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Controlling spine metastases with tumor 'separation surgery' and high-dose stereotactic radiosurgery
How can evolutionary biology explain why we get cancer?
Loneliness, Like Chronic Stress, Taxes the Immune System
Genes And Their Regulatory 'Tags' Conspire To Promote Rheumatoid Arthritis
Study explains skin’s response to UVA light
Molecular forces are key to proper cell division
Epigenetic changes can explain rheumatism
Decline in verbal ability in adolescence linked to psychosis
Wood on the seafloor - an oasis for deep-sea life

Controlling spine metastases with tumor 'separation surgery' and high-dose stereotactic radiosurgery

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 07:25 AM PST

Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) have found that tumor "separation surgery" followed by high-dose hypofractionated stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or high-dose single-fraction SRS is safe and effective in controlling spinal metastases regardless of the radiosensitivity of the particular tumor type that has invaded the spine.

How can evolutionary biology explain why we get cancer?

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 07:17 AM PST

Over 500 billion cells in our bodies will be replaced daily, yet natural selection has enabled us to develop defenses against the cellular mutations which could cause cancer. It is this relationship between evolution and the body's fight against cancer which is explored in a new special issue of the Open Access journal Evolutionary Applications.

Loneliness, Like Chronic Stress, Taxes the Immune System

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 07:10 AM PST

New research links loneliness to a number of dysfunctional immune responses, suggesting that being lonely has the potential to harm overall health.

Researchers found that people who were more lonely showed signs of elevated latent herpes virus reactivation and produced more inflammation-related proteins in response to acute stress than did people who felt more socially connected.

Genes And Their Regulatory 'Tags' Conspire To Promote Rheumatoid Arthritis

Posted: 22 Jan 2013 06:55 AM PST

In one of the first genome-wide studies to hunt for both genes and their regulatory “tags” in patients suffering from a common disease, researchers have found a clear role for the tags in mediating genetic risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an immune disorder that afflicts an estimated 1.5 million American adults. By teasing apart the tagging events that result from RA from those that help cause it, the scientists say they were able to spot tagged DNA sequences that may be important for the development of RA.

Study explains skin’s response to UVA light

Posted: 21 Jan 2013 02:36 PM PST

Researchers have strengthened their understanding of how skin cells called melanocytes sense ultraviolet light and act to protect themselves with melanin. In a new study, they report experiments showing that an ion channel well-known elsewhere in the body for its chemical sensitivity, plays a central role in this process.

Molecular forces are key to proper cell division

Posted: 21 Jan 2013 02:17 PM PST

Studies led by cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases. Findings are reported in the current issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.

Epigenetic changes can explain rheumatism

Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:32 AM PST

A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US shows that so-called epigenetic changes in the DNA are involved in causing rheumatoid arthritis, and that these changes can be genetically predetermined. The paper, which is published in the scientific periodical Nature Biotechnology, sheds light on how risk genes can be expressed in disease and why some individuals are affected more readily than others.

Decline in verbal ability in adolescence linked to psychosis

Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:24 AM PST

New research from Karolinska Institutet and King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry has found that adolescents whose verbal performance drops off are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders many years later. The findings are published in the scientific periodical JAMA Psychiatry.

Wood on the seafloor - an oasis for deep-sea life

Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:17 AM PST

Trees do not grow in the deep sea, nevertheless sunken pieces of wood can develop into oases for deep-sea life - at least temporarily until the wood is fully degraded. A team of Max Planck researchers from Germany now showed how sunken wood can develop into attractive habitats for a variety of microorganisms and invertebrates. By using underwater robot technology, they confirmed their hypothesis that animals from hot and cold seeps would be attracted to the wood due to the activity of bacteria, which produce hydrogen sulfide during wood degradation.