Σάββατο 25 Μαΐου 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Health News

ScienceDaily: Top Health News


Driving and hands-free talking lead to spike in errors

Posted: 24 May 2013 01:07 PM PDT

A pilot study shows driving while talking on a hands-free cellular device leads to more driving errors than driving alone.

Promising strategy to help vaccines outsmart HIV

Posted: 24 May 2013 09:20 AM PDT

New research highlights an ingenious method to ensure the body effectively reacts when infected with the highly-evasive HIV virus that causes AIDS. The method involves the use of cytomegalovirus as a vector to help a vaccine better instruct T cells how to identify and fight the virus.

Youth with type 2 diabetes at much higher risk for heart, kidney disease

Posted: 24 May 2013 09:20 AM PDT

The news about youth and diabetes keeps getting worse. The latest data shows that children with type 2 diabetes are at high risk to develop heart, kidney and eye problems faster and at a higher rate than adults with diabetes.

New fluorescent tools for cancer diagnosis

Posted: 24 May 2013 09:20 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a multicolor fluorescence labeling method that can be used to visualize miRNAs in tissue sections, such as those recovered from biopsies.

Modulating the immune system to combat metastatic cancer

Posted: 24 May 2013 09:20 AM PDT

Researchers have found that regulatory T cells that infiltrate tumors express proteins that can be targeted with therapeutic antibodies.

Hormone levels may provide key to understanding psychological disorders in women

Posted: 24 May 2013 09:17 AM PDT

Women at a particular stage in their monthly menstrual cycle may be more vulnerable to some of the psychological side-effects associated with stressful experiences, according to a study from UCL.

Proteins in migration: New animal model provides important clues on mechanisms of Parkinson's disease

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:48 AM PDT

Scientists have developed a novel experimental model that reproduces for the first time this pattern of alpha-synuclein brain spreading and provides important clues on the mechanisms underlying this pathological process. They triggered the production of human alpha-synuclein in the lower rat brain and were able to trace the spreading of this protein toward higher brain regions. The new experimental paradigm could promote the development of ways to halt or slow down disease development in humans.

Cause of infantile amnesia revealed: New neuron formation could increase capacity for new learning, at expense of old memories

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:46 AM PDT

New research presented today shows that formation of new neurons in the hippocampus -- a brain region known for its importance in learning and remembering -- could cause forgetting of old memories by causing a reorganization of existing brain circuits. Researchers argue this reorganization could have the positive effect of clearing old memories, reducing interference and thereby increasing capacity for new learning.

New method for predicting cancer virulence

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:42 AM PDT

A new way of tackling cancer and predicting tumor virulence are has been reported by a team of researchers. The scientists have shown that, in all cancers, an aberrant activation of numerous genes specific to other tissues occurs. For example, in lung cancers, the tumorous cells express genes specific to the production of spermatozoids, which should be silent.

Discovery of how a key enzyme of the spliceosome exerts its controlling function

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:42 AM PDT

To sustain life, processes in biological cells have to be strictly controlled both in time and in space. Researchers have elucidated a previously unknown mechanism that regulates one of the essential processes accompanying gene expression in higher organisms. In humans, errors in this control mechanism can lead to blindness.

Help at hand for schizophrenics

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:41 AM PDT

How can healthy people who hear voices help schizophrenics? Finding the answer for this is at the center of research conducted by a group of scientists in Norway.

A new strategy required in the search for Alzheimer's drugs?

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:40 AM PDT

In the search for medication against Alzheimer's disease, scientists have focused on -- among other factors -- drugs that can break down Amyloid beta (A-beta). After all, it is the accumulation of A-beta that causes the known plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The starting point for the formation of A-beta is APP.

Immune cell activation in multiple sclerosis: New indicator molecules visualize activation of auto-aggressive T cells

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:40 AM PDT

Biological processes are generally based on events at the molecular and cellular level. To understand what happens in the course of infections, diseases or normal bodily functions, scientists would need to examine individual cells and their activity directly in the tissue. The development of new microscopes and fluorescent dyes in recent years has brought this scientific dream tantalizingly close. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now presented two studies introducing new indicator molecules which can visualize the activation of T cells. Their findings provide new insight into the role of these cells in the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS). The new indicators are set to be an important tool in the study of other immune reactions as well.

Nano-needles for cells: Tiny needles can force medicine into cells, even when they resist taking it

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:40 AM PDT

Nano-sized needles developed by researchers in Norway can force medicine into cells, even when the cell membranes offer resistance. The needles will make it easier to study the effects of medicines on cells.

New insights contradict promising Alzheimer's research

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:40 AM PDT

Approximately a year ago, the journal Science published an article about bexarotene as a potential Alzheimer's drug -- a significant breakthrough and an important starting point for further Alzheimer's research. Now other researchers have tested this candidate drug in various Alzheimer's animal test models. Their results were different, as were those of two American study groups. Therefore, they have recommended that bexarotene should not be tested on patients.

New microsphere-based methods for detecting HIV antibodies

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:40 AM PDT

Detection of HIV antibodies is used to diagnose HIV infection and monitor trials of experimental HIV/AIDS vaccines. New, more sensitive detection systems being developed use microspheres to capture HIV antibodies and can measure even small amounts of multiple antibodies at one time.

Infantile myofibromatosis: First drug targets in childhood genetic tumor disorder

Posted: 24 May 2013 07:35 AM PDT

Two mutations central to the development of infantile myofibromatosis (IM) -- a disorder characterized by multiple tumors involving the skin, bone, and soft tissue—may provide new therapeutic targets, according to researchers.

Consumers largely underestimating calorie content of fast food

Posted: 23 May 2013 07:38 PM PDT

People eating at fast food restaurants largely underestimate the calorie content of meals, especially large ones, according to a new article.

Statin use is linked to increased risk of developing diabetes, warn researchers

Posted: 23 May 2013 07:38 PM PDT

Treatment with high potency statins (especially atorvastatin and simvastatin) may increase the risk of developing diabetes, suggests a new article.

Heart healthy lifestyle may cut kidney disease patients' risk of kidney failure

Posted: 23 May 2013 03:13 PM PDT

Compared with kidney disease patients who had zero or one heart healthy lifestyle component in the ideal range, those with two, three, and four ideal factors had progressively lower risks for kidney failure over four years. No kidney disease patients with five to seven ideal factors developed kidney failure. Patients' risk of dying during the study followed a similar trend.

Diabetes' genetic underpinnings can vary based on ethnic background

Posted: 23 May 2013 01:22 PM PDT

Ethnic background plays a surprisingly large role in how diabetes develops on a cellular level, according to two new studies.

Common childhood asthma not rooted in allergens, inflammation

Posted: 23 May 2013 08:37 AM PDT

Allergens? No. Inflammation? No. An over-active gene that interrupts lipid synthesis appears to be the cause of 20-30% childhood asthma cases.

Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:

Δημοσίευση σχολίου