounds", said J. Michael McIntosh, professor or biology and psychiatry.
. . The synthetic version can latch onto a brain receptor that is commonly activated by nicotine during smoking. Smoking releases dopamine, a chemical used as a "reward signal" by the brain, he explained. The toxin fits certain brain receptors. As a result, it could be used to stimulate dopamine, which is lacking in people with neurological diseases, and serotonin and norepinephrine in people with mood disorders, he said. It also could block receptors and help people who want to stop smoking or drinking.
. . McIntosh predicted it could take 10 to 20 years to develop medicine based on the research.
Aug 23, 06: A province in southern Vietnam has banned the import of cows, buffaloes and their manure from neighboring Cambodia to help stop the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
Aug 23, 06: Climatic changes could lead to more outbreaks of bubonic plague among human populations, a study suggests. Researchers found that the bacterium that caused the deadly disease became more widespread following warmer springs and wetter summers. The disease occurs naturally in many parts of the world, and the team hopes their findings will help officials limit the risk of future outbreaks. Each year, up to 3,000 cases of humans contracting bubonic plague are reported in Asia, parts of Africa, the US and South America.
. . The bacterium Yersinia pestis is believed to have triggered the Black Death that killed more than 20 million people in the Middle Ages. The disease was widespread among rodent populations. Fleas became active when the temperature exceeded 10C (50F), so a warm, frost-free spring led to an early start to breeding. The flea population continued to grow when the spring was followed by a wet, humid summer, the researcher wrote.
. . The combination of the two seasons' climatic conditions lead to an increase in the number of the insects feeding off the great gerbils, resulting in a greater transmission of plague. The study showed that just a 1C rise in the springtime temperature led to a 59% increase in the prevalence of the disease.
. . Professor Stenseth added that their findings also helped shed light on two of the world's worst plague outbreaks; the medieval Black Death and the Asian pandemic in the 19th Century, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. "Analyses of tree-ring proxy climate data shows that conditions during the period of the Black Death (1280-1350) were both warmer and increasingly wet. The same was true during the origin of the Third Pandemic (1855-1870) when the climate was wetter and underwent an increasingly warm trend."
Aug 21, 06: A project to collect DNA samples from half a million Britons to unpick the genetic basis of killer diseases including cancer got the go-ahead today, marking the start of the world's biggest medical experiment.
Aug 21, 06: Chewing gum, toothpaste and deodorant might soon contain beneficial bacteria to fight tooth decay and underarm stench. Strepptococcus mutans, or S. Mutans, is a bacterium that causes tooth decay. S. Mutans sticks to the surface of teeth, producing an aggressive acid that breaks down the enamel.
. . The bacteria found in yogurt might come to the rescue. Scientists report that a new strain of lactobacillus called L. anti-caries, forces S. Mutans to clump together, preventing them from becoming attached to the tooth surface. Tests reveal that the chewing gum can reduce the amount of bacteria in the mouth fifty times, the scientists report.
. . The good bacteria might also be used in new deodorants. Strains of the bacteria have been found to cut down on odor-producing bacteria that dwell in underarms and feet.
Aug 18, 06: A mixture of six bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on meat and poultry to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said today.
. . The mixture of special viruses, called bacteriophages, would target strains of Listeria monocytogenes, the FDA said in declaring it is safe to use. The viruses are designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products just before they are packaged.
. . The bacterium they target can cause a serious infection called listeriosis, primarily in pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems. In the United States, an estimated 2,500 persons become seriously ill with listeriosis each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 500 die.
. . The preparation of bacteriophages —-Greek for "bacteria-eater"-— infects only various strains of the Listeria bacterium and not human or plant cells, the FDA said. People normally come into contact with phages through food, water and the environment, and they are found in our digestive tracts.
Aug 18, 06: A device that uses teardrops to measure the amount of sugar in a person's blood could soon allow diabetics to forgo painful daily pinpricks. "I hope in two to three years to have prototypes out and that someday you'll be able to go to a grocery store and test your sugar, just like you test your blood pressure."
. . For all the non-actors out there who can't cry on demand, a substance could be sniffed that stimulates the tear glands. The researchers say the new method would not only be painless, but that it could also provide a way to detect rising sugar levels years before a person would normally visit their doctor for a diabetes test.
. . Diabetes, type 1 and 2, affects 20.8 million people in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It is the sixth-leading cause of death nationally and can lead to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease and nervous system disorders.
Aug 18, 06: Amino acids, those not employed in creating protein and life, can improve a cancer therapy protein's activity by more than 30-fold.
Aug 18, 06: Bluetongue, a viral infection, has been found in sheep in the southern Netherlands, and the Dutch agriculture ministry banned exports of live cows, goats and sheep. A ministry spokeswoman told Dutch news agency ANP that it was surprising that the disease, which is transmitted by insects, had appeared in the Netherlands, adding it was the first time it had broken out so far in the north. [Greenhouse!]
Aug 17, 06: Simple urine tests for DNA fragments could help in the early detection of cancer, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and potentially many other diseases. Such tests might eventually also uncover rejection of transplanted organs before symptoms of inflammation manifest, or genetically test fetuses for birth defects.
. . The scientists at Xenomics realized tests of such genetic material could yield vital information on a wide range of conditions in the body in a safe, noninvasive manner. They have completed clinical studies on hundreds of patients to detect mutations linked with colorectal and pancreatic cancer, viruses such as
HIV and bacteria such as tuberculosis, anthrax and Helicobacter pylori, the microbe that causes most ulcers.
. . They can also test for parasites such as malaria and Leishmania, which is of growing importance to U.S. soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Leishmania is spread by the bite of infected sand flies and can cause skin sores, fever, weight loss, and an enlarged spleen and liver.
. . The tests for malaria can potentially detect the first stage of disease, when the parasites have infected liver cells. No test currently available on the market can diagnose this stage. The company hopes in the future to expand the tests to look for additional infectious diseases at a rate of five to 10 a year.
Aug 16, 06: Scientists have found that a common type of human brain cell can transform into other cell types and reproduce indefinitely—tricks once thought exclusive to stem cells.
. . The mature human brain cells were extracted from epilepsy patients and coaxed into other types of brain cells in a lab. The human cells also transformed into different types of brain tissue when transplanted into the brains of mice. The cells were maintained for nearly a year without showing signs of aging or of mutations associated with cancer cells. The researchers predict that one cell could give rise to 10 quadrillion brain cells -—enough to replace every cell in about 50 million adult brains.
. . "This is a completely new source of human brain cells that can potentially be used to fight Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and a host of other brain disorders."
. . The researchers extracted a common type of support cell in the brain called "glial cells" from the brains of patients undergoing surgery for epilepsy. In the human brain, glial cells are estimated to outnumber neurons by as much as 50 to 1.
. . The cells were taken from the gray matter regions of the brains -—an area not known for harboring stem cells. When the cells were bathed in growth agents, they transformed into "neural progenitors", cells that are a bit further along in development than stem cells.
. . Whether in the lab or in the brains of mice, the human neural progenitor cells were able to morph into a variety of other cell types, including glial support cells like their parents, and neurons.
Aug 14, 06: Men with low testosterone levels after age 40 have a higher risk of death over a four-year period than those with normal levels of the hormone, a new study suggests. It's not clear, however, if the two are directly related, and researchers say that it's possible a third unknown factor is responsible for both low testosterone levels and increased mortality.
. . Testosterone levels can vary wildly between different men and even within individuals as a result of illness or stress. However, studies have consistently shown that levels of the hormone decrease as men age. Testosterone levels peak during a man's late 20's but decline soon after, decreasing about 1.5% per year after age 30. The decline is thought to be due to age-related changes in the testes, where the hormone is produced, and in the brain.
. . Low levels of testosterone can cause decreased muscle mass and bone density, insulin resistance, decreased sex drive, reduced energy, irritability and feelings of depression.
. . Men with low testosterone levels had a 68% increase in risk of death compared with those who had normal levels. The effect persisted even after variables such as age, other illnesses and body mass index were controlled for --but after they reanalyzed the data to eliminate men who had died within the first year of follow-up. This was done to control for dips in testosterone levels that can occur shortly after surgery, trauma or critical illness.
. . Shores said the results of her study are not conclusive enough for her to recommend testosterone replacement therapy for aging men. Furthermore, the overall risks and benefits of such therapy are not yet known.
Aug 14, 06: A plant Celts used to get blue dye for their war paint is a rich source of a compound that fights breast cancer, scientists have found. Woad, which belongs to the same plant family as cauliflower and broccoli, contains high levels of the compound glucobrassicin. The Italian team discovered woad contains 20 times more glucobrassicin than broccoli.
. . They were also able to boost its concentration by damaging the plant. When the leaves are damaged, glucobrassicin is released by the plant as a defence mechanism. Its derivatives can kill some plant pests. Notably, they also have anti-tumor properties and are particularly effective against breast cancer.
. . Researchers have already suggested that eating vegetables rich in chemicals such as glucobrassicin might help protect people against cancer. Studies suggest that glucobrassicin flushes out cancer-causing compounds including derivatives of estrogen.
Aug 14, 06: Everyone knows hot dogs aren't exactly healthy for you, but in a new study chemists find they may contain DNA-mutating compounds that might boost one's risk for cancer. Scientists note there is an up to 240-fold variation in levels of these chemicals across different brands.
. . Past research had linked them with colon cancer. Hot dogs are preserved with sodium nitrite, which can help form chemicals known as N-nitroso compounds, most of which cause cancer in lab animals.
. . Extracts from hot dogs bought from the supermarket, when mixed with nitrites, resulted in what appeared to be these DNA-mutating compounds. When added to Salmonella bacteria, hot dog extracts treated with nitrites doubled to quadrupled their normal DNA mutation levels. Triggering DNA mutations in the gut might boost the risk for colon cancer, the researchers explained.
. . Salted dried fish and seasonings such as soy sauce may contain similar levels of these chemicals.
Aug 10, 06: Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer's disease —-until they get old and quit sweeping up. The finding helps explain why Alzheimer's is a disease of aging. More importantly, it suggests a new weapon: drugs that give nature's cleanup crews a boost. They're already on the trail of potential drug candidates.
. . The discovery was made in a tiny roundworm called C. elegans. They're commonly used in age-related genetics research, and the new work involves a collection of genes that people harbor, too. About 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, a toll expected to more than triple by 2050 as the population grays.
. . What causes Alzheimer's? The lead suspect is a gooey protein called beta-amyloid. All brains contain it, although healthy cells somehow get rid of excess amounts. But beta-amyloid builds up in Alzheimer's patients, both inside their brain cells and forming clumps that coat the cells —-plaque that is the disease's hallmark. "By the time you see the plaques, it's too late." The study reveals one way that cells fend off amyloid buildup, and that natural aging gradually erodes that detoxification process.
. . Enter those cellular janitors, two proteins in that gene pathway. One, named HSF-1, breaks apart amyloid and disposes of it, the researchers discovered. Natural aging slows HSF-1, so it can't keep up with the necessary detoxification. Another protein called DAF-16 jumps in to help buy a little more time, by clumping extra amyloid together in a way that makes it less toxic.
. . That was a key finding, Dillin said: Until recently, scientists thought amyloid clumps, or plaques, were the bigger problem. His research supports more recent findings that smaller amyloid tendrils inside cells are the really poisonous form.
. . Scientists already are creating drugs to try to rid the brain of amyloid. These cleanup proteins point to a novel way to do that. The hope: Create drugs that boost their effects, and amyloid might not build up in the first place. Dillin said some initial drug attempts are showing promise in his worms.
. . The proteins won't be the brain's only natural amyloid scrubbers, noted Gandy, whose own research points toward involvement of another age-related gene. And this process of "toxic aging" likely plays a role in still other neurodegenerative diseases, Dillin said, citing similar research with Huntington's disease.
Aug 10, 06: [article does not mention whether humans can cath it! I assume not --it's been around for so long.] Dogs have a form of sexually transmitted cancer that for 200 to 2,500 years has apparently spread via contagious tumor cells that escaped from their original body and now travel around the world as parasites. These cells are the oldest cancers known to science thus far, and could shed light on how cancers survive and evade the immune system.
. . The researchers investigated canine transmissible venereal tumor, a cancer found in the domestic dog and potentially in relatives such as the gray wolf and coyote. It is spread through sex and licking, biting and sniffing cancerous areas. The tumors usually regress three to nine months after their appearance, leaving the dogs immune to reinfection, although providing enough time for dogs to pass the disease on.
. . What is unique about this dog cancer is that, for 30 years, scientists have suggested it was caused by spreading the tumor cells themselves rather than a virus or other contagious agent. Prior research showed, for instance, the disease could not spread from tumor cell extracts or dead tumor cells, but only via living tumor cells. Still, virus-like particles seen in the tumor cells clouded the issue.
. . They found the tumor cells did not actually belong to the dogs they were in. Rather, the cells were all genetically nearly identical, apparently stemming from a wolf or a closely related ancient dog breed from China or Siberia.
. . The researchers found the cancer secretes compounds that inhibit facets of the immune systems of their hosts, allowing them to avoid detection. At the same time, the immune inhibition they cause rarely results in death of the infected animal, to help guarantee the host passes the disease on.
. . Judging by the number of mutations the cancer's DNA accumulated, the researchers estimate it emerged 200 to 2,500 years ago. Instead of becoming progressively more genetically unstable over time, as scientists widely supposed happens to cancer, these cancer cells do not.
Aug 9, 06: The decision in Britain to allow couples to screen embryos for genes that raise the risk of developing cancer highlights the vastly different practice in the U.S. and has revived calls for a global standard on the issue.
Aug 9, 06: Sneaky Parasite Filmed While Infecting Blood Cells. Treating malaria and other diseases caused by parasites requires a good understanding of the parasite. A new video of the malaria parasite at work should help researchers develop better treatments.
Aug 9, 06: Researchers say they have developed a test that can predict with near certainty whether the most common form of lung cancer will return after surgery. The new test could save tens of thousands of lives every year by letting doctors prescribe more aggressive treatments for patients whose cancers are likely to reappear
. . The test scans non-small cell lung cancer cells' genetic material to identify patterns that occur in cancers that are likely to reappear. It is 90% accurate, its developers said.
Aug 9, 06: Scientists have discovered a new method for detecting deadly pathogens like Anthrax or smallpox almost immediately after they've been released into the air. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said this week that they've developed a so-called nanowire bar-code system that could one day be used to create portable, quick-acting sensors designed to identify hundreds of airborne pathogens within minutes.
Aug 7, 06: A German scientist has been testing an "anti-stupidity" pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies.
. . Hans-Hilger Ropers, director at Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, has tested a pill thwarting hyperactivity in certain brain nerve cells, helping stabilize short-term memory and improve attentiveness. "With mice and fruit flies we were able to eliminate the loss of short-term memory", Ropers, 62, is quoted saying in the German newspaper, which has dubbed it the "world's first anti-stupidity pill."
Aug 7, 06: An Alzheimer's pill that helps slow the brain damage caused by the disease may also protect against the effects of nerve gases and pesticides, U.S. researchers reported.
. . They said the drug, marketed under the name Reminyl and Razadyne, completely protected guinea pigs against the nerve agents soman and sarin, as well as toxic amounts of pesticides. "To our amazement, the animals treated with galantamine behaved as if they had not been exposed to these lethal agents."
Aug 1, 06: A spike in polio cases among children in northern India is raising fears of a global outbreak, with the same strain of the crippling virus cropping up as far afield as Africa, health officials said. "It's got extremely high population density, large number of kids are born every month, there's a serious lack of sanitation, water is contaminated --these are the conditions the virus thrives in."
. . While the situation in India is worrying in its own right, the same strain has been detected in five countries where polio had been eradicated --Angola, Bangladesh, Congo, Namibia and Nepal.
. . The vaccine is given orally, and multiple doses must be taken before a child is fully protected. But many children in the region are routinely stricken with diarrhea and experts believe that the vaccine often doesn't spend enough time in their bodies to be effective.
. . Also, vaccination efforts have to be extremely thorough. "If you miss two, three, four percent of those kids then you are leaving a gap for the virus to squeeze through and infect other kids."
. . Parents also sometimes refuse to let their children be vaccinated. There has also been talk for years among Muslims, who make up a sizable minority in Uttar Pradesh, that the vaccine makes children sterile. The same myth at one point shut down vaccination efforts in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria. Although the myth is not nearly as pervasive as it is in Nigeria, three health workers were beaten in a village when they tried to vaccinate children in May. "Health workers are now scared. They are not willing to go to Muslim-dominated localities."
Aug 1, 06: Researchers have for the first time developed a "risk score" to try to predict which people may develop dementia.
. . The leading factors virtually mirror those already known for cardiovascular disease: obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Having any one of these risk factors doubles a person's chance of developing dementia, and having all three increases their chances by six times. "We have known for years that trying to control obesity, blood pressure and cholesterol can prevent heart disease", said Kivipelto, "but now it's not only the heart you can save, but also the brain."
. . Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment for dementia yet, and mental health experts admit that the disease may not be entirely preventable. Factors such as genetics and age, known to play a role in determining mental illness, simply cannot be modified. In addition, other risk factors such as drinking alcohol, diet and smoking, were not considered in the study.
. . "This is the first time that the synergistic effect of all of these risk factors has been demonstrated", said Bertolote, who called the study a "landmark paper."
A 450-year-old piece of Charles V's pinkie lends support to the theory that it was gout that led one of the most powerful rulers of all time to abdicate, Spanish researchers report.
. . Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose empire stretched across Europe and included Spanish America, was diagnosed with gout by his doctors in early adulthood. By the end of his reign in 1556, he was a crippled man who could barely walk at times
. . The analysis revealed deposits of needle-shaped crystals of uric acid that had eroded tissue and bone — a sure sign of gout. Such crystals are caused by a buildup of uric acid and result in pain and swelling of the joints, often the big toe.
. . Gout has long been associated with rich diets and alcohol. According to the researchers, Charles V had a big appetite, especially for meat, and drank large amounts of beer and wine. He died in 1558, probably of malaria.
. . Did Lincoln have Marfan's disease? Or did Nero have lead poisoning? King George III have porphyria?
Aug 2, 06: A tree disease that's killed hundreds of thousands of oak trees in California is now in Indiana after arriving in a shipment of shrubs from Oregon.
Aug 2, 06: Eating more processed meats such as bacon, sausage and smoked ham increases the risk of stomach cancer, Swedish scientists said today. A review of 15 studies showed the risk of developing stomach cancer rose by 15 to 38% if consumption of processed meats increased by 30 grams per day.
. . The institute said processed meats were often salted or smoked, or had nitrates added to them, in order to extend their shelf-life which could be connected to the increased risk.
. . Stomach cancer accounts for nearly one tenth of total deaths from cancer.
July 31, 06: Prostate cancer cells can use three different signaling pathways to inactivate a protein that causes cell death and resist hormone treatment to stay alive, a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study concludes.
. . By inactivating a protein called BAD, prostate cancer cells become resistant to treatment that lowers levels of male hormones, such as testosterone, that prostate cells normally need to survive. "The normal response of prostate cells when male hormones are blocked is cell death. The cancer finds a way to resist the treatment, and we wanted to discover the mechanism", senior researcher Dr. George Kulik.
. . In prostate cancer cells, BAD is shut down by three signaling pathways activated by vasoactive intestinal peptide, epidermal growth factor and phosphoinositide 3-kinase. It appears that each of these three molecules is separately capable of inactivating BAD, which means that prostate cancer cells have three redundant survival mechanisms.
. . Based on a study of 1,100 men, he concluded that a 2-point rise in a man's PSA in one year is "an ominous change." Of the men who experienced such an increase and then underwent either surgery or radiation treatment, 20% died within seven years -- "and that's a huge death rate", D'Amico said. "That 2-point rise is telling you that not only does he have the prostate cancer, but it's already left the prostate."
. . Men in their 50s or 60s who experience more than a half-point rise in a year get biopsies; D'Amico suspects that doctors should look for a larger increase, somewhere just under a point. D'Amico has already gone out on a limb by advising that all men get PSA tests at age 35 to establish a benchmark.
July 31, 06: Altering the ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the typical Western diet may reduce prostate cancer tumor growth rates, a new U.S. study suggests.
. . This study with mice is one of the first to show the impact of diet (in this case, more omega-3 fatty acids and fewer omega-6 fatty acids) on lowering an inflammatory response known to promote prostate cancer tumor progression. The finding could help lead to the development of new treatments.
. . In the mice that received the balanced diet of fatty acids, tumor cell growth rates decreased by 22% and prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels decreased by 77%, compared to the mice that received the diet with mostly omega-6 fatty acids.
. . Omega-6 fatty acids, the predominant polyunsaturated fatty acids in the Western diet, are found in corn, safflower oils and red meats. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in cold-water fish, including salmon, tuna and sardines. "Corn oil is the backbone of the American diet. We consume up to 20 times more omega-6 fatty acids in our diet compared to omega-3 acids. Studies need to be conducted in humans before any clinical recommendations can be made."
Aug 1, 06: Extracts from a mushroom used for centuries in Eastern Asian medicine may be able to boost the power of a leading chemotherapy drug for prostate cancer, researchers said. They found that when the mushroom called Phellinus linteus was added to the drug doxorubicin in the lab, it improved its ability to kill cancerous cells.
. . The researchers added the mushroom extract to doses of the drug that would have otherwise been too small to have any effect. They found that the combination was just as effective in killing cancerous cells as larger doses of the drug alone, but without harming healthy cells.
Aug 1, 06: Mouth cancer develops in two distinct ways which determine the seriousness of the disease, scientists said on Tuesday, a finding that could lead to new ways of preventing and treating it.
. . Oral cancer often develops from pre-cancerous lesions, changes or patches in the mouth, that could be early signs of the disease. Knowing which pre-cancerous changes are more likely to develop into aggressive tumors would enable doctors to determine the best treatment. "Our work suggests it may be possible to identify in advance, by these molecular approaches, which of these pre-cancers are likely to progress.
. . The scientists found that faults in the p53 gene, which stops damaged cells from dividing, and in the p16 gene, which helps to regulate and prevent cancer from developing, were two changes linked to more aggressive tumors.
. . Smoking, other types of tobacco use such as chewing tobacco and heavy alcohol consumption are leading causes of mouth cancer. Smoking and drinking are a particularly dangerous combination. "Cigarette smoke contains carcinogens which cause mutations and changes in cells which generate the cancer formation."
July 31, 06: US scientists have found a way to reverse muscular dystrophy (MD) in mice, offering hope of a cure for humans with muscle-wasting diseases. The U of Virginia team showed the treatment fully restored heart and skeletal muscle function in mice.
. . The therapy targets a particular kind of toxic molecule to "silence" its presence in the diseased muscle. In myotonic dystrophy, like the other types of MD, faulty DNA is to blame for the abnormalities that occur. Their work also suggests that it is indeed the toxic mRNA that causes the pathology.
. . Myotonic dystrophy occurs because of a large expansion of DNA code, which most likely causes an accumulation of toxic messenger RNA molecules in cells.
July 31, 06: Doctors seeking treatments for malignant brain tumors have found promise in the venom of scorpions, according to a new study.
. . The study showed that a synthetic version of a protein found in the venom of giant yellow Israeli scorpions targeted tumor cells but did not harm the healthy cells of brain cancer patients.
. . In the study, 18 patients first had surgery to remove malignant gliomas, a lethal kind of brain tumor. Then doctors injected their brains with a solution of radioactive iodine and TM-601, the synthetic protein. The solution bound almost exclusively to leftover tumor cells, suggesting that it could be combined with chemotherapy to fight cancer. Furthermore, two study patients were still alive nearly three years after the treatment.
. . Because life expectancy for the 14,000 annual glioma patients in the United States is typically a matter of months, the results shore up animal research.
. . Other researchers are investigating whether a protein in snake venom can stop bleeding and whether Gila monster venom can treat diabetes. They also have developed a painkiller based on the venom of a deadly sea snail.
July 28, 06: Immune cells responsible for the runny noses and itchy eyes associated with asthma and allergy attacks could help protect us against the venom of certain snakes and insects, a new study shows.
. . The finding overturns a conventional wisdom in medicine that the immune system exacerbates the effects of venomous bites and stings. The revised thinking could lead to new antivenom treatments, the researchers say.
. . Mast cells release a wide range of biological compounds that promote inflammation and other changes to tissue when triggered by parasites, bacteria or foreign substances such as venom. In some people, they can be activated by irritants such as pollen, causing allergic reactions.
. . Scientists previously thought that mast cell activation in response to chemicals in venom made the bites and stings of snakes and insects worse. But the new study finds that a protein, called carboxypeptidase A, and released by mast cells, actually helps break down venom.
July 26, 06: Letting some premature babies inhale small amounts of nitric oxide may prevent a potentially fatal lung disease known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia, two studies showed.
July 26, 06: An international team of scientists has discovered two genes that enable cells to respond to electrical signals in the body to heal wounds. They also showed that by applying an electrical field to a wound they could change the movement of cells and speed up the healing process.
. . A wound, for example on the skin, generates an internal electric field that guides cells so they know where to go to heal it. Zhao and his team used time-lapse photography to witness electrotaxis in wounds in laboratory experiments.
. . By manipulating the electric field around the wound directly or with topical chemicals that enhance the normal signal scientists may be able to improve wound healing. "We've got a variety of different drugs that we can apply that will increase these electrical signals because they act on the cellular mechanism that drives the electrical signal. We are just at the beginning of being able to understand how to use these kind of natural signals."
July 25, 06: A new surgeon, known as CyberKnife to its human colleagues, is a robot. Already deft at attacking brain tumors, CyberKnife received a computer software upgrade to more efficiently target constantly moving lung tumors. CyberKnife was developed to pinpoint tumors and blast them from every angle with radiation, the goal being to confine the attack to cancerous tissue only.
. . If all goes well, after several treatments the tumor shrinks and disappears as if it were surgically removed, yet healthy tissues that might be damaged even by the nimble hands of a skilled human surgeon are spared.
. . Brain tumors provide a nice steady target, but a cancerous growth in the respiratory system, which can move up to 2 inches back and forth as a person breathes, present more of a challenge --even to CyberKnife.
. . Because the new setup zaps hardly any healthy tissue, doctors can ramp up the radiation dose to 10 times what is used when treating lung tumors with conventional methods.
July 25, 06: Stem cells taken from human fat can be transformed into smooth muscle cells, offering a way to treat many kinds of heart disease, gastrointestinal and bladder ills, U.S. researchers reported.
July 24, 06: Scientists have reacted with anger to US President George W Bush's decision to veto a bill allowing federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research. They argue it will damage a promising field of medical research. Leading researchers labelled Mr Bush "hypocritical", "out of touch" and "selfish" over his decision not to sign into law a bill approved by Congress.
. . Polls suggest most Americans back the research, which scientists hope will lead to cures for serious illnesses such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.
. . In Britain, the President's decision drew anger and derision from the research community. It re-emphasised "how out of touch he is with rational thinking on this issue", said Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research.
. . The blocking of federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells is "slowing down the global effort to develop therapies for a range of diseases and illnesses", added Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society.
. . Graeme Laurie, an expert in the legal side of medicine from Edinburgh University, said there was an "underlying hypocrisy" in Mr Bush's position. "The stated reason for President Bush's objection to embryonic stem cell research is that 'murder is wrong'; why then does he not intervene to regulate or ban [embryonic] stem cell research carried out with private funds and which is happening across the US? It is a strange morality indeed that pins the moral status and life of the embryo on the question of who is paying for the research."
July 24, 06: Tamoxifen, the pill that prevents breast cancer in high-risk women, does not appear in the long run to save many lives, U.S. researchers reported today.
July 24, 06: Scientists have developed a once-a-day pill that they hope could potentially cure Alzheimer's disease. The researchers believe the drug has the potential to delay the onset of disease, or slow down its progression.
. . Tests in mice have shown the drug, PBT2, prevents build up of the amyloid protein linked to the disease. Protein levels dropped by 60% within 24 hours of a single dose, and memory performance improved within five days.
. . A team from Australia's Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, who are behind the research, hope the drug could be on the market in four years. Human tests are due to start next month, followed by a major international trial next year. Already preliminary tests in humans have showed the drug does not cause any major side-effects.
July 24, 06: Gleevec, the pill that transformed cancer treatments by offering an easy way to target a difficult type of leukemia, may cause serious heart damage, researchers cautioned.
The EU has just banned 22 more hair dye chemicals feared unsafe.
July 20, 06: It is the transparent part of the eye, but for scientists, its origin was anything but clear. Now researchers have pinpointed why the cornea, the thin covering that allows light into the eye, is completely see-through. The discovery could lead to potential cures for eye disease and possibly even cancer.
. . Unlike almost every other part of the body, the cornea has no blood vessels and therefore no color. While that much was known, scientists couldn’t figure out how the body kept blood vessels from growing there.
. . The new research shows the area harbors large stores of a protein that binds to growth factors, material the body produces to stimulate blood vessel formation. The protein forms a sort of lock on the growth factors, so no blood vessels are produced, leaving the area totally colorless.
. . "Drugs designed to manipulate the levels of this protein could heal corneas that have undergone severe trauma or help shrink tumors fed by rapidly growing abnormal blood vessels", said Reza Dana. "In fact, the next step in our work is exactly this."
. . A breakthrough on that front could in turn be valuable in fighting tumors, which rely on a steady blood supply and can cause blood vessels to grow uncontrollably. Now that scientists have identified an off-switch for blood vessel production, the next step, they say, is to direct it at places in the eye or elsewhere where blood vessels are growing and the body would simply be better of without them.
July 20, 06: Scientists are tweaking naturally occurring body proteins to create customized molecules that can seek out and deliver drugs to cancer cells. The research, which is still in the very early stages and has not advanced to human clinical trials yet, could one day lead to new types of cancer drugs capable of avoiding rejection by the body's immune system and which leave normal cells unharmed.
. . One of the drug transport vehicles is made using modified versions of low- and high-density lipoproteins—LDL and HDL, respectively—the molecules that transport fat and cholesterol around the body. The lipoproteins are modified to carry payloads of cancer drugs such as taxol, or light-sensitive agents that release toxic chemicals only when exposed to specific wavelengths of light.
. . By using molecules the body is already familiar with, therapy could be custom tailored to specific kinds of cancer.
July 20, 06: Researchers are identifying specific genes linked with behaviors and diseases. Some recent findings:
. . * Different versions of the gene CYP2A6 dictate the number of cigarettes a person smokes. Those with one version of the gene metabolize nicotine, and thus, need to light up more often.
. . * Some 80% of a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease is genetic.
. . * Sprinters are more likely than endurance runners to display a certain gene variant that is thought to cause the skeletal muscles to contract more powerfully at high speeds.
. . * The genetic influence to alcoholism has been studied since the 1970s, when twin studies first revealed this link. In April of this year, a team led by Susan Bergeson at the University of Texas at Austin found 20 gene candidates that could influence excessive drinking.
. . Mayo Clinic researchers found that environmental factors, such as exposure to pesticides and industrial chemicals, play a greater role in men developing Parkinson’s disease, while genetic factors affect Parkinson’s susceptibility in women.
. . "It is now widely accepted that genetic variation predisposes to alcohol and drug dependence, but it's also very clear that without environmental factors—including access to alcohol and drugs—addictions don't occur", Kranzler said.
. . Muddling the whole debate is the finding that gene expression is influenced by the environment.
. . Turns out that genes have what are called epigenetic markers. Acting like a volume knob for genes, these tags adjust the intensity of gene expression. Identical twins are born with the same epigenome. But over time, environmental factors such as chemical exposure, diet and other lifestyle differences can alter these markers.
. . That’s why identical twins might become less alike as they get older. In one twin, an epigenetic marker could activate the gene expression for schizophrenia or cancer, but not in the other twin.
. . This discovery has added another layer of complexity to the nature-versus-nurture matter: For instance, finding that identical twins don’t both display a disorder such as addiction, doesn’t mean that addiction is not genetic.
. . Currently, researchers are embarking on the companion to the
Human Genome Project—the Human Epigenome Project. As usual, rather than illuminating a clear-cut answer to the nature-nurture debate, science is finding more questions. But one conclusion has emerged that might serve as the needed motivation to get even the least likely athletes off the couch:
. . "Genetic predisposition is not destiny", Kranzler said.
July 18, 06: Radiofrequency ID (RFID) chips, similar to those implanted in products to deter theft, may help prevent sponges and other materials from being left in a patient during surgery, the findings from a small study suggest.
July 18, 06: Scientists said today they have discovered two proteins that act like an engine for pancreatic cancer cells and might explain why it is such an aggressive disease. The proteins, called CapG and Gelsolin, regulate cell movement. Unusually high concentrations are found in cancerous tissue and could be involved in the spread of the disease to other areas of the body. They also found that the amount of CapG found in the nucleus of cancerous cells was proportional to the size of the tumor.
. . About 216,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are reported each year, most in developed countries.
July 14, 06: Homeopathic practice 'risk lives'. Some practitioners are advising travellers not to take conventional anti-malarial drugs, it has been revealed.
July 14, 06: A tiny telescope designed to be implanted in the eyes of some elderly patients should not receive FDA approval due to safety concerns, warns an advisory panel.
July 14, 06: Cryogenic suspension may be just two years away from clinical trials on humans (presuming someone can solve the sticky ethical problems). Trauma surgeons can’t wait –-saving people with serious wounds, like gunshots, is always a race against the effects of blood loss. When blood flow drops, toxins accumulate; just five minutes of low oxygen levels causes brain death.
. . Chill a body, though, and you change the equation. Metabolism slows, oxygen demand dives, and the time available to treat the injury stretches. “With the pig essentially dead”, Alam says, “we’ve got hours to fix it and play around.” By noon the team has stitched up the arteries and gone to lunch. It has become routine: Alam has suspended 200 pigs for an hour each, and although experimental protocol calls for different levels of care for each pig, the ones that got optimal treatment all survived. Today he’ll keep #78-6 down for two hours.
July 14, 06: Silk may be able to help repair damaged nerves, according to scientists.
The UK researchers have shown how nerve cells can grow along bundles of a special fiber, which has properties similar to spider silk. They hope the silk will encourage cell re-growth across severed nerves, possibly even in damaged spinal cords.
. . The silk, dubbed Spidrex, comes from silk worms that have been modified to give the fibers special properties that help cells to bind. Professor Priestley said that one of the benefits of the silk was that it could be assembled into complex tubes designed to fit the nerves or the length of the gap that needed bridging.
. . The team hopes the silk can be used to treat patients whose peripheral nerves --the nerves that control muscle and provide sensation-- have been severed.
. . A more ambitious goal, he said, would be to use the silk to help repair damaged spinal cords, but this would be much more complex, he stressed.
July 13,06: [This is what I'd call Fetal Tobacco Syndrome!! JKH] A new study finds that unborn babies regularly exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb are much more likely to have behavioral problems as young children. The study is the first to show a link between smoking during pregnancy and child behavior problems in the first years of life.
. . The researchers found that 2-year-olds whose mothers were exposed to cigarette smoke while pregnant were nearly 12 times more likely to show clinical levels of behavioral problems compared to their unexposed peers.
. . The behavior of toddlers exposed to cigarette smoke got progressively worse between 18 and 24 months of age compared to unexposed toddlers.
. . In psychology, symptoms of disruptive behavior include aggression, irritability, rule breaking and poor social skills. The exposed toddlers were significantly more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior and stubbornly refuse following directions. They were also less likely to seek out and socially interact with their mothers.
July 11, 06: Scientists say a bloom of deadly "brown tide" that makes a surprise visit to Washington's inland waters a few times each decade, killing fish and then quickly heading out to the ocean, swept through the area last week. The brown tide is blamed on an single-celled organism called Heterosigma. Researchers believe Heterosigma kill fish by lodging in their gills and suffocating them.
. . Unlike some other algae blooms, Heterosigma doesn't affect human health. In the past, the state Health Department has allowed fish killed by the plankton to be sold and eaten unless it had signs of bacterial decay.
July 11, 06: Some peoples' bodies play a percussive symphony of cracking and creaking, thanks to the large orchestra of noise-making human joints. But what's behind it all?
. . The concerto comes from the pop of gas bubbles escaping the joints, snapping tendons and ligaments, and rickety arthritic joints. Joints come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The pivot joint lets us say "No" with our heads, while the hinge joint lets us swing our elbows and knees like a door. A baseball pitcher uses the tremendous range of motion of the ball-and-socket joint in his shoulder to throw fastballs. And sliding joints in the backbone make gymnasts' backs so flexible.
. . A protective fluid cushions most of the joints in our bodies. Inside a capsule that safeguards bones connected at a joint, synovial fluid keeps the cartilage, tissues, and muscles lubricated and well nourished. Nutrients float inside the fluid, along with gases, such as oxygen, nitrogen and CO2. As you bend your fingers, the joint capsule stretches. To make more room for the stretch, gases release out of the fluid. The pop of your knuckles is the sound of gas as it bubbles out of the fluid, scientists say. Before your knuckle can crack again, the fluid must reabsorb the gas.
. . Tendons are like rubber bands stretched over joints that keep muscles attached to bones. Similarly, ligaments extend to connect bones to other bones. Sometimes, tendons and ligaments slide out of their spot at the joint and then quickly snap back into place. If your knee cracks when you stand up from sitting on the couch, you're likely hearing your tendons and ligaments popping into proper position around your knee's joints.
. . Some studies suggest that you can snap your knuckles all you wish, and it won't cause osteoarthritis. However, other studies indicate that around-the-clock cracking may damage the soft tissue around the joints, make your hand swell, and weaken your grip.
July 11, 06: A bold claim by one researcher that the harmful effects of human aging can be eliminated within the next 25 years has drawn heavy fire from researchers ever since it was first announced. Today it will get a mild but formal rebuke from a group of scientists in a move that has already sparked debate.
. . In 2005, Technology Review magazine announced a $20,000 prize for any molecular biologist who could demonstrate that the widely publicized strategy for defeating aging being touted by Cambridge University aging researcher Aubrey de Grey's strategy was "so wrong that it was unworthy of learned debate."
. . Called the SENS Challenge, the goal of the competition was to settle once and for all whether de Grey's "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence", —a controversial roadmap for anti-aging research that aims to achieve thousand-year life spans—is true science or wildly speculative science fiction.
. . SENS is a seven-part plan devised by de Grey for repairing and preventing age-related damage to the body at the cellular and genetic levels, but the approach has been widely criticized by scientists as being too broad to be useful. For example, some of de Grey's tactics include the elimination of mutations that can lead to cancer and other age-related diseases and the purging of junk proteins that accumulate within cells with age.
July 11, 06: "Magic mushrooms", used by Native Americans and hippies to alter consciousness, appear to have similar mystical effects on many people, U.S. researchers reported. More than 60% of volunteers given capsules of psilocybin derived from mushrooms said they had a "full mystical experience." A third said the experience was the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes. Many likened it to the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.
. . And the effects lingered. Two months after getting the drug, 79% of the volunteers said they felt a moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction.
. . "Discovering how these mystical and altered consciousness states arise in the brain could have major therapeutic possibilities", said Griffiths. These include "treatment of intolerable pain, treatment of refractory depression, amelioration of the pain and suffering of the terminally ill."
. . "Unlike drugs of abuse such as alcohol and cocaine, the classic hallucinogens are not known to be physically toxic and they are virtually non-addictive, so those are not concerns", Griffiths said.
. . Dr. Solomon Snyder, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins who says he has experimented with LSD himself, said the experiment might lead to a way to find the "locus of religion" and the biological basis of consciousness in the brain. But Griffiths said such study would be purely scientific.
July 10, 06: Sampling spinal fluid for a protein that makes up the plaques that clog the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients may help diagnose the mind-wasting disease, researchers said. As plaques build up in the brain, levels of the protein --A beta 42-- are thought to decline elsewhere in the body, including the spinal fluid.
. . Other than giving suspected Alzheimer's patients mental tests, a diagnosis can only be confirmed after death from the tell-tale plaques found in the brain.
. . Adults averaging 50 years old and free of Alzheimer's at the start of the study had their spinal fluid tested for the protein found in brain plaques. In subjects with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease, protein levels in the spinal fluid declined slightly through adulthood and then dropped sharply between age 50 and 60 --presumably as plaque formation in their brains accelerated.
July 10, 06: The International Union Against Cancer, the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society published two new cancer atlases that provide snapshots of what cancer looks like now across the world, and how it will affect people in the future.
. . "The most important agent is the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (the cause of 5.6% of all cancers), which increases the risk of stomach cancer between five and sixfold."
. . All cervical cancers are caused by any one of 20 different strains of human wart virus, also called human papillomavirus, while hepatitis B and C can cause liver cancer.
. . A far bigger cause of cancer is poor diet. "Up to 30% of cancers are related to diet and nutrition", the atlas read --20% in developing countries.
July 10, 06: Tobacco use now kills 5 million people a year and if people continue to smoke the way they do now, their habit will kill half a billion who are alive today, according to a new cancer atlas.
July 8, 06: A new pain drug based on the venom of a deadly sea snail was launched in Britain, offering hope to patients with chronic pain who do not respond to or cannot tolerate treatments like morphine.
July 7, 06: Hong Kong health officials have urged residents of the high-tech territory's rural north to become rat-catchers, a government statement has said, as cases of a rodent-borne disease mount up. [maybe they cud eat 'em, too. One plague species to another.]
July 6, 06: European Union experts warned today that sunbeds and tanning lamps may increase the risk of skin cancer, and advised against their use by children and other people at high risk. Officials said that in Britain alone that some 100 people a year are believed to die from exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunbeds and tanning lamps. Sunbeds used in tanning salons use the more powerful UV-B type of radiation.
July 5, 06: A gene mutation that shrivels brain cells may be responsible for the mental retardation seen in Down syndrome, U.S. researchers reported today.
. . The finding suggests there may be a way to interfere with or even reverse the mental decline often seen as people with Down's syndrome get older. The finding also may apply to Alzheimer's disease --most people with Down's syndrome develop Alzheimer's disease by the age of 40. Down's syndrome is the most frequent genetic cause of mental retardation and affects one out of 800 babies born. It is caused when people have an extra copy of chromosome 21, making three instead of two.
. . Reducing gene expression turns down the activity of a gene. "We're now investigating ways in which we might be able to turn down App expression", Mobley said. "It's not even necessary to turn it off completely. All we need to do is to reduce it by one-third, from 150% of normal back down to 100%", said Dr.Ahmad Salehi, who led the study.
. . The researchers stressed that deleting the third copy of App did not restore the mice to normal, so other genes must also affect the brain decline.
July 5, 06: Healthy adults taking maximum doses of Tylenol for two weeks had abnormal liver test results in a small study, researchers found, raising concerns that even recommended amounts of the popular painkiller might lead to liver damage.
July 5, 06: Clowns and party-goers suck helium from balloons to make their voices squeaky, but soon, seemingly healthy smokers could inhale it to explore such conditions as emphysema and asthma. A new test devised by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists starts with smokers breathing in a liter of the harmless gas, mixed with nitrogen, through a straw and finishes with an MRI that can detect how far the gas has penetrated into the tiny air cavities of the lungs. "Our technique is potentially more sensitive than established [imaging] techniques", Fain said. "This is the first time structural changes have been shown in the lungs of asymptomatic smokers."
June 27, 06: TIME Mag: When my 11-year-old got her tetanus shot during her checkup last week, her pediatrician did not tell her that it was now safe to go dance barefoot on rusty nails. Which got me wondering about a recent battle in the culture wars, in which conservative groups were reported to be opposing a great medical breakthrough —the new cervical cancer vaccine— on the grounds that it might encourage kids to think that casual sex just got a little bit safer. [Say WHAT?!]
. . This has been portrayed as Round 15 in the fights over religion and science. It's the kind of thing that can make a parent crazy: you mean my child might be denied a potentially life-saving vaccine because it could sabotage an "abstinence only" message — which, as the National Organization for Woman suggested, "presumably relies on a fear of cancer death to promote abstinence."
. . (Once upon a time, the concern was raised about introducing anesthesia during childbirth, or using penicillin to treat syphilis, as spurring more sexual activity; more recently, the argument is made about needle exchange and condom distribution.)
June 27, 06: Second-hand smoke kills people and the only way to control it is to ban all smoking in workplaces, the U.S. government's top doctor said. The report by Surgeon General Richard Carmona echoed the forcefulness of a 1964 surgeon general's report which paved the way for mandatory cigarette warnings and advertising restrictions.
. . "The scientific evidence is now indisputable: second-hand smoke is not a mere annoyance", Carmona told reporters. "It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children and nonsmoking adults."
. . At least 60% of U.S. nonsmokers show signs of exposure to second-hand smoke, Carmona wrote in a preface to the report. The report said it was impossible to protect nonsmokers even with designated smoking areas, making a workplace ban necessary.
. . Sen. Edward Kennedy: "I hope this new Surgeon General's Report will finally spur Congress to take meaningful action to regulate cigarettes the most dangerous consumer product in America."
. . A 2005 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that second-hand smoke caused the death each year in the United States of 3,000 people from lung cancer, 46,000 from heart disease and 430 newborns from sudden infant death syndrome. "Smoking by parents causes respiratory symptoms and slows lung growth in their children", the report added. "The scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke."
. . Some industries, especially bars and restaurants, have complained they will lose business despite the findings of health associations that broad bans have done no harm in Massachusetts and California. The report said the tobacco industry had sought to cover up scientific findings on environmental tobacco smoke with biased research and other means.
June 26, 06: Public health officials are waking up to the fact that house pets could spread disease during an epidemic. The lovable little critters might need to be quarantined, or worse.
June 25, 06: Hard- and soft-bodied female ticks are thought to produce a neurotoxin capable of causing paralysis in children. Ticks attach to the skin to feed on blood. It is during this feeding process that the toxin enters the bloodstream.
June 22, 06: A magnetic pulse technique originally developed to treat psychological disorders like depression has been modified to zap away migraines before they can fully form.
. . In a recent study, researchers tested a device called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, or TMS for short, on a small group of 43 migraine sufferers. The TMS generates a strong, one millisecond magnetic pulse that interrupts the symptoms leading up to a migraine, called the "aura" phase. Many migraine sufferers report zigzagging lines or bright flashes of light in their vision during this phase, as well as spreading blind spots and tingling sensations in their arms and legs.
. . Magnetic pulses from the TMS device alter the firing patterns of brain cells in the outermost layer of the brain, called the cortex. Like the fire lines that crews carve out to stymie forest fires, the changes in brain cell activity interrupt the auras before they spread to other parts of the brain and induce full-blown migraines.
. . In the study, 74% of the people who used the TMS device reported feeling only mild or no headaches afterwards. The relief was often felt immediately. Ability to function at work after two hours also improved, and no side effects were reported.
June 21, 06: Scientists has succeeded for the first time in creating patches of substitute tissue that can conduct the electricity needed to pump the heart. The idea is to surgically implant tissue created from a patient's own cells to fix faulty electrical signaling in the heart, rather than relying solely on pacemakers, which are fairly reliable in adults but can cause problems over the long term, especially in children as they grow. So far, the new approach works in adult rats and is being tested in larger juvenile animals, such as lambs.
June 20, 06: Stem cells taken from mouse embryos have helped paralyzed rats move again, U.S. researchers said. The study was the best evidence so far that controversial embryonic stem cells might be used to treat people with spinal cord and other traumatic injuries, the researchers said.
. . "This study provides a 'recipe' for using stem cells to reconnect the nervous system", Dr. Douglas Kerr of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said. Kerr and colleagues used a soup of compounds called growth factors to cause stem cells from the mouse embryos to develop into a type of nerve cell called a motor neuron.
June 20, 06: Researchers have found another breast cancer gene that can greatly raise the risk of the disease in women of European heritage. They said the gene worked in tandem with the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to raise the risk of breast cancer by as much as 80%. The team, at Iceland's Decode Genetics, said their findings suggest women with certain mutations in two of the genes have an almost certain risk of breast cancer.
. . The new gene is called BARD1. "The BARD1 variant works together with the BRCA2 mutation in Iceland and increases the likelihood of breast cancer from 45% in those who have only the BRCA2 mutation up toward 100% in those who also have the BARD1 variant." And women with the BARD1 variant who develop breast cancer are more likely to have tumors in both breasts.
. . Breast cancer is known to run in families and has a genetic component, although most cases occur in people with no family history of the disease. Several genes are known to be involved, including the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, p53 and others. The known BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations only account for about 3% of all cases of the disease. The Decode team is trying to find other genes that work with these genes.
. . A certain BARD1 mutation was found in 5.4% of breast cancer patients and 3.1% of women who did not have breast cancer --an 80% increase in risk. Simply having the BARD1 mutation was not especially dangerous to a woman, but women who had it and a specific mutation on BRCA2 had a "dramatic" risk of breast cancer.
. . The variant may be restricted to individuals with European ancestry and could contribute to the higher load of breast cancer seen in this group. However, other BARD1 variants have been discovered in African-American and Japanese individuals. The contribution of these variants to the risk of disease is still uncertain", they wrote.
June 18, 06: Mike Slabaugh doesn't have a stomach. Neither do his 10 cousins. Growing up, they watched helplessly as a rare hereditary stomach cancer killed their grandmother and some of their parents, aunts and uncles. Determined to outsmart the cancer, they turned to genetic testing. Upon learning they had inherited Grandmother Golda Bradfield's flawed gene, these were their options: Risk the odds that they might not develop cancer, with a 70% chance they would; or have their stomachs removed. The latter would mean a challenging life of eating very little, very often.
. . All the cousins chose the life-changing operation. Doctors say they're the largest family to have preventive surgery to protect themselves from hereditary stomach cancer.
. . Advances in genetic testing are increasingly giving families with bad genes a chance to see the future, sometimes with the hope of pre-emptive action. People have had stomachs, breasts, ovaries, colons or thyroid glands removed when genetic tests showed they carried a defective gene that gave them a high risk of cancer. While the stomachs of all six Stanford patients looked normal before surgery, a study of the tissue revealed early tumor growths.
. . But what about people whose families don't have these rare, but powerful genetic defects? Experts say that someday, doctors may do DNA tests as routinely as they check cholesterol levels now, spotting disease risks that can be lowered.
. . By 2010, there might be several such tests, along with recommendations to help high-risk people avoid certain diseases, he said. (In fact, newborns are routinely tested now for some genetic conditions, but those tests generally focus on substances in the blood rather than DNA.)
. . To come up with a useful DNA mass-screening test, it's not enough to identify a particular gene variant that raises the risk of a disease, experts said. There are other questions:
. . _Are there enough potential cases in the general population to make mass screening worthwhile?
. . _Is there good evidence that screening would improve health?
. . _Is the risk of disease high enough to make the test result useful?
. . _How useful is the test in various ethnic groups?
. . _Is there a way to lower the disease risk?
June 19, 06: British scientists said they have developed a new rapid screening test using DNA fingerprinting to detect genetic disorders in embryos. Instead of searching for an altered gene linked to an inherited illness, the new test looks for DNA fingerprints, or markers, near the gene.
. . The technique, which is being presented at a European fertility conference, will enable more couples at high risk of passing on a serious genetic illnesses to their children to ensure only healthy embryos are used in-vitro fertilization.
. . So far, the test has been used on seven women, five of whom are now pregnant. They were tested for cystic fibrosis, a common inherited disease that affects the lungs and digestive system, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative muscle disorder in males. The test, known as pre-implantation genetic haplotyping (PGH), combines elements of existing screening methods. A haplotype is a panel of markers.
. . Women tested for the cystic fibrosis mutation with PGH had a one in four chance of having a child with the illness. The others had a one in two chance of having a son with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
June 14, 06: Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate. The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick.
. . The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, figures that people's immune systems aren't being challenged by disease and dirt early in life, so the body's natural defenses overreact to small irritants such as pollen.
. . The new studies found significant differences in the immune systems between euthanized wild and lab rodents. When the immune cells in the wild rats are stimulated by researchers, "they just don't do anything they sit there; if you give them same stimulus to the lab rats, they go crazy."
. . The wild mice and rats had as much as four times higher levels of immunoglobulins, yet weren't sick, showing an immune system tuned to fight crucial germs, but not minor irritants, Parker said. He said what happened in the lab rats is what likely occurs in humans: their immune systems have got it so cushy they overreact to smallest of problems.
. . Challenged immune systems --such as kids who grow up with two or more pets-- don't tend to develop as many allergies, said Dr. Stanley Goldstein, director of Allergy & Asthma Care of Long Island.
. . Human epidemiological studies have long given credence to the hygiene theory, showing that allergy and asthma rates were higher in the cleaner industrialized areas than in places such as Africa. Parker's studies, looking at animal differences, may eventually help scientists find when, where and how environmental exposure help protect against future allergies and immune disorders.
. . Parker said he hopes to build a 50-foot artificial sewer for his next step, so that he could introduce the clean lab rats to an artificial dirty environment and see how and when the immunity was activated.
. . That may be the biggest thing to come out of the wild and lab rodent studies, Platt said: "Then all of a sudden it becomes possible to expose people to the few things (that exercize the immune system) and gives them the benefit of the dirty environment without having to expose them to the dirt."
June 14, 06: Scientists at the University of Washington are optimistic that they've made what they call meaningful progress toward learning how to repair damaged human livers with stem cells. If the experimental work continues successfully in the years to come, the technique could one day repair livers badly damaged by drug overdoses, hepatitis and alcoholism.
June 14, 06: Heavy wrinkles on smokers' faces can indicate a higher risk of contracting lung disease, a new study finds. Smoking is known to cause premature aging. The new research finds that middle-aged smokers whose faces are heavily lined with wrinkles are five times as likely to have emphysema, bronchitis, or another such progressive, chronic lung disease. Not all smokers contract COPD, however.
. . The World Health Organization predicts that these diseases, collectively called chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), will by 2020 be the third leading cause of death in the world.
. . The study examined 149 current and former middle-aged smokers, of which 68 had COPD. While only 25 of the overall group had widespread wrinkles, those who had COPD were five times as likely to be among the wrinkled.
. . The amount of air that study subjects could force from their lungs was "significantly lower in those with extensive wrinkling."
June 14, 06: A gene named after the mythical Celtic land of the ever young could help explain how to reprogram adult cells into embryonic stem cells to treat diseases, researchers said. They discovered that the gene called Nanog helped to transform adult mouse cells into embryonic stem cells after cell fusion -- when two cells are combined to form a hybrid.
. . Embryonic stem cells found in early embryos have the potential to make any type of cell or tissue. Adult stem cells have a more limited range. Converting adult stem cells into an embryonic state would eliminate the use of early embryos, which is a scientific and ethical stumbling block for researchers. Professor Austin Smith, who headed the team, said Nanog is not the only gene involved in reprogramming. There could be several that are important for the process.
. . Smith hopes that in the future, scientists will be able to expose adult stem cells to Nanog and the other genes to reprogram them to an embryonic state without using cell fusion or nuclear transfer, the technique used to create Dolly the cloned sheep.
June 14, 06: Two new drugs may help treat some adult cases of leukemia that fail to respond to Novartis AG's Gleevec, two studies showed.
June 13, 06: A potential DNA vaccine for Alzheimer's disease has produced promising results in mice. In tests, it helped cut levels of key amyloid proteins thought to cause the disease by up to 50% in some parts of the brain. And unlike alternative vaccines in development, which use viruses, it produced no side effects.
. . Over-production of amyloid proteins are thought to trigger symptoms of Alzheimer's by forming clumps that litter the brain. Previous studies have shown that it is possible to stimulate the immune system of mice to attack these plaques if they are immunised with amyloid protein. This one works by stimulating the body to produce small amounts of amyloid protein itself. Mice are injected with naked DNA that codes for these proteins, rather than relying on a special virus to get it into the cell. This has the effect of producing a more gentle immune response, and importantly the DNA has also been designed so that it is not capable of replicating itself by incorporating itself into the human genome.
June 13, 06: by Christopher Wanjek: "If you were born after 1970, chances are it was done to you. It's called newborn screening. Doctors take a drop of blood from the infant's heel and test for a host of birth defects treatable if intervention comes swiftly.
. . Scientologists from Nebraska, have asked a judge there to rule the mandatory testing as unconstitutional. Newborn screening violates the Scientology belief in silent birth.
. . Tom Cruise has introduced America to several curious Scientology practices, most recently the birth ritual. The idea here, straight from the mouth of Scientologist founder L. Ron Hubbard, who didn't believe in breastfeeding, is that birth is trauma, and words spoken during pain and unconsciousness can have effects on an individual later in life. So the baby cannot be disturbed for seven days.
. . That said, severe protein imbalance and pending mental retardation is also trauma that can have an effect on an individual later in life, often by age three in the form of death. That's the kind of thing newborn screening is trying to identify. Dozens of newborn screening tests are available. One test mandatory in all U.S. states is for phenylketonuria (PKU), also called maple syrup urine disease. On average, it is rare, affecting 1 in 15,000 infants but 1 in 4,500 infants of Irish decent.
. . PKU leaves the infant unable to process an amino acid called phenylalanine. The build-up of phenylalanine can cause brain damage and death. Infants fed a low-phenylalanine formula can stay healthy. There are now over 50 newborn screening tests, yet most hospitals will routinely test for four or five. Many parents are calling for more testing, not less.
. . Testing millions of babies at a great cost? Treating sick children with severe brain and muscle damage at a great cost? Testing for diseases that cannot be cured? These are the profound questions surrounding newborn screening, not whether a pinprick on a baby's heel will induce an engram in its otherwise healthy thetan, as described in Dianetics. [say what?]
. . And Tom Cruise can jump up and down on my sofa if he has a problem with that."
June 12, 06: A main ingredient in beer may help prevent prostate cancer and enlargement, according to a new study. But researchers say don't rush out to stock the refrigerator because the ingredient is present in such small amounts that a person would have to drink more than 17 beers to benefit. [And your point is...?]
. . Oregon State University researchers say the compound xanthohumol, found in hops, inhibits a specific protein in the cells along the surface of the prostate gland. The protein acts like a signal switch that turns on a variety of animal and human cancers, including prostate cancer.
. . Cancer typically results from uncontrolled cell reproduction and growth. Xanthohumol belongs to a group of plant compounds called flavonoids, which can trigger the programmed cell death that controls growth, researchers say. Xanthohumol was first discovered in hops in 1913, but its health effects were not known until about 10 years ago.
. . It's possible for drug companies to develop pills containing concentrated doses of the flavonoid found in the hops used to brew beer, and researchers could work to increase the xanthohumol content of hops. There are already a number of food supplements on the market containing hops, and scientists in Germany have developed a beer that contains 10 times the amount of xanthohumol as traditional brews. The drink is being marketed as a healthy beer, but research is still under way to determine if it has any effect against cancer.
June 12, 06: The doctor who first suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism is to be charged with serious professional misconduct, it is reported. The Independent newspaper reports that the General Medical Council will accuse Mr Andrew Wakefield of carrying out "inadequately founded" research. Vaccination rates fell sharply after Dr Wakefield questioned the safety of MMR, raising fears of a measles epidemic. His initial Lancet paper has since been disowned by the journal.
June 8, 06: Seaweed, crustacean shells, and a patient's own cells may allow doctors to improve bone grafts. To fill gaps in a bone—which can result from accidents or surgery, especially when some kinds of tumors are cut away— surgeons will often craft a scaffold made of carbon nanotubes or other artificial material. Once in place, cells from the surrounding bone find their way to the scaffold and reproduce, forming new bone.
. . But there's a catch, or more accurately, two, says Hockin Xu, a research scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "New bones only form on the surface layer of the implants", he explains. "There is no new bone in the middle of the implant. As a result the middle of the implant is very weak." Another problem: Scaffolds constructed outside the body and then dropped into place never fit perfectly.
. . In this system, bone cells grow from inside the scaffold, producing a structure that is more consistently solid and that eventually morphs into natural bone. The system combines a cement that is made of calcium phosphate, a mineral found in bone, along with a commercial mesh that gradually dissolves in the body. Surgeons can either form the cement or inject it straight into the gap. The biodegradable mesh reinforces the cement so that it is strong enough to survive until natural-bone reinforcements arrive.
. . Adding chitosan, a biopolymer that is extracted from crustacean shells, makes the structure even stronger. So that bone cells aren't excluded from the scaffold's inner reaches, cells are mixed right into the cement. And so the body doesn't reject these cells, the patient's own bone cells are added. These cells are cultured in a laboratory from samples drawn from the patient. Culturing enough cells takes a week or two.
June 8, 06: China's booming southern province of Guangdong has reported 306 deaths from rabies last year, the highest number in a decade, as its increasingly affluent population buys more dogs, state media said. Last year, 330,000 people sought treatment for rabies in Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong, and 500,000 were vaccinated. Some 2,660 people died of rabies in China in 2004.
June 7, 06: A U.S. biotechnology firm said today it had developed a new technique to produce genetically modified chickens that could be used to produce treatments for human diseases. The technology may also lead to improved poultry production and chickens resistant to avian flu.
. . Origen is one of several biotech groups that have been working on new ways to produce human antibodies and proteins in eggs, milk and farm crops.
June 6, 06: Scientists have developed a method for treating brain and spinal cord tumors in rats that delivers radiation to a cancerous growth while doing little or no damage to surrounding healthy tissues. The new technique involves using an X-ray beam, except instead of hitting the tumor with a solid beam, this one is split into several parallel beams less than a millimeter thin.
. . By aiming two segmented beams angled 90 degrees apart at the tumor, this technique can produce a beam that delivers an intense X-ray dose at the target --like a collision of two cars at an intersection-- but not the surrounding tissue. After seven months, subject rats showed no or little damage to the nervous system. One possibility: As the tumor grows, it grows its own blood vessels. The X-rays damage these vessels, which cuts off the tumor's food supply and causes it to die. "What we think is happening is that the tumor's blood vessels don't know how to repair themselves from this damage that normal tissue would recover from."
June 6, 06: Dust clouds blowing across the Atlantic Ocean carry hidden pathogens that might reach the United States. While the dust itself can cause respiratory stress, scientists have now confirmed that clouds originating in Africa carry microbial life that can cause disease in humans, plants, and other animals far from the source.
. . Desert-dust storms whip up and disperse an estimated 2.4 billion tons of soil and dried sediment throughout the Earth's atmosphere annually. "Since a gram of desert soil may contain as many as 1 billion bacterial cells, the presence of airborne dust should correspond with increased concentrations of airborne microorganisms", said Dale Griffin, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "On the Florida coast you might wake up and see what we call a tequila sunrise", Griffin said, referring to Florida's fiery sunrises. "Well, that orange is African dust."
. . Traces of African dust have been discovered as far west as New Mexico. The western states are also the recipients of dust that's been stirred up in China's deserts and blown across the Pacific. Previous studies in Korea and Trinidad have reported that citizens experience more respiratory stress and visit the emergency room with respiratory problems more frequently following such storms.
. . But researchers consider the tiny microbes --mainly bacteria and fungi-- that get caught up in these dusty gales as an even greater concern.
June 6, 06: British doctors plan to climb Mount Everest to study the impact of low oxygen levels on the body, a project they hope will help critically ill patients.
. . A team of 30 researchers and physicians will monitor the health of 210 trekkers to Everest base camp during the 3-month expedition next year. Thirty doctors will ascend the South Col route and 10 will go to the peak.
. . Patients with lung and heart ailments in intensive care units, premature babies, cystic fibrosis sufferers and others also suffer from low-oxygen levels, known as hypoxia. The scientists will also study heart, lung and brain functions. Altitude sickness is a spectrum of symptoms ranging from nausea and dizziness to leaking of blood vessels, lung failure and swelling of the brain.
June 6, 06: Researchers at Harvard University said on Tuesday they have started efforts to clone human embryos as a source of valued stem cells, using only private money to bypass federal restrictions on such work.
. . The scientists are studying how embryonic stem cells are programmed, will try to correct defects and then try to return the repaired cells to the body to battle diseases like blood disorders, ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and diabetes. "Our long-term goal is to create embryonic stem cells from a patient's tissues, correct the genetic defects, and get the repaired cells back into the patients."
. . Harvard Provost Stephen Hyman told reporters that the project, which he said is critically important to trying to fight often deadly diseases, has been carefully reviewed and that the team of scientists will follow strict guidelines.
. . While Harvard is not alone in trying to clone human stem cells, its effort become America's hub for life sciences is well known. Next year it will break ground on 46,500-square-meter (500,000-square-foot) science complex that will house the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
June 5, 06: Pregnant women should not eat canned tuna because it may contain harmful levels of mercury, Consumer Reports magazine says, a more cautious approach than recommended by the U.S. government.
June 5, 06: Men are more likely to father dwarves as they grow older due to an age-related genetic mutation in their sperm, a new study finds. The finding supports the idea that men who delay fatherhood too long put their children at higher risk of inheriting certain genetic diseases.
. . The researchers analyzed gene mutations and other types of DNA damage in sperm samples collected from 97 healthy men between the ages of 22 and 80. They found that the likelihood of acquiring a genetic mutation that causes achondroplasia, a type of dwarfism, increases by about 2% per year, beginning in a male's mid-20s. They also found that the DNA strands in sperm are more likely to "fragment", or acquire random breaks, as men get older. Other studies have shown that DNA fragmentation can reduce a sperm's chances of fertilizing an egg.
. . Despite being genetically damaged, the corrupted sperm appeared as frisky as their genetically healthy counterparts, moving about as quickly as normal. This suggests that conventional tests of sperm quality are not reliable predictors of genetic damage, the researchers say.
. . One silver lining: The risks of producing sperm with too many or too few chromosomes does not appear to increase with age in men. Called "aneuploidy", this disorder is common in the eggs of women over age 35 and can lead to diseases such as Down's syndrome, which is known to occur more frequently in babies born to older parents.
. . Chromosomes are discreet packets of genes; humans normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes, but individuals with Down syndrome have three sets of chromosome 21.
June 5, 06: Doctors carried out the UK's first successful beating-heart transplant on a 58-year-old man.
June 5, 06: A scientist involved in creating Dolly the cloned sheep has proposed using cloning and gene alteration to create babies free from hereditary diseases.
. . Professor Ian Wilmut argues in a new book that cloning a 100-cell IVF embryo is not the same as cloning a human. Professor Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, says it would be "immoral" not to use the promise of new technology to help families. But opponents called the plan "unethical" and "utterly perverse".
. . Professor Wilmut describes how it would be possible to take an embryo affected by an hereditary disease and then remove its stem cells and modify the genetic fault which, left unchecked, would cause a condition such as Huntington's disease or cystic fibrosis. These defect-free cells would then be cloned and used to create a new embryo which was not affected by disease. This would then be implanted and allowed to develop into a baby.
. . Professor Wilmut has in the past said he is "implacable opposed" to cloning a human being. But in his book, After Dolly, which is being serialized in the Daily Telegraph, he argues that is not what he is now suggesting.
June 5, 06: Mothers of teenagers with chronic fatigue syndrome are also more likely to have the mysterious ailment, or display psychological stresses that may play a role in the child's illness, a study said.
. . In the study, that included 36 children averaging 16 years old diagnosed with chronic fatigue, their mothers were likely to share their symptoms, while fathers showed no connection, the study found. "Our study revealed a shared symptom complex of fatigue, fatigue-associated symptoms, and psychological distress between adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome and their mothers", the study said.
. . Between 500,000 and one million Americans have chronic fatigue syndrome.
. . [Nature or nurture?] The report did not rule out a mother having stressful responses to her child's illness that reinforced the symptoms.
. . The illness can persist for years and often leaves victims listless, with symptoms such as pain, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, and problems with memory and concentration. Increasingly, research into chronic fatigue syndrome has pointed to genetic causes, though it was once dismissed by some medical experts as being all in the mind.
June 4, 06: Using combinations of "smart bomb" cancer drugs that target specific proteins and avoid the indiscriminate cell destruction of chemotherapy may be the wave of the future for cancer patients, experts say.
. . Early studies show that combining targeted treatments such as Genentech Inc.'s breast cancer drug Herceptin with GlaxoSmithKline Plc's experimental treatment Tykerb, may be helpful in patients who do not respond to Herceptin alone, said Dr. Jose Baselga.
. . Targeted therapies act like smart bombs by crippling or knocking out deadly cancer cells while leaving healthy cells in tact, unlike the scorched earth approach of chemotherapy which kills both healthy and unhealthy cells. Using Herceptin and Tykerb together is just one of many drug combinations that could improve on results seen with existing targeted therapies.
. . Investigators released promising results from a mid-stage trial on lung cancer patients of Pfizer Inc's kidney cancer drug Sutent. Now they are planning to test it in combination with Tarceva. "Most of us feel that except for in very rare instances, tumors are driven by multiple pathways and therefore it makes sense that a multi-targeted approach makes most sense", said Mark Socinski.
. . The first targeted therapies isolated single targets. Genentech's Avastin targets a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which cuts off the oxygen and nutrients tumors need to survive. Erbitux attacks the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which curtails tumor growth. But drugs such as Sutent hit multiple targets, as does Bayer AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals' kidney cancer drug Nexavar.
. . In the colorectal field, behind Avastin and Erbitux, comes Amgen Inc's. panitumumab, which has not yet been approved. "The compelling argument for panitumumab is that it is multi-targeting."
June 4, 06: Gene therapy experiments suppressed hard-to-treat ovarian cancer in mice and also protected them against the effects of toxic radiation, scientists reported. It is much easier to treat mice artificially inoculated with tumors than it is to treat people, but the researchers say their approaches suggest promise for the troubled field of gene therapy.
. . The ovarian cancer study suggests a new route for treating a deadly cancer that kills 16,000 women a year in the United States alone. Most ovarian cancer patients live four years or less after they are diagnosed. "Current treatments for ovarian cancer are fairly harsh. (Gene therapy) ... represents a potent, non-toxic alternative."
. . They injected mice with ovarian cancer cells. They treated some of the mice immediately with a virus genetically engineered to carry cytosine deaminase, a so-called suicide gene that helps cancerous cells self-destruct. Some other mice were treated with the gene therapy 30 or 60 days later, while a third group was given no treatment.
. . Tumors did not grow in the mice that were treated immediately with gene therapy, and those treated a month or two later had tumors that grew only very slowly.
The untreated mice either died or had to be euthanized because of their quick cancer progression.
. . It will be years before such approaches could be widely used in humans.
. . Some gene therapy approaches have helped patients. But one 18-year-old volunteer died in a gene therapy experiment in 1999 and two French boys cured of a rare immune disease by gene therapy developed leukemia later that was caused by the treatment. So doctors now proceed cautiously with gene therapy, although there have been some successes such as a Sanofi-Aventis experiment in which gene therapy apparently helped new arteries grow in patients with severely decreased blood flow to the legs.
. . A second University of Pittsburgh team used gene therapy to deliver a compound called manganese superoxide dismutase-plasmid liposome (MnSOD-PL) to mice, and then exposed them to radiation. The compound is known to protect cells from the effects of radiation.
. . Untreated mice irradiated at higher doses lost weight and died fairly rapidly due to bone marrow damage. But mice treated with the gene therapy lost no weight, had little bone-marrow damage, and lived longer, the researchers told the meeting.
June 3, 06: Physical inactivity can create loads of problems such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. But the effects can be reversed and even improved with matching amounts of moderate activity, a new study indicates. The study also confirmed other research that indicates a little bit seems to go a long way.
June 3, 06: Millions in India breathe air loaded with cancer-causing chemicals and toxic gases present at levels that are thousands of times higher than permissible limits, an independent report said today.
. . India, one of the most polluted countries in the world, does not even have a standard for many harmful chemicals and gases, and thus no monitoring nor regulation for them, the report said. The study by the Community Environmental Monitors (CEM), an independent environmental and health agency, is India's first comprehensive national survey of ambient air that based its findings on a two-year survey carried out in 13 locations.
. . The study found that millions of Indians in cities and villages were exposed to at least 45 dangerous chemicals, including 13 carcinogens, some of which were present at levels 32,000 times higher than globally accepted standard.
. . The country has refused cuts to greenhouse gases imposed by the Kyoto Protocol, saying such a cap would hamper its furious pace of industrialization. India is exempt from the mandatory cuts because, like China, it is considered a developing nation.
June 2, 06: Scientists say they have found a mysterious link between cancer in humans and the lifespan of a tiny worm. The Californian team says a protein that can prevent cancer in people plays a key role in making microscopic worms live longer.
. . Statistically, the longer you live, the greater your chances of getting cancer. But even though scientists acknowledge the truth of this equation, they simply cannot understand why that should be the case.
. . One of the key elements in determining if a human cell turns cancerous is a so-called "checkpoint" protein. This prevents cancer in people by stopping damaged cells from dividing.
. . Now scientists in California have found that when they removed this same protein from the tiny worm C. elegans, the worms lived up to 30% longer than normal. The scientists deduced that a lack of this protein might mean that humans also live longer, but with an increased risk of getting cancer.
. . The researchers think the protein's dual function raises another important question: does the presence of this protein ensure a short but cancer-free existence for some people? The scientists involved in this study say there are likely to be other proteins that impact both cancer and ageing, and the focus of research is now to catalogue the genes that make these proteins and find out which ones are the best candidates for drug therapies.
June 2, 06: The world's first medicine derived from a genetically engineered animal has been recommended for approval by a panel of European experts, following a re-examination of the evidence. The European Medicines Agency initially rejected ATryn, an anti-clotting agent --which is made from the milk of transgenic goats-- for people with a rare inherited disease.
June 2, 06: An experimental radioactive contrasting agent for use in medical scans that could allow doctors to tailor treatment for cancer patients by tracking the growth pattern of new blood vessels feeding tumors is being tested by GE Healthcare. They plan to start human trials of the agent within months.
. . The agent is used with positron emission tomography, or PET, which creates images of the body from tiny radioactive particles called positrons. More than 90% of PET scans are performed on cancer patients.
. . The experimental contrasting agent binds to the blood vessels and allows doctors to monitor new vessel production, growth, and identify a tumor's exact dimensions. The tumor can then be monitored during chemotherapy to help determine the treatment's effectiveness and the proper drug dosage.
May 30, 06: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has licensed a new Merck & Co. vaccine that reduces the risk of shingles. It was found to reduce the risk of shingles by about half in those over 60. The risk reduction was greatest for those age 60 to 69. Zostavax is licensed for those over age 60. About one-fifth of the population is believed to develop shingles.
. . The disease of the nervous system is caused by the chicken pox virus, varicella-zoster, which lies dormant in the nervous system for decades after an attack.
May 30, 06: Fewer but larger doses of radiotherapy may be a better way to treat breast cancer, research suggests.
May 27, 06: The World Health Organization (WHO) decided today to defer recommending a new date for destroying the world's last known stockpiles of smallpox, a deadly virus whose spread was stopped nearly 30 years ago.
May 24, 06: In a radical experiment, doctors are snaking wires inside the lungs of asthma patients to essentially burn off some of the tissue that blocks their ability to breathe. Called bronchial thermoplasty, the procedure is the first attempt at a non-drug treatment for asthma. It's not without risk. Irritating those super-sensitive airways can trigger wheezing, and no one knows the long-term effects. Nor does it promise a cure.
May 24, 06: Beach sand can be teeming with bacteria even when the ocean water is clean, according to a study. Health officials have long known that urban runoff pollutes ocean water with microbes including E. coli and enterococci bacteria found in fecal material. The study by University of California, Los Angeles researchers found microbes can grow in the sand as well, and remain there long after the ocean has flushed itself clean. They found that sand bacteria concentrations at sheltered beaches favored by parents with toddlers were 1,000 times higher than at beaches that were open to the ocean.
May 23, 06: With her weak eye, Elizabeth Goldring can distinguish between light and dark and see hand movement, but not individual fingers. She cannot recognize faces or read. Now Goldring and a team of eye doctors, fellow researchers, and students have produced a "seeing machine".
. . The project started 10 years ago, when, to determine if Goldring had any healthy retina left, her doctors sent her to the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard. Technicians there used a diagnostic device called the scanning laser opthamaloscope, or SLO, to look into her eyes.
. . The SLO projected a simple image of a stick-figure turtle past the hemorrhages inside her eye that contributed to her blindness and directly onto the retina of one eye. She could see it.
. . So far, by dumping some of the diagnostic equipment and replacing expensive lasers with cheaper light emitting diodes (LEDs), she and her colleagues have knocked the price down to $4,000. The once bulky SLO now fits on a desktop while still being able to project images, video, and more onto a person's retina.
. . Less than 10% of the blind read Braille. Just a peek at the layout of the new building could be enough to help the blind find their way. "If you are visually challenged, if you see something once using the machine, you remember."
May 23, 06: A sleeping pill can temporarily revive people in a permanent vegetative state to the point where they can have conversations, a study finds. Zolpidem is usually used to treat insomnia.
. . South African researchers looked at the effects on three patients of using the drug for up to six years. Each of the three patients studied was given the drug every morning. An improvement was seen within 20 minutes of taking the drug and wore off after four hours, when the patients restored to their permanent vegetative state.
. . Patient L had been in a vegetative state for three years, showing no response to touch and no reaction to his family. After he was given Zolpidem, he was able to talk to them, answering simple questions. Patient G was also able to answer simple questions and catch a basketball. Patient N had been "constantly screaming", but stopped after being given the drug when he started watching TV and responding to his family.
. . He said drugs like Zolpidem activate receptors for a chemical called GABA in nerve cells in the brain. When brain damage occurs, these receptors appear to change shape, so they cannot behave as normal. He said the drug appeared to cause the receptors in these dormant areas to change back to their normal shape, triggering nerve cell activity. Dr Clauss added: "We are carrying out further research. The next step is to get rid of the sleepiness effect of the drug."
May 22, 06: A potent antibiotic which kills many bacteria, including MRSA, has been discovered by scientists. The researchers, from the drug company Merck, isolated platensimycin from a sample of South African soil.
. . If the compound passes clinical trials, it will become only the third entirely new antibiotic developed in the last four decades. The antibiotic works in a completely different way to all others. It acts to block enzymes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, which bacteria need to construct cell membranes.
. . Most classes of antibiotic were discovered in the 1940s and 1950s, and work by blocking synthesis of the cell wall, DNA and proteins within bacteria. Most of today's antibiotics are simply tweaks of this basic format. The fact that they work in similar ways may be one reason why bacteria are proving so adept at developing resistance. Thus a new class of antibiotics with a different method of action could represent a major breakthrough.
. . As usual... it may be several years before it could be used to treat humans.
May 21, 06: Viropharma Inc on Sunday said its experimental drug, being developed with Wyeth Inc., cut levels of the hepatitis C virus by up to 97% in a small 14-day clinical trial.
May 18, 06: A woman's addiction to alcohol, pills and other narcotics has long been a wink-wink topic -—one that garners a few smirks, rarely taken seriously. The focus has always been on men, who traditionally have had higher rates of substance abuse.
. . But now the gender gap is closing. More than 20 million girls and women in the United States abuse drugs and alcohol and 30 million more are addicted to cigarettes, according to a 10-year research effort from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
. . The study documents how women, pound-for-pound, not only get more drunk or higher faster then men, but also become addicted more easily. Each single drink hits a woman like a double. A woman's body contains less water and more fatty tissue—which increases alcohol absorption—compared to a male body. And women have a lower activity level of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which breaks down alcohol. Similar biological factors are at work in metabolizing illicit drugs. The risk of addiction to alcohol and drugs, including nicotine, is approximately doubled as well.
May 11, 06: An unusually virulent form of chlamydia has emerged in the United States, primarily among gay men, after an outbreak in Europe two years ago, federal researchers said. There are about 80 confirmed cases in the U.S., but infectious-disease experts fear the actual number is substantially larger because this form of chlamydia is difficult to diagnose and many physicians are not aware of its existence.
. . Officials are concerned because the disease, like many other sexually transmitted diseases, can accelerate the spread of HIV infections and perhaps enhance replication of HIV in people who are co-infected.
. . Lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, is caused by three strains of the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis --strains that are different from those that cause regular chlamydia infections or eye diseases. Symptoms include bleeding, inflammation of the rectum and colon, and abdominal cramping. Infection can be fatal if left untreated. It can be cured with antibiotics such as doxycycline, but three weeks of treatment are required —-substantially longer than what is required for common genital chlamydia.
. . Diagnosis may soon be easier because CDC technicians have developed a genetic test that takes only a few hours and can be done in most laboratories. It is still experimental and is being used only at the CDC, Douglas said, but if the test is proved, it will be offered to other labs.
May 16, 06: Women who use statin drugs to lower their cholesterol are no more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not use the drugs, U.S. researchers reported.
May 15, 06: A new method of detecting a dangerous bacteria is as fast as a snapping a photograph. The widely known Escherichia coli bacteria, or E. coli, belong in the guts of warm-blooded animals, where they aid digestion. But some types of E. coli produce toxins that can make people sick and can even be fatal. Tests, however, can mean days of waiting for food or water samples to culture in a laboratory Petri dish.
. . Scientists have now developed a system in which a treated silicon chip is combined with a digital camera to identify E. coli instantly.
. . "We're using changes in reflectivity to see proteins, or pieces of bacteria, left behind on our chip", Miller explained. Normally when this chip is struck by a single blast from a red laser, it doesn't reflect visible light. But if E. coli are stuck to the chip, the laser light becomes visible to the digital camera.
May 12, 06: Scientists have detected cancer-causing chemicals associated with tobacco smoke in the urine of infants whose parents smoke. The finding, detailed in the May issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, supports the idea that persistent exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke in childhood can contribute to the development of cancer later in life.
. . Urine from nearly half of the infants contained detectable levels of NNAL, a chemical byproduct produced in the human body when it processes NNK, a cancer-causing chemical, or carcinogen, found only in tobacco.
. . Levels of urinary NNAL in the infants were higher than that seen in older children and adults exposed to secondhand smoke. The researchers suspect this is due to infants being less able to move around and avoid the smoke. They also hypothesize that it might not be enough simply to stop smoking in the presence of babies, since NNAL and nicotine could potentially cling to dust and the surfaces of household objects.
. . A previous study by Hecht and his colleagues indicated that the first urine from newborns whose mothers smoked during pregnancy contained even higher levels of NNAL compared to babies in the current study.
May 10, 06: Scientists have developed a technique that someday may let doctors create customized bones. Such bones could come in handy in those circumstances in which chunks of bone in the human body go missing. Bones can be lost, for example, in brutal accidents, from in-depth dentistry, or during surgery, especially when certain kinds of tumors are removed.
. . Bone grafts can help span a gap, but current sources of fill-in bone are less than perfect. Bone can be swiped from someplace else on the patient -—and home-grown bone is the stuff that the body is least likely to reject—- but that means an extra incision, extra pain, and extra risk of complications. Bone from cadavers is sometimes used, but imported bone doesn't grow as well as the domestic model. And artificial bones from materials such as ceramics aren't good for much more than extending natural bone grafts.
. . A group has developed a system in which bone cells grow onto scaffolds built of carbon nanotubes, which are extraordinarily strong and stiff structures usually no more than a few nanometers in diameter. Currently the group is using bone cells from lab rats.
. . The idea is that when the technique is refined, the nanotubes could be formed so that when layered with the patient's bone cells they would to fit perfectly into a gap in a damaged bone. Over time the bone cells would merge with the surrounding bone, just like a conventional graft. The body would be unlikely to reject such a contraption, she says, because carbon is bio-friendly and the bone would be grown from the patient's own cells.
. . Many other researchers have attempted to combine carbon nanotubes with various types of living cells, Zanello says, but until recently the cells have died quickly, poisoned by the tubes themselves. "What happens", she said, "is during the fabrication of carbon nanotubes, there is deposition of heavy metals into the nanotubes." These metals are toxic to most living cells. But a member of Zanello's group—Bin Zhao, then a graduate student in the university's chemistry department and now a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory—produced nanotubes that are purer than previous models.
May 10, 06: A visual test based on images of faces and scenes could help doctors diagnose patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, researchers said. After giving patients groups of photos of scenes and faces and asking them to identify "the odd one out", the scientists found Alzheimer's patients have difficulty choosing the odd scene while sufferers with semantic dementia (SD), a disorder of language, had problems with faces.
May 9, 06: U.S. researchers said they have identified the compound in grapefruit juice that affects how some drugs are absorbed in the body and said it might be used to help lower dosages for some patients.
. . Grapefruit juice is known for its effects on drug metabolism and is *avoided by some patients, while others *deliberately take their drugs with the juice. The reason is an intestinal enzyme called CYP3A, which partially destroys drugs as they are absorbed. Grapefruit juice, like no other fruit juice, interferes with CYP3A, so the body ends up absorbing *more of the drug.
. . They have identified the substance in grapefruit juice that is responsible -- furanocoumarin. "It should now be possible to market the furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice to patients who would otherwise need to avoid grapefruit." In addition, it should be possible to screen new foods for the potential for drug interactions by determining whether they contain furanocoumarins. Finally, it may be possible to add furanocoumarins to formulations of certain drugs that tend to be poorly or erratically absorbed to improve their oral delivery."
. . In each volunteer, the normal grapefruit juice made between 6% to 230% more Plendil available in the blood.
May 8, 06: Tanzania is lifting a 2004 ban on the pesticide DDT, so it can be used to fight mosquitoes carrying malaria in the east African nation. Tanzania had signed up to an international treaty --known as the Stockholm Convention-- which seeks to outlaw the use of dangerous industrial chemicals dubbed the "dirty dozen" and blamed for deaths, cancer or birth defects. DDT, while covered by the convention, is exempted when used for disease control.
May 8, 06: In the developing world, one person in six does not have access to drinking water, and 6,000 people a day die from water-borne diseases. The LifeStraw, however, is designed to filter these out --it includes a disinfectant filter which kills bacteria, and active carbon which removes parasites and gives the water a better taste.
. . The straw is made of plastic and resembles a flute. Inside are filters and a chamber impregnated with iodine. These remove the bacteria from the water as it is drunk. It is priced at around $3.50 (£1.85) a straw. Each one will last for around 700 liters, around six months to a year.
May 8, 06: Embryo testing should be extended to check for faulty genes not guaranteed to cause disease, a report by the UK fertility watchdog recommends. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority currently allows embryos to be screened for inherited diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The procedure is used around 200 times a year. But it now says it would be "appropriate" to screen for susceptibility genes linked to cancer.
. . The HFEA's recommendation refers to three genes which cause cancer later in life --usually when people are in their 30s or 40s. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are linked to an 80% risk of breast cancer and a 40% risk of ovarian cancer. And mutations in the HNPCC gene are linked to an 80% risk of colon cancer.
. . PGD is already permitted for two inherited cancer conditions which affect young adults and children --familial adematous polyposis (FAP), a type of bowel cancer, and cancer of the retina.
May 6, 06: Scientists at Drexel University and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, in Philadelphia, have grown three-dimensional lung tissue using a "hydrogel." The home-grown organs could be used to repair the lungs of children who are born with insufficient lung development (which causes 2,800 newborn deaths in the U.S. every year) and other pulmonary diseases.
May 5, 06: The artificial sweetener aspartame is not linked to cancer, according to a report just released by the European Food Safety Authority.
Apr 27, 06: Plants thought to help treat or cure cancer, AIDS and malaria have been found in the rainforests of Borneo, a report from the Swiss-based global conservation group WWF said. But the rapid destruction of trees, much of it by illegal logging to meet growing world demand for timber, could wreck any chance of using these discoveries in the fight against disease.
. . A promising anti-cancer substance has been found in a Borneo shrub by researchers for an Australian pharmaceutical firm, while a chemical found in latex produced by a tree appears to be effective against the replication of HIV, the report said.
. . In the bark of another species of tree, the researchers discovered a previously unknown substance which in laboratory tests appeared to kill the human malaria parasite, it added.
Apr 22, 06: Scientists have discovered a mutant gene that triggers the body to form a second, renegade skeleton, solving the mystery of a rare disease called FOP that imprisons children in bone for life. The finding may one day lead to development of a drug, not only to treat the rare bone disorder, but more common bone buildup related to head and spine trauma, and even sports injuries.
. . FOP, or fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. The disease is believed to afflict only 2,500 people worldwide.
. . After 15 years of work involving study of the genetic makeup of multigenerational families around the world, scientists at Penn's Center for Research in FOP and Related Disorders found that FOP is caused by a single mutation in a gene called ACVR1. This devastating glitch means that tendons, ligaments and skeletal muscle begin painfully transforming into bone, sometimes locking joints overnight.
. . The researchers believe it should be possible to develop a drug that would block or bypass the genetic trigger of the extra bone growth. Eventually, it might block the unneeded bone that occasionally forms after hip-replacement surgery.
. . He said the FOP genetic breakthrough is likely to shed light on other related diseases. "The first thing that comes to mind is osteoporosis, which is the flip side of the coin when it comes to bone formation", he said. "When one learns about one side —-extra bone growth-— it helps you understand what goes the other way" —-bone breakdown.
. . Stephanie Snow, a 15-year-old with FOP, hopes the finding will lead to a drug that can stop the stiffening damage to her body, which includes a fused, immobile neck, arms she can't raise and problems with hip mobility.
on snopes.com: Claim: Mold that forms in pancake mix can cause a life-threatening allergic reaction.
Status: True.
Apr 19, 06: Persistent hiccupping in addition to weight-loss and difficulty swallowing could be a warning sign of cancer of the esophagus, an Irish researcher said. In a study of 99 patients with the disease he said 27% complained of persistent hiccups and 6% said it prompted them to see a doctor. [don't confuse cause/effect...]
. . Walsh believes hiccups in cancer patients could be linked to the phrenic nerve, the motor nerve of the diaphragm. "Nobody knows why, but there may be the involvement of the vagus nerve or the phrenic nerve", he said. 9% of the patients in the study described hiccupping as the predominant ongoing symptom.
. . Esophageal cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide with more than 400,000 cases detected each year. Most cases are detected when the disease is in an advanced stage. Smoking and alcohol are the most important risk factors.
Apr 18, 06: A bacterialike disease that can cause blindness in birds has been detected for the first time in wild finches in California, the state Department of Fish and Game said.
. . State biologists urged residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of mycoplasmosis, a disease that affects finches but not humans, after an outbreak was discovered in the Walnut Creek area, about 40km east of San Francisco.
. . Birds affected by mycoplasmosis, which is not related to the avian influenza or West Nile Virus, develop an eye infection that can lead to blindness and respiratory problems. The disease, which has been detected in wild birds in the eastern U.S. over the past decade, is spread when birds rub their heads on branches and feeders.
Apr 18, 06: As if tobacco itself wasn't bad enough for people, researchers have found three pesticides in the smoke of cigarettes. The chemicals, commonly used in tobacco farming and approved for that use by the EPA, disrupt the human endocrine system, which includes the thyroid and other glands and the hormones they secrete.
. . It was not known until now if any pesticides survive processing and burning and end up in cigarette smoke. The substances:
. . * Flumetralin, a suspected endocrine disrupter already banned for use on tobacco in Europe.
. . * Pendimethalin, a known endocrine disrupter that affects the thyroid.
. . * Trifluralin, an endocrine disrupter that affects the reproductive and metabolic systems.
. . The latter two compounds are also suspected human carcinogens.
. . "No information exists for long-term low-level inhalation exposures to these compounds”, said study team member Kent Voorhees of the Colorado School of Mines, “and no data exists to establish the possible synergistic effect of these pesticides with each other, or with the other 4,700-plus compounds that have been identified in tobacco smoke."
Apr 18, 06: Two long-awaited, government-funded studies found no evidence that dental fillings containing mercury can cause IQ-lowering brain damage or other neurological problems in children. Children with such fillings [& a much stronger mixture than used in the U.S.] were no more likely than other youngsters to suffer such problems, the researchers found.
. . Some experts found the findings powerfully reassuring. But the studies are unlikely to end the fierce debate over the long-term effects of what are known as amalgam fillings, also called silver fillings --made of mercury and other metals & have been used by dentists for more than a century. But their use has dropped in recent years as more and more doctors switch to resin composite fillings, which are considered more appealing because they are white.
. . Some advocacy groups and dentists have long contended that the mercury in fillings can leach into the body and cause harmful neurological effects, including autism.
Apr 18, 06: The health effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine 20 years ago have been grossly under-estimated, says an environmental charity. Official UN figures predicted up to 9,000 Chernobyl-related cancer deaths. But Greenpeace says in a report released on Tuesday that recent studies estimate that the actual number of such deaths will be 93,000. Stressing that there is a problem with diagnosis, it adds that other illnesses could take the toll to 200,000.
. . The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in April 1986 was the world's worst nuclear accident. It spread a cloud of radioactive particles across a huge swath of Europe. Several million people still live in contaminated areas.
. . In its report, Greenpeace suggests there will be 270,000 cases of cancer alone attributable to Chernobyl fallout, and that 93,000 of these will probably be fatal. "We're also looking at intestinal problems, heart and circulation problems, respiratory problems, endocrine problems, and particularly effects on the immune system."
Apr 18, 06: One key to advanced life is cell division. Cells divide millions of times every day to sustain the life and growth of a single human. But out-of-control cell division can fuel cancer. Now scientists have for the first time reversed the process of cell division, a breakthrough that could eventually lead to treatments for cancer and other disorders.
. . They gained control over a protein responsible for division, then halted and reversed the process. Duplicate chromosomes were sent back to the center of the original cell, an event once thought impossible.
Apr 15, 06: You are a mind reader, whether you know it or not. You can tell just by looking at a human face whether the person is concentrating, confused, interested or in agreement with you.
. . But people afflicted by autism lack this ability to ascertain emotional status -- it's one of the signature characteristics of the disease. Help could be on the way for autistic individuals, though: A novel computer-vision system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could do the mind reading for those who can't.
. . Two MIT researchers wore tiny cameras mounted on wire rods extending from their chests to demonstrate the Emotional Social Intelligence Prosthetic, or ESP, at the Body Sensor Networks 2006 international workshop at MIT's Media Lab last week. The video cameras captured facial expressions and head movements, then fed the information to a desktop computer that analyzed the data and gave real-time estimates of the individuals' mental states, in the form of color-coded graphs.
. . The system's software goes beyond tracking simple emotions like sadness and anger to estimate complex mental states like agreeing, disagreeing, thinking, confused, concentrating and interested. The goal is to put this mental state inference engine on a wearable platform and use it to augment or enhance social interactions
. . People with autism spectrum disorders have a hard time determining others' emotions or even whether someone is paying attention to them. The system is designed to provide that missing information. Feedback could be visual or auditory messages describing the target person's mental state. It could also be tactile, like a vibration that cues the user to ask a question or move on to a new topic of conversation.
. . Though recent fears of an autism epidemic appear to be overblown, researchers generally hold that the disorder is becoming more prevalent, said Goodwin. The number of people with autism is difficult to pin down, but one in 500 children is a reasonable estimate, he said.
Apr 15, 06: Bangladesh will vaccinate about 18 million children aged 5 and under to combat polio, which recently re-emerged after authorities believed it had been eradicated five years ago, the country's health minister said.
Apr 13, 06: A new class of devices aims to convert energy created from body movement, the stretching of muscles or the flow of water to power future nanoscale components. These so-called "nanogenerators" would be less bulky than traditional energy sources such as batteries.
. . Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology and graduate student Jinhui Song have created a prototype nanogenerator that produces electrical current through the bending and relaxing of zinc oxide nanowires. When the nanowires flex, they emit a piezoelectric discharge, which is electricity generated by certain materials under mechanical stress. "These nanogenerators can take that mechanical energy and convert it to electrical energy for powering devices inside the body."
. . Wang thinks such devices could be used wherever mechanical energy is available. The hydraulic motion of seawater would work, or the motion of a foot inside a shoe.
Apr 13, 06: Doctors have long sought a way to precisely target tumors with their chemical therapies. Now researchers may have found it in a nanoparticle laced with a cancer-combating drug.
. . Omid Farokhzad of Harvard University, Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and their colleagues created the nanoparticle out of a previously FDA-approved polymer that has been shown to dissolve inside cells. This nanoparticle --one-thousandth the width of a human hair-- carries a load of a lethal chemical: docetaxel, which is currently used to treat prostate cancer. In addition, the scientists studded the outside of the particle with so-called aptamers--tiny proteins that link directly to cancer cells while avoiding regular cells. Finally, they equipped the nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol molecules, which allow them to resist the internal defenses of a tumor cell.
. . In both laboratory dishes and mice with human prostate cancers, the nanoparticles proved extremely effective. "A single injection of our nanoparticles completely eradicated the tumors in five of the seven treated animals and the remaining animals had significant tumor reduction compared to the controls", Farokhzad says.
. . Further tests will be needed to ensure that the nanoparticle is safe in animals and, eventually, in humans afflicted with prostate cancer. The technique may even find wider application. "[Researchers] can put different things inside or other things on the outside of the nanoparticles. In fact, this technology could be applied to almost any disease", Farokhzad argues. And that may prove the advent of a little more rifle-like precision in the war on cancer.
Apr 12, 06: Everyone knows secondhand smoke is bad for the lungs, but a new study suggests it might also increase the risk of diabetes. The long-term study of more than 4,500 American men and women found their incidence of glucose intolerance --a precursor to diabetes in which the pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar-- was directly related to exposure to tobacco smoke.
. . After 15 years of follow-up, the researchers found smokers had the highest risk of glucose intolerance, with 22% of them developing the condition. But 17% of those who never smoked but were exposed to secondhand smoke developed the condition, a rate higher than the 14% found in smokers who gave up the habit. Only 12% of people who never smoked developed glucose intolerance.
. . For smokers, there was a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes smoked and the incidence of glucose intolerance. "For every increase of 10 packs a year of smoking, the risk of developing glucose intolerance increased by 18%", the report says.
. . Secondhand smoke could be more dangerous for the pancreas, where insulin is produced, than the fumes inhaled directly by smokers, the researchers say. The toxic substances in secondhand smoke are produced at different temperatures and under different chemical conditions, so some toxins that damage the pancreas might be at even higher concentrations in secondhand smoke than in smoke that is inhaled directly, they say.
. . "I know that the secondhand smoke is different from, and in many ways more dangerous than, directly inhaled smoke", he says. "It's the difference between a well-ventilated fire in a fireplace and one where there is not enough ventilation to produce proper oxygenation."
. . If tobacco smoke --whether secondhand or inhaled directly-- is a risk factor for diabetes, "that would be very important and frightening because of the other trend of increasing obesity. When you put the two together, you have a really deadly combination."
The Centers for Disease Control did a study on the social cost of smoking cigarettes. The costs to society of smoking a pack of cigarettes they calculated at $7.18. And they included two costs: the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses and the cost of lost worker productivity from those illnesses.
Apr 10, 06: Nearly five years after President Bush announced his restrictive embryonic stem-cell policy, the field is still feeling the fallout. The leader of the stem-cell unit at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, announced today he will leave the NIH to join the private sector at a biotech company called Invitrogen in Carlsbad, California.
. . Rao says the president's executive order that embryonic stem-cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001 are not eligible for federal funding, is the reason behind his decision to leave the government agency.
Apr 10, 06: The difficulties people with autism have in relating to others could be due to poor communication between brain areas, scientists suggest. It may explain why they do not interact well, as the weak links mean they benefit less from social situations.
. . It had been thought that their lack of social skills was due to abnormalities in particular brain areas. "The standard view of social problems in ASD is that there is a problem in the part of the brain that processes faces. Our research suggests that this is not the real problem --it seems to be that paying attention to faces doesn't lead to the normal increase in brain activity. This is because the face-processing areas of the brain are not well connected to those parts of the brain that control attention --such as the frontal and parietal regions.
Apr 9, 06: Cancer deaths could be cut in half if people simply followed advice that's known to work, according to a new study by the American Cancer Society.
. . None of the advice will surprise you:
. . Don't smoke, don't be obese, improve your diet, exercise, and make use of cancer screening tests.
. . Tobacco alone will kill 170,000 Americans this year, the report estimates. Second-hand smoke also raises cancer risk. People who use tobacco have a higher risk of cancers of the lung, mouth, nasal cavities, larynx , throat, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix.
Apr 6, 06: Last October, a group of scientists met in the fortress-like biological sciences building of the University of Alberta's Edmonton campus to mull how best to kill all 4,500 bison in a Canadian national park. It's one of the world's last and largest free-roaming bison herds, among the last remains of the massive herds that roamed western North America until Europeans settled.
. . But the bison, who were moved to the park from southern Alberta in the 1920s, are infected with disease that originated in the settlers' cattle --bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis. They have been under stay of execution for nearly two decades. That's because even though there have been no instances of the bison infecting domestic cattle or other bison living north and east of the massive park, the diseases are still considered a risk to Canada's beef industry.
. . After the existing herd is culled, the park would be repopulated with at least 1,000 disease-free bison, although the scientists said it could take another decade to return the herd to its present size.
. . It's a plan that has its critics, some of whom say the consequences for the park cannot be predicted. Without bison to eat the vegetation, the wildfire risk could rise, or plant diversity could be threatened without the herd to work the soil.
Apr 3, 06: Joerg Lahann with the University of Michigan has received the funding to start developing this device that will use nanotechnology to detect breast cancer through the breath.
. . A woman would breathe into an over-the-counter device and cancer-indicating metabolites would be attracted into the nanopockets, causing the pored surface to fill and become dense. Then, an electrical charge would be applied so that the straight particles would bend, ejecting the metabolites so that multiple tests could be done in the same device. The metabolites could then be detected through a change in conductance or optically.
Apr 4, 06: People whose genes have given them a super-sharp sense of taste are more susceptible to colon cancer than those with duller palates, suggests new research.
. . "Supertasters" have an unusually large number of taste buds, giving them a "neon taste world", says Linda Bartoshuk, at Yale University, compared with the rather muted "pastel world" of nontasters. This means the bitter tastes of many green vegetables are much more intense for supertasters, so they eat less of them. "This puts them at risk of certain cancers which the bitter compounds can protect against."
. . A pilot study on colon cancer by Bartoshuk and Marc Basson, of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, showed that the number of cancerous polyps a patient had was directly related to their tasting ability.
. . However, it is not all bad news. Supertasters also find highly fatty or sugary foods less palatable that nontasters and tend to be slimmer. Research to be published indicates that supertasters have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, because of lower fat intake.
. . Supertasters were already known have a higher risk of gynaecological cancers, but the link to colon cancer had not previously been established.
. . To distinguish the different types of tasters, the researchers developed a test involving filter paper impregnated with a chemical called 6M propothyiourea. Supertasters find this unbearably bitter, while nontasters experience nothing at all.
. . The researchers also found a link to ear infections. Although supertasters tend to eat less fat, those with a history of ear infections had an increased liking for high fat foods, and were usually heavier. This is probably because "the ear infection damages your taste nerve to the point at which you can't taste bitter tastes", says Bartoshuk. "So it doesn't matter if you are a supertaster or not."
. . About a quarter of the US population are supertasters, a quarter nontasters and half are inbetween. Women are more likely to be supertasters than men, and Caucasian people are less likely to be supertasters than Asian people.
. . A supertaster can taste two chemicals, phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). About 25% of people taste these chemicals as a very bitter taste. Another 50% can taste them mildly, and the last 25% can't taste them at all. Supertasters can taste a bitter substance in the following foods:
. . * Green tea and to a lesser extent black tea, Black Coffee, Grapefruit, Undercooked or raw cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts; Peppers and chilli peppers; Some salad greens (especially rocket); Spinach; Strong cheeses; Dark chocolate; Dry wines and beer; Tonic water; Olives; Soy products.
Apr 3, 06: US scientists have successfully implanted bladders grown in the laboratory from patients' own cells into people with bladder disease. The researchers, from North Carolina's Wake Forest University, have carried out seven transplants, and in some the organ is working well years later. The team is now working to grow organs including hearts using the technique.
. . The researchers surgically attached the engineered bladder to the patient's own bladder and followed progress for up to five years. The researchers are now working to grow 20 different tissues and organs in the lab, including blood vessels and hearts.
Apr 3, 06: Women who took prescription pain relievers known as COX-2 inhibitors for at least two years were less likely to develop breast cancer than others who did not have a history of taking the drugs, a new study said.
Apr 1, 06: Celebrex May Stop Colon Cancer. A popular arthritis drug that seems to raise the risk of heart problems also seems to lower the risk of growths that lead to colon cancer, two large studies reveal.
Apr 7, 06: An animal ID system will be in place by 2009: Authorities trying to limit disease outbreaks will be able to trace livestock movements from birth to slaughter by 2009, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said.
Apr 7, 06: Using a protein from green algae, scientists have restored the visual response in blind mice. The finding could prove useful in research aimed at restoring sight to blind humans.
. . In many cases, blindness is caused when the light receptor cells—called rods and cones—on the eye's retina degenerate and die. The disease, called retinitis pigmentosa in humans, prevents visual information from being sent along the optic nerve to be processed by the brain's visual cortex.
. . Researchers used a virus to insert the gene that produces the algae protein into the retinal cells in mice genetically bred to lose rods and cones. The cells were secondary retinal cells that normally don't respond to light. But when researchers held a light up to mice eyes, the altered cells responded and sent an electrical signal to the visual cortex. These effects lasted for six months.
. . Although the brain recognized that the cells sense light, that doesn't mean the mice could actually see. "We don't know if the signal is interpreted by the brain to be useful vision. That's for future studies."
Mar 31, 06: US researchers said they had transformed immature cells from men's testicles into powerful stem cells, which they then coaxed into becoming nerve, heart and bone cells. If other researchers can duplicate their efforts, the study offers a possible new source of valuable stem cells. The findings are certain to be scrutinized before they are accepted.
. . There are many different sources. So-called adult stem cells are found throughout the body, although they are difficult to identify. Bone marrow stem cells are routinely used in transplants to treat cancer and other diseases. But they are already partly programmed and can only serve as a source of a limited range of related cells.
. . Stem cells taken from fetuses are somewhat more flexible. The most immature cells are taken from very early fetuses called blastocysts. These embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they can serve as a source of any kind of other cells or tissue in the body at all.
. . "Our goal is to create the most potent cell lines to enable the most effective treatments and therapies for as many diseases as possible."
Mar 30, 06: Nicotine can prevent chemotherapy drugs such as taxol from killing lung cancer cells, researchers reported, in a finding that may help explain why lung cancer is so difficult to treat in smokers.
Mar 29, 06: Stem cells harvested from the brains of mice can restore some walking ability in laboratory rats with spinal-cord damage, Canadian scientists reported.
Mar 27, 06: Scientists have developed a way to build self-piloted "nanoshuttles." These tiny structures, just a few billionths of a meter long, could someday attack troublesome tissue, carry drugs, or reflect signals back to imaging systems.
. . Each (micro-)phage in the library corresponds to a protein located somewhere in the body's vascular highway of veins and arteries. When injected into a vein, for example, a phage could wind its way through the body until it reached a protein counterpart on the vessels of a kidney tumor.
. . When the phage reached its tumor, however, there wouldn't be much it could do. That's where the cargo section of the nanoshuttle comes in. The researchers are constructing shuttle bodies of gold, a material often seen in “nano-bio” applications because the body doesn't reject it or react strongly to it.
. . Pasqualini says these self-assembling structures, which have not yet been tested in animals, could be customized to ferry drugs to the places they are most needed in the body, to attack tumors, to carry stain to highlight certain cells, and to enhance other imaging technologies as well.
. . "Now you have a way to target gold particles to where you want them to be", Pasqualini said. "You integrate this nanoshuttle with the vascular map and all of a sudden you can form the shuttle and then direct it to whatever address in the body you want to find."
Mar 27, 06: This is no ordinary computer virus. Using a real-life virus as a model, researchers have built a virtual version using more than a million digital atoms. Scientists have previously simulated small pieces of living cells, but researchers say this is the first digital simulation of an entire life form.
. . The achievement could lead to a better understanding of the inner workings of viruses and improvements in human health, the researchers say. It could also be used to help build nanomachines surrounded by shells similar to the protein capsid shell that protects viruses and helps them determine when to latch onto potential host cells.
. . Viruses are tiny bundles of protein and genetic material that straddle the line between life and non-life. Many scientists prefer to call them "particles" because even though they contain RNA or DNA like other lifeforms, they can only replicate inside other living cells. Viruses have evolved elaborate ways to infect cells and proliferate inside their hosts and are the cause of myriad diseases, such as flu and HIV.
Mar 22, 06: A new simple model of a portion of a brain cell will provide researchers with fresh insight to the destructive processes behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, scientists announced.
. . The model replicates the essential features of an axon's shape, including a membrane and interior cytoskeleton scaffolding. The outer membrane contains molecules that react to ultraviolet light, initiating a reaction that produces highly reactive, cell-damaging molecules called free radicals. Free radicals caused the model axon to collapse into a deformed structure resembling a string of beads -—the same shape observed during the degeneration of actual neurons, even though those contain proteins previously thought to be essential for this type of destruction.
. . The framework for the model is simple, and scientists can swap molecules and structures in and out to study specific disease conditions or a new therapeutic approach.
Mar 22, 06: Rising temperatures may partly explain increasing cases of malaria in regions of Africa, new research suggests. Temps in East African highlands have risen by .5 degree Celsius in the last 50 years, scientists found. "We see it mainly from the end of the 1970s to the present." They say this small rise may have doubled the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
. . Malaria has recently emerged in parts of the highlands, with climate change one possible explanation. Climate change has also been proposed as something that could affect the Anopheles mosquitoes which transmit the malaria parasite, either through higher temperatures or increased rainfall.
. . The new research integrates temperature changes into a computer program which models the mosquito population. For a half-degree rise, the model predicts that mosquito numbers would rise by between 30% and 100%.
Mar 18, 06: Salmonella and other potentially deadly bacteria in poultry face a new enemy, as scientists develop more effective ways to fight fire with fire.As they've been doing since the 1970s, researchers put "good" bacteria into the chickens on purpose to fight bad bacteria. Now one group has cooked up a culture of the beneficial variety that preliminary studies show is more effective in combating salmonella.
. . The good bacteria is sprayed on chicks or introduced into their water. It's all okay with the Food and Drug Administration, so long as the bacteria is what researchers call a "defined culture", one that's derived from a single defined group of known bacteria.
. . The new cocktail of good bacteria -—including things like enterobacteriaceae and lactic acid bacteria—- is what's known as a probiotic culture. Probiotic bacteria have also been found effective in fighting human diseases. Yogurt is the classic probiotic food item, and the bacteria are available in dietary supplements, too.
. . The good bacteria work by exclusion -—they get into the intestinal track of the bird and set up shop, leaving no room for the bad bacteria. The probiotic is given to newly hatched chicks so it can go to work before the bad bacteria take hold. "The newly hatched chick's gut is essentially sterile and highly susceptible to pathogen colonization, whereas the mature bird can be resilient to pathogen colonization."
. . Salmonella infection causes diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps for up to seven days and in extreme cases can be deadly. Some 40,000 cases are reported each year in the United States, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that perhaps 30 times that many mild cases go unreported. About 600 people die from it each year.
. . "Salmonella does not occur by spontaneous generation in a processing plant", he said. "It comes in with the live animals. I think it's a pretty good bet that reducing salmonella in live animals will end up reducing salmonella in food."
. . "These are all considered GRAS organisms -—Generally Recognized As Safe", Donoghue said in an email interview. "These are similar to the bacteria found in yogurts."
Mar 17, 06: Mishandled bodily tissue killed a young man who underwent a routine orthopedic operation using bone from a cadaver. The killer? Deadly bacteria from the bone's donor, a young man who shot himself and went undiscovered for almost a day.
Mar 14, 06: Japanese researchers have discovered a new source of stem cells: human menstrual blood. The ABC, Australia's public broadcast commission, reports the blood engendered 30% more stem cells than bone marrow, a more common source of the cells. They took menstrual blood from six women, and they say the stem cells they found originated in the lining of the uterus. The scientists grew the cells in a dish containing a solution designed to induce the cells to change into heart cells, which is exactly what happened.
Mar 14, 06: Anti-viral vaccines have the potential to prevent one in ten cases of cancer in Britain, and as many as 25% in the developing world, a report says. The Cancer Research UK study estimates there are more than 1.8 million new cases of virus-associated cancer world-wide each year. The charity says just a handful of viruses are to blame. It says greater investment in new vaccines could be a highly productive way to combat cancer.
. . The report stresses that only a small proportion of people infected with viruses linked to cancer go on to develop the disease. However, it estimates that as many as 18% of new cases of cancer each year are linked to viral infections. Vaccine development is most well advanced in the case of cervical cancer, which is largely caused by infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV). A vaccine has also been developed for the Hepatitis B virus which is linked to liver cancer.
. . Rival drug companies are battling to bring products to market, with the expectation that they could prevent around 70% of all cases of the disease.
Mar 14, 06: The BBC reports on a study from an international team of scientists who restored vision in just 24 hours to hampsters with severed optic nerves.
. . The researchers injected the blind hamsters at the site of their injury with a solution containing synthetically made peptides --miniscule molecules measuring just five nanometers long. Once inside the hamster's brain, the peptides spontaneously arranged into a scaffold-like criss-cross of nanofibres, which bridged the gap between the severed nerves.
. . The scientists discovered that brain tissue in the hamsters knitted together across the molecular scaffold, while also preventing scar tissue from forming. Importantly, the newly formed brain tissue enabled the brain nerves to re-grow, restoring vision in the injured hamsters. The peptides they injected were passed through the animals' urine 3-4 weeks after injection, while the therapeutic effects remained.
Mar, 06: Scientists have identified and blocked the action of a protein linked to the spread of breast, prostate and skin cancer cells to the bones.The molecule called RANKL is produced in bone marrow. In studies of mice, researchers from Austria and Canada showed that inhibiting the protein could stop the cancerous cells from migrating to the bones. "RANKL is a protein which tells tumor cells to come to it."
. . Once a cancer has spread beyond its original site in a process known as metastasis, it becomes much more serious and difficult to treat. An estimated 70% of patients with progressive breast cancer and 84% of advanced prostate cancer sufferers develop bone metastases.
. . When the researchers gave mice with skin cancer a drug that blocked RANKL, the rodents had fewer tumors in their bones than animals that were not treated. But the drug did not slow the spread of the cancer to other sites in the body.
. . Penninger and his colleagues stressed that the research was done in mice but they added that drugs that interfere with RANKL are in development which could be used test their findings and show it the same holds true for humans.
. . Nearly all breast cancer tumors in women have the receptor for RANKL which Penninger said is an indirect indication that the findings are relevant to humans. "Since there are novel inhibitors of RANKL far along in clinical development, the idea is that people who have cancer that is known to spread to bone can start taking this drug when they are diagnosed."
Mar 9, 06: Almost 20% of the world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water because of failed policies, an influential report has concluded. The UN World Water Development Report also blames a lack of resources and environmental changes for the problem. The study calls for better leadership, if a goal of halving the proportion of people without proper access to safe water by 2015 is to be achieved.
Feb, 06: An emerging class of implantable medical devices called neuromodulators —-tiny machines that stimulate the central nervous system to treat a host of disorders. Analysts say they could be the next big thing for some of the market's hottest medical technology companies. Companies are already pushing to develop new applications for the devices. They see potential uses in treating diseases including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, erectile dysfunction, traumatic brain injuries, obesity, angina, incontinence and ringing in the ears.
Feb 27, 06: Louisiana, struggling to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, now faces a potential scourge of mosquitoes as insects hatch in storm-created breeding grounds, scientists said. This raises worries about the risk of an accompanying increase in cases of the mosquito-borne
West Nile virus.
. . In New Orleans, officials are trying to combat an influx of salt-marsh mosquitoes in thousands of abandoned and damaged swimming pools in the city's backyards through an improvised program of "pool patrols." The problem has been compounded by the relatively warm winter.
. . North of New Orleans, downed trees are blocking drainage channels, and marsh plants churned up by the autumn hurricanes have created new breeding grounds for mosquitoes. In addition, wastewater treatment plants set up to deal with the thousands of displaced residents are proving to be rich mosquito breeding grounds.
. . Louisiana has a long history with mosquito-borne illnesses. New Orleans, which borders on marshes and brackish Lake Pontchartrain, was the site of the last yellow fever epidemic in the United States in 1905.
Feb 23, 06: Bangladesh will inoculate some 33.5 million children in the biggest measles vaccination campaign in history, officials said.
Feb 22, 06: Transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs could provide a diabetes cure within a decade, scientists say. A US team has reversed the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases, a study reports. UK teams have cured type 1 diabetes by transplanting human pancreas cells --but donated organs are in short supply, hence the interest in the pig solution. The University of Minnesota hopes to start trials in humans by 2009.
Feb 20, 06: Rather than detecting blood-alcohol levels -—or garlic and onions—- a new device would identify diseases by sensing chemical patterns carried in the breath. Researchers have linked some of these patterns, known as biomarkers, to diseases as diverse as diabetes,
AIDS, and schizophrenia. Previous disease-smelling systems have been big and difficult to use and had limited capability. They had only about 30 sensors. So far, Bright's team has engineered about a 100 different sensors, which match up to all kinds of molecules. Their goal is to produce a million.
. . When a patient breathes into the device, different molecules will trigger a different set of sensors to light up. Bright and his research team can train the device, which is made of artificial neurons mimicking a brain, to connect the pattern of lights with particular diseases. The training will also involve teaching the machine to ignore everyday smells like Listerine, cheeseburgers and breath mints.
. . He said prototypes should be available about a year from now. The device's portability, speed and cheap price tag should help doctors diagnose diseases early. It could particularly improve the health of the elderly and impoverished, people who often don't have access to routine health care, Bright said. As well, doctors could use it to filter out possible diagnoses and cut down on costly medical tests. "We're really thinking about early intervention", said Bright.
Shopping cart handles are the most bacteria-infested items among some commonly used objects while doorknobs on public bathrooms are not as bad as might be expected, according to a survey conducted in South Korea.
Feb 15, 06: Researchers are scrambling to discover what is blinding children in the Amazon city of Araguatins. Three of the 365 children identified by the Disease Control Agency of Tocantins with similar lesions on their eyes are totally blind. Two others were blinded in one eye and have undergone surgery. Bezerra said one likely possibility was a local snail that may be transmitting a fungus, bacteria, virus or parasite but local vegetation or animals that live near or in the river may also be the host or cause of the disease.
Feb 14, 06: Cot death [SIDS in the US] could be caused by a genetic defect which means babies who stop breathing cannot kick-start their lungs, research suggests. A University of Bristol team has discovered brain cells that generate nervous impulses essential for gasping, but not normal breathing. They believe a deficiency in these cells could explain some cases of unexplained baby deaths.
. . The Bristol team joined forces with US researchers to discover that many different types of brain cells are essential for normal breathing --but only a small subset of these --dubbed pacemakers-- play a role in the gasping reflex. If normal breathing should stop this backup system is activated to induce gasping. This restores oxygen supplies and kick starts the heart beat so that normal breathing can resume.
. . The researchers found that pacemaker cells were dependent upon a protein that forms a tiny hole or pore within the membrane of the cells. When oxygen levels are low this pore opens more to allow the passage of sodium ions into the cell and provides a way in which gasping can occur automatically. The team showed that when this pore was blocked it eliminated pace making and the ability to gasp. Consequently, the heart would fail and death would be inevitable.
Feb 15, 06: Devices made of living cells promise to one day improve drug screening, virus detection and the growing of artificial tissue.First scientists have to overcome a significant hurdle. Some cell surfaces, like blood cells, are nature's version of Teflon. Their slippery nature makes it impossible to hook them up with non-biological material. But put a piece of DNA on its surface, and a cell looses its slick, scientists have discovered.
Feb 8, 06: New research has linked the use of Prozac and other similar antidepressants during pregnancy to yet another complication in newborns: an uncommon but life-threatening lung problem. Infants whose mothers took the antidepressants in the second half of pregnancy had six times the expected risk of developing the lung disorder.
Feb 8, 06: Government scientists are launching a major project to uncover elusive genetic variations that make people vulnerable to some of the most common diseases, and then determine what in the environment —-pollution, behavior, diet-— pushes those people into full-blown illness. They're fairly simple studies, each costing around $3 million —-and NIH already has in hand DNA from thousands of patients to be tested.
. . The surprise: The National Institutes of Health is trying to raise $60 million from drug companies to help do the work, saying an industry-government partnership is crucial to speed research. Gene discoveries won't become the property of the companies who invest, but instead will be available to all scientists.
. . Those tiny variations in the genetic code are called SNPs, pronounced "snips", for single-nucleotide polymorphisms. The goal: Compare the DNA of 1,000 people with an illness with the DNA of 1,000 similar but healthy people, to see which SNPs play a role.
Feb 8, 06: Researchers have developed a non-invasive technique for early detection of skin cancer. The procedure uses different colors of light and assorted alignments of the electric field of each light segment to create unique images that can identify suspect skin growths called nevi.
. . Melanoma, a form of cancer that develops in the skin—is the most common type of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society estimates, the number of new melanoma cases topped 59,000 in 2005 and accounted for more than 7,000 deaths in the United States. "The good news is that with early diagnosis, there is nearly a 100% cure rate for skin-melanoma."
Feb 6, 06: By writing a few lines of computer code, biologists from Purdue University have found a way to control a high-resolution microscope. This led them to look inside a virus and at its whole structure --Epsilon 15, which attacks the bacterium Salmonella. While previous teams were able to visualize the highly symmetric outer shell of other viruses, these researchers were able to see the whole structure of Epsilon 15, including its tail, its genome and even its core. This better knowledge of viruses which attack bacteria could lead to great advances in medicine, especially when antibiotics become inefficient because bacteria resist to them.
. . It will resolve features as small as 9.5 angstroms across --less than a billionth of a meter. Until now, the high-resolution device, called a cryo-electron microscope, used to examine such objects could only examine the virus's outer shell.
Feb 3, 06: Australia is suffering a bed-bug epidemic with the tourism industry losing an estimated A$100 million (US$75 million) a year because of the blood-sucking insects, according to a new entomology study. Some pest controllers have reported more than a 1,000% rise in bed-bug outbreaks. The Australian outbreaks are part of a global epidemic, with the number of bed bugs worldwide doubling each year.
Feb 2, 06: As you age, so do your cells. A new study reveals that old cells make up a much larger portion of skin cells than previously thought.Over the years, cells lose the ability to divide and they enter a state called senescence. They're not dead, but they're not quite functioning correctly either. These undead cells may delay wound healing, weaken immune responses, and help cause wrinkles. "Senescence is not cell death, and that's really the problem with it", said John Sedivy of Brown University.
. . Earlier studies suggested that senescent cells made up only a few tenths of a percent of living organisms. This study, performed on baboons, indicates that the amount could be as much as 20% in the elderly. Baboons and humans are very similar on a cellular level, so these findings likely hold true for us as well. "20% is a scary number in aged skin", Sedivy said. "It means that 20% of your skin cells are nonfunctional and could be harmful."
. . Sedivy and his team tested the sample cells for certain biomarkers that indicate cellular aging. They found that the number of senescent cells increased exponentially with age. In 5-year-olds they made up only 4% of the sample cells; in 30-year-olds the figure increased to 20%.
. . For some reason, the body doesn't actively remove these cells and they accumulate over the course of an organism's life. The body removes other types of old, broken down cells. So why not these? Most likely it's because most advantageous traits, crafted from thousands of years of evolution, are meant for healthy, reproductive individuals. Once that stage of life has passed, the body doesn't care what happens and damaging, cancerous cells are allowed to run amok, the researchers figure.
Feb 1, 06: Some 50 million U.S. residents live with chronic pain, experts estimate. Pain forces an estimated 36 million of them to miss work every year and results in roughly 70 million doctor visits. Yet scientists know very little about how pain works. They can't even agree on a definition.
. . Thousands of pain-sensing nerve endings can be packed into tiny spaces in your fingers, between the vertebrae of your back, and just about everywhere else. There are several types of nerves that sense cold, warmth pressure, pain and more. The nerves that sense and transmit pain are called nociceptors (pronounced no-sih-SEP-turs). There are more in your fingers and toes, where injury is more likely, than in other parts of your body. Nociceptors transmit electrical signals to your spinal column. When the cause of pain gets stronger, they fire more rapidly and intensely.
Jan 31, 06: Some types of ongoing, inexplicable pain like arthritis are caused by intact, healthy nerve fibers rather than those that have been damaged, a new study finds. The discovery surprised researchers. It had not been made before partly because studies of chronic pain have tended to focus on the damaged nerves.
. . The new understanding could help scientists develop new types of painkillers. The evidence so far applies only to ongoing pain associated with nerve injury and inflammation, although it may turn out to be more widely applicable.
. . Information about pain is transmitted from its source by two types of nerve fibers, Lawson explained. Larger fibers send electrical signals more rapidly and are thought to communicate sharp, pricking pain. Fine fibers communicate ongoing, burning pain that can prove depressing over time because it seems to have no identifiable source and is often hard to suppress with traditional painkillers.
. . Lawson and her colleagues studied the ongoing pain and the firing in very fine fibers, in particular a type that serve as damage detectors. The faster they fire, the worse the ongoing pain becomes. "The cause of this firing appears to be inflammation within the nerves or tissues, caused by dying or degeneration of the injured nerve fibers within the same nerve."
Jan 31, 06: When bone marrow stem cells, called hematopoietic stem cells, are transplanted, they proliferate, giving rise to immune cells and various other blood cells. Scientists had presumed they circulated throughout the bone marrow. In fact, they sat still and in contact with osteoblasts --bone-forming cells.
. . In a second study, another team of scientists said they found another unusual source of support for stem cells --prion proteins. Prions are perhaps best known as the agents that, when misshapen, cause mad cow disease and related diseases. Prions have a normal function too --but nobody knows what it is.
. . Susan Lindquist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues found prion protein expressed, or active, in bone marrow stem cells. She said that means prions probably help blood stem cells during the transplant process and might serve as a marker to help find them.
Jan 31, 06: Scientists have found blood stem cells hiding out in the edges of bone marrow, and said on Monday their finding could help ease lifesaving stem cell transplants for diseases such as cancer. The cells are not clustered throughout bone marrow, as had been thought, but live alongside bone-forming cells on the edges of the marrow.
. . This might make transplants easier, said Dr. Doug Engel, who worked on the study. Currently doctors must remove large amounts of bone marrow from a donor and separate stem cells, which are infused into a sick patient. Where the stem cells live might hold a key to their abilities to create all the different types of blood cells.
Jan 30, 06: Highly analytical couples, such as scientists, may be more likely to produce children with autism, an expert has argued. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, of the University of Cambridge, said the phenomenon may help explain the recent rise in diagnoses.
. . It is thought that around one child in every 100 has a form of autism - the vast majority of those affected are boys. The number of diagnoses seems to be on the increase, but some argue this is simply because of a greater awareness of the condition.
. . In a paper published in the journal Archives of Disease of Childhood, Professor Baron-Cohen labels people such as scientists, mathematicians and engineers as 'systemizers'. They are skilled at analysing systems --whether it be a vehicle, or a maths equation-- to figure out how they work. But they also tend to be less interested in the social side of life, and can exhibit behavior such as an obsession with detail --classic traits associated with autism.
. . Professor Baron-Cohen argues that systemizers are often attracted to each other-- and thus more likely to pass 'autism' genes to their offspring. Students in the natural sciences have a higher number of relatives with autism than do students in the humanities, and mathematicians have a higher rate of autistic spectrum conditions compared with the general population. Other research has found both mothers and fathers of children with autism score highly on a questionnaire measuring autistic traits. Brain scan studies have also shown that mothers of autistic children often show patterns of brain activity more associated with men.
Jan 30, 06: Along with smoking and chronic infections, alcohol consumption is an important cause of several types of cancer, researchers said today. Excessive drinking raises the risk of cancer of the mouth, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon and breast. It may also be linked with cancer of the pancreas and lung. Boffetta and Mia Hashibe, who reviewed research into the link between alcohol and cancer, found the more alcohol consumed, the higher the risk of developing cancer.
. . But they advised people to drink moderately, rather than give up alcohol completely, because of its protective benefits against cardiovascular disease. "Total avoidance of alcohol, although optimum for cancer control, cannot be recommended in terms of broad perspective of public health, in particular in countries with high incidence of cardiovascular disease." Instead, the scientists said men and women should limit how much alcohol they drink to reap the benefits but avoid the dangers. "The most recent version of the European code against cancer recommends keeping daily consumption to two drinks for men and one for women."
. . In developed countries in 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that alcohol caused 185,000 deaths in men and 142,000 in women, but it prevented 71,000 male deaths and 277,000 female deaths in the same year.
Jan 25, 06: Staying mentally and physically active throughout life is the best way to keep the mind sharp and reduce the risks of developing dementia, two recent studies show. One large group study found that staying mentally active reduces the risk of
Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia by nearly half by building and maintaining a reserve of stimulation. "It is a case of 'use it or lose it'", said the study leader.
. . It found that individuals with high mental stimulation had a 46% decreased risk of dementia. The protective effect was present even in later life, so long as the individuals engaged in mentally stimulating activities. The findings support the idea that a person's education, occupation, IQ and mental stimulation play a big role in preventing cognitive decline.
. . Another study found that older people who exercise three or more times a week had a 30 to 40% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. Even light activity, such as walking, seemed to help.
Jan 24, 06: People who survive a toxic encounter with carbon monoxide, one of the most common types of accidental poisoning in the United States, run a risk of death years later because of damaged heart muscle, according to a study. The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation said a look at 230 patients treated for moderate to severe poisoning from the colorless, odorless gas found that 37% suffered heart muscle injury. Of that group, nearly a quarter died within the next seven years. About 40,000 people in the United States are treated in emergency rooms for it every year.
They recommended that victims be screened for heart damage and that more study be done on the risks they face.
. . A researcher at the University of Arkansas says recent research showing a buildup of strain in the New Madrid Seismic Zone is inconclusive because the tension can't be seen well enough to determine any earthquake hazard.
Jan 24, 06: Chimpanzee blood may provide a safer vaccine against smallpox. A vaccine made by splicing chimp and human antibodies was both safer and more effective than the current vaccine, which uses a live virus and has a high rate of side effects, the researchers reported.
. . Smallpox was eradicated as a naturally occurring infection in 1980, but experts fear that some samples of the virus were made into biological weapons which groups or governments could use in an attack. So the U.S. government has been vaccinating military personnel and some police, health and emergency workers against smallpox, using Wyeth's old DryVax vaccine. This vaccine is based on decades-old technology and uses a live virus, called vaccinia, which is related to smallpox. It can cause severe side effects and, rarely, death.
. . Dr. Robert Purcell and colleagues made a synthetic antibody --an immune system protein that recognizes and helps neutralize invaders such as viruses. They genetically engineered parts of an antibody from chimpanzees, which are immune to smallpox, and a human antibody.
Jan 23, 06: Malaria parasites develop in the lymph nodes of the immune system, researchers have discovered. Scientists say the finding was unexpected, and underlines just how complex malaria infection can be. The immature parasites are known to travel to an infected person's liver, which, until now, scientists thought was the only place they could develop.
. . The researchers infected mosquitoes with fluorescently tagged Plasmodium parasites, and then allowed the mosquitoes to bite a mouse. From each mosquito bite, they found an average of 20 fluorescent parasites embedded in the animal's skin. The parasites were found to move through the skin at high speed in a random, circuitous path. After leaving the skin, the parasites frequently invaded blood vessels. This was no surprise, as they need to travel through blood vessels to get to the liver. However, about 25% of the parasites invaded lymphatic vessels of the immune system, ending up in the lymph nodes close to the site of the bite. Their journey seemed to stop there, as the malaria parasites almost never appeared in lymph nodes farther away.
. . Within about four hours of the mosquito bite, many of the lymph-node parasites appeared degraded. They were also seen interacting with key mammalian immune cells, suggesting that the immune cells were destroying them. A small number of the parasites in the lymph nodes, however, escaped degradation and began to develop into forms usually found only in the liver. By 52 hours after the mosquito bites, no parasites remained in the lymph nodes, which suggests that they cannot develop completely there.
Jan 23, 06: Athens fell because a plague swept the empire. But scientists have debated what illness was responsible. A new DNA analysis of teeth from an ancient Greek burial pit indicates typhoid fever caused the epidemic. The plague began in Ethiopia and passed through Egypt and Libya to Greece in 430-426 B.C. It changed the balance of power between Athens and Sparta, ending the Golden Age of Pericles and Athenian dominance in the ancient world. An estimated one-third of Athenians died, including Pericles, their leader.
. . Typhoid fever is transmitted by contaminated food or water. It is most common today in developing countries.
Jan 12, 06: *Other strains of the flu virus are likely to kill more than 35,000 U.S. residents this winter, assuming it is a typical year. And that's not the half of it. Here are some hard-to-pronounce bugs that may well be on a doorknob near you: . RSV kills 14,000 elderly people and high-risk adults every year.
Jan 12, 06: Taiwan, home to the world's first transgenic glowing fish, has successfully bred fluorescent green pigs that researchers hope will boost the island's stem cell research, a professor said. "Ours are the only ones in the world that are green from inside out. Even their hearts and internal organs are green." The transgenic pigs, commonly used to study human diseases, would help researchers monitor and trace changes of the tissues during the physical development.
Jan 9, 06: Two widely used tests for prostate cancer failed to save lives in a new study, adding to the debate over whether men should be screened for the disease. The study was small —-only 1,002 men-— and will not be the final word on the issue. But it may hint at what lies ahead when the results of two large studies of prostate cancer screening appear in a few years.
. . The researchers looked at two screening tests that are performed millions of times a year in the United States: a blood test that measures prostate specific antigen, or PSA, and a digital rectal exam, the rubber-glove test in which a doctor feels for abnormalities in the prostate through the rectal wall.
. . Study co-author Dr. John Concato, a clinical epidemiologist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, said that for now, doctors should tell men that screening tests for prostate cancer are not perfect, and men should decide for themselves whether to get screened.
. . Doctors have long known that some cases of prostate cancer can be so slow-growing that they never cause symptoms, much less death. In addition, surgery and radiation treatment for prostate cancer can cause incontinence and impotence.
. . Most men who undergo a biopsy because they have elevated PSA levels do not have prostate cancer. And some men with low PSA levels do have cancer.
Jan 9, 06: Radiation may get a little easier for thousands of breast cancer patients: Doctors now can target cancer-killing beams just at the tumor site instead of the whole breast, cutting the usual six-week treatment down to five days.
. . A major study is under way. They've developed a one-day method, permanently implanting radiation seeds inside the breast to kill stray cancer cells while women go about their normal routines —-just like men's prostate cancer can be treated today.
. . About 70% of the 200,000 American women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year qualify for a lumpectomy — removing just the tumor, not the whole breast. A lumpectomy plus radiation cures early stage breast cancer just as well as breast-removing mastectomies do.
Jan 9, 06: New research suggests that the gonorrhea-like condition known as urethritis, perhaps the most common sexually transmitted disease, can spread to men when they're on the receiving end of fellatio.
. . Urethritis usually goes away on its own or is easily treated with antibiotics, Klausner said. But in some cases, it can result in serious complications, including permanent damage to the urethra in both men and women, especially if it's not treated.
. . According to Handsfield, urethritis brings more men to sexually transmitted disease clinics in the United States than any other condition or disease, and it may be the most common STD among both men and women. "It suggests that some of these cases might be due to bacteria that are entirely normal when they're in the mouth but cause inflammation in the urethra."
. . By contrast, there's no evidence that urethritis is easily passed to women during cunnilingus.
Jan 6, 06: The harsh acidic environment of your stomach is home to many more bacteria types than previously thought, a new study indicates. One newly identified creature in your belly is related to a species that's considered one of the hardiest organisms on the planet, a bacterium that eats radioactive wastes for lunch.
. . The human stomach is a pear-shaped chamber filled with a highly noxious cocktail of hydrochloric acid and protein-cleaving digestive enzymes called peptidases. This gastric soup can have a pH of 1 to 3; the pH scale goes from 1 to 14 with a lower number indicating more acidity. The stomach protects itself from its own corrosive juices by coating its interior with a thick, continually secreted layer of mucous.
. . The medical community long believed that pretty much nothing from the outside could survive in the stomach's harsh environment. That view began to change in 1982, when two Australian scientists, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, found spiral-shaped bacteria called Helicobacter pylori in human stomachs. The two researchers hypothesized that h. pylori was responsible for stomach inflammation, also called gastritis, and ulcers. Doctors traditionally thought these ailments were caused by stress or spicy foods.
. . Later experiments -—including one where Marshal actually gave himself gastritis by drinking an h. pylori broth—confirmed their suspicions, and both Warren and Marshall were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery. Since then, however, only a few other bacteria types have ever been found in the stomach.
. . In the new study, researchers extracted snippets of genetic material from the stomachs of 19 people and found the biological blueprints of 128 bacteria types. Many of them had never been observed in the stomach before and 10 percent were previously unknown to science.
Jan 6, 06: Despite what many may have heard, drinking soda does not increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer. In fact it might protect against it, a new study finds. Cases of cancer affecting the esophagus, the muscular tube linking the mouth and stomach, in the United States have more than tripled since the 1970s. And in the past 50 years, Americans have increased their annual consumption of carbonated soft drinks nearly five-fold, from 10.8 gallons in 1946 to a whopping 42.2 gallons in 2000.
. . The two trends are strongly correlated and in 2004, Indian researchers suggested they might be linked. But as any scientist will tell you, apparent correlations do not necessarily mean connections.
Jan 6, 06: Most of the gray wolf pups born in Yellowstone National Park last year have died, a federal wolf expert says, and he believes a dog disease —parvo virus— may be behind the dramatic loss. Just 22 of the 69 pups born last year are still alive.
. . Officials plan to catch Yellowstone wolf pups and take blood samples to see if the suspicions about parvo virus are true. The disease can cause extreme diarrhea and dehydration and kill more vulnerable animals, like young pups. Though vaccination is an option —-many domestic dogs are vaccinated to protect them against parvo-— Smith said it would be largely futile in the park.
Jan 5, 06: Researchers have deciphered the structure of a harpoon-like protein some viruses use to enter cells and begin infection. The protein is known as fusion (F) protein and is found on the outer surface of parainfluenza virus 5, a so-called "enveloped" virus that fuses its membrane with the membrane of its host cell before infection. Once the membranes are fused, the virus dumps its genetic content into the healthy human cell's interior, hijacking the cell's replication machinery to clone itself.
. . Enveloped viruses are responsible for a wide variety of human diseases, including mumps, measles, HIV, SARS and Ebola. The finding could help researchers develop drugs that prevent infection by blocking viral entry into cells.
. . The researchers crystallized the F protein and used x-ray crystallography to determine its three-dimensional structure. Doing so revealed a hydrophobic (meaning water-repellant) tip that allows the viral harpoon to latch on more securely to the cell membrane, which is also hydrophobic. It also provided researchers with more insight into the dramatic structural change that the F protein undergoes while performing its task.
Jan 3, 06: The history books say that after reaching Moscow in 1812, Napoleon's army was laid low by the Russian winter and then finished off by hunger, battle wounds and low morale as it straggled back to France. The truth, say scientists, is more intriguing but rather less poetic: the biggest destroyer of the Grande Armee was Pediculus humanus --the human louse.
. . A team led by Didier Raoult of France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) examined the remains of Napoleon's soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, 800 km west of Moscow.
. . Samples of earth, cloth and teeth recovered from the site suggest that more than 30% of these troops were killed by bacterial fever transmitted by lice. The parasites caused relapsing fever, through the bacterium Borrelia recurrentis; trench fever, a condition well known in the Western Front of World War I, caused by the germ Bartonella quintana; and typhus, caused by the Rickettsia prowazeki bacterium.
. . The evidence comes from remains of the fleas that were found in the common grave and in the soldiers' uniforms, and from the presence of Bartonella quintana in some of the fleas themselves.
Jan 1, 06: Scientists at a laboratory affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a stem-cell culture medium free of animal cells and used it to derive two new human embryonic stem-cell lines. The new work is a crucial step in stem-cell research because it will allow growth of these cells without using animal products that can harbor viruses and other potential sources of problems.
Jan 1, 06: Medical researchers at the University of Michigan have identified a likely cause of prostate cancer they say could lead to more effective treatments and possibly a cure.
. . Scientists have discovered a recurring pattern of scrambled chromosomes that causes certain genes to merge --an abnormal gene activity occurring only in prostate cancer, the leading cancer diagnosis for men in the United States.
. . While similar forms of the abnormal gene activity have been detected in "liquid" cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, this is the first evidence it's occurred in solid tumors like prostate cancer. The finding also suggests similar gene activity may be involved in the development of other soft-tissue cancers such as cancer of the breast, lung, ovaries and colon.
. . Researchers hope to find out how to identify inhibitors for the specific genes, to parallel the development of a drug designed to target the gene fusion that causes leukemia. U-M, which already has filed an application to patent the research, will launch new studies to verify if gene fusion can cause prostate cancer in research animals. They also will broaden their study to determine if unique chromosomal rearrangements can be identified in other forms of cancer.
. . In 22 samples of prostate cancer tissues, researchers found the same gene fusion 91% of the time. Analysis of 221 historical cases, including 167 tumor and 54 benign prostate tissue samples showed the same gene fusion in 95% of the samples. No evidence of the combination was found in any of the benign samples.
. . Chinnaiyan expects this breakthrough could have broader implications. "To identify the possible biological basis of this cancer is a major finding, but the possibility is even larger when you consider that other solid tumors may also have a common basis that we just haven't found yet", he said. "Once somebody finds something like this, and knows what to look for, discoveries could come rapidly."
. . Prostate cancer is the classic example. Among men age 60, around half have microscopic evidence of prostate cancer if we look hard enough. Yet only four in 1,000 will die from prostate cancer in the next 10 years.
. . CAT scans of the chest lead more people to be told they have lung cancer, and there are even more abnormalities to find in the abdomen. As one radiologist who has read thousands of these scans put it, "With this level of information, I have yet to see a normal patient."
Jan 1, 06: Scientists are developing a tiny biosensor to detect cancer proteins and potentially the bug that causes MRSA. It makes use of the same gyroscope technology as navigation systems and car airbags. The aim is to incorporate it into a hand-held device for quick and easy analysis of tissue samples.Jan 1, 06:
The vibrating disc is no bigger than a speck of dust. It is hoped it could enable doctors to diagnose and monitor common types of cancer, and to assess which is the most appropriate therapy. The device would work by identifying cancer markers - proteins or other molecules produced by cancer cells. These vary according to the type of cancer and are distinct from proteins produced by healthy cells.
. . When a cancer-specific marker binds to the surface of a disc, in the pattern of the coating, the uneven weight causes one of the modes of vibration to change in frequency. The difference between the frequencies of the two modes of vibration is measured, enabling the detection of tiny amounts of cancer specific marker.
. . In theory, even the weight of a single molecule binding to the surface of a disc could be detected. In theory, the technology could be used to detect particles from biological or chemical weapons, providing an early warning system against terrorist attacks.
Jan 1, 06: A vitamin-rich diet lowers the risk of contracting macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly in developed countries, researchers said.
. . The antioxidant properties of vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc were found to ward off macular degeneration, in which abnormal blood cells grow in the eye and leak blood and fluid that damage the center of the retina and blur central vision.
. . Sufferers are often debilitated and unable to read, recognize faces or drive, and the condition worsens with age. It affects more than one out of 10 white adults over the age of 80, and is the leading cause of severe vision loss in Americans 60 and older. There is no cure.
. . Those whose diets included more than the median levels of vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc had a 35% lower risk of developing macular degeneration, compared with those whose diets provided a below-median level of any of the four nutrients.
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