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 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 04-10-2006
Polar stratospheric clouds have become the focus of many research projects in recent years due to the discovery of their role in ozone depletion, but essential aspects of these clouds remain a mystery. MIPAS, an instrument onboard ESA's Envisat, is allowing scientists to gain information about these clouds necessary for modelling ozone loss.
YouMing Lu, a professor at the University of Central Florida's Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences, is hopeful that changing the genetic blueprint of AMPA receptors can help to block lethal flows of calcium into neurons of human stroke victims. If administered within a few hours of cardiac arrest, such therapies could prevent brain damage. Given later, the therapies could speed up the regeneration of neurons to replace ones killed by the stroke.
Liver transplants cured the metabolic symptoms of 11 patients with a rare but devastating genetic condition known as Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), according to a study by researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Clinic for Special Children.
A hormone receptor with regulatory roles as diverse as food intake, fear response, and cardiovascular function may also be involved in breast cancer, according to University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers.
Researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, report today their initial success using a customized optical device that allows dentists to visualize in a completely new way whether a patient might have a developing oral cancer.
The GenomicS Revolution: Implications for Treatment and Control of Infectious Disease, a summary of the Keck Futures Initiative conference, explores nine challenges in this area and possible solutions to them.
Siblings of children with chronic illnesses and developmental disabilities are two to three times more likely than their peers to experience psychological adjustment problems. Young children in particular are at high risk for experiencing these kinds of problems. To address this concern, a report published in the December 2005 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology finds that family-based group intervention can help improve the self-confidence and knowledge of young siblings (ages 4 to 7) of children with special needs.
$1 Million has been awarded for 14 research projects.
Hot fudge sundaes and french fries aside, new research suggests obesity is due to an attraction between leptin, the hormone that signals the brain to stop eating, and a protein associated with heart disease. C-reactive protein not only binds to leptin but its hold impairs leptin's role in controlling appetite. The research may help explain why obese people have trouble losing weight and points to a different target for the pharmaceutical treatment of obesity.
Anyone who has ever been told by their doctor to steer clear of certain foods, lower their calorie intake or cut down on salt knows just how hard it can be to avoid temptation and stay motivated. A virtual healthcare assistant is being developed to offer a guiding hand.
Europe is slow to add the pneumococcal vaccine to childhood immunisation programmes despite US evidence that it can reduce invasive pneumococcal diseases, including MENINGITIS, by 94%. The US also discovered that vaccinating children also protected other vulnerable community members - incidence in the 50 plus age group fell by 55%. Most countries vaccinate some at risk groups, but up to 90% of cases of childhood IPD occur in otherwise healthy children.
University of Western Sydney researchers would like to hear the pastoral care experiences of the elderly, their families and the people who are delivering the service to the community. The information will be used in the first detailed study of services that tend the spiritual needs of older Australians.
University of Queensland (UQ) researcher Professor Ian Frazer has been awarded a $1.25 million Smart State Premier's Fellowship.
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research (CILR) has lodged a complete patent application for compounds to treat cancer.
Older men who drink as few as two drinks twice a week and also have diseases that could be worsened by alcohol or cause problems with medications taken while drinking alcohol have higher death rates, as compared to men who either drink less or may drink more but don't have such comorbidities
Alexander Varshavsky, Ph.D., has been chosen as the 2006 recipient of the March of Dimes Prize for explaining how a tiny protein plays a major role in our lives by helping to regulate many crucial processes in human cells. He will be honored May 1 in San Francisco, California at a black tie dinner and ceremony hosted by CBS sportscaster Greg Gumbel, a member of the March of Dimes national Board of Trustees.
What is the connection between worm infections in developing nations and asthma in developed nations? Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine offer evidence that IL-25 both prevents destructive inflammation and promotes immune responses associated with asthma and allergic responses. The same signal responsible the immune responses that cause asthma and allergy can also limit the type of inflammation associated with debilitating diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Mayo Clinic researchers are sounding an alert about side effects of shock wave lithotripsy: in a research study, they found this common treatment for kidney stones to significantly increase the risk for diabetes and hypertension later in life.
A new study of women with early stage, localized breast cancer identifies new patterns and risk factors for invasive disease that may influence how patients are treated. The study reveals that patients with lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) are actually at higher risk of developing advanced stage tumors than previously thought. In addition, women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who are under 50 years old, African-American or Hispanic are at increased risk of developing advanced stage invasive tumors.
Researchers and physicians can confidently assess quality of life factors in pediatric patients from either the child or parents, according to a new study. The study reveals that parents of pediatric patients consistently reported similar assessments of health related quality of life (HRQL) as the child. Furthermore, the study reports that parents may serve as reliable surrogates if a child is unable to complete HRQL assessments.
Antioxidants, such as beta-carotene and Vitamin E, have been touted for their ability to protect against heart disease. This protective effect is attributed to their ability to prevent the oxidation of bad cholesterol -- a process thought to contribute to the build-up of disease-causing fatty deposits on artery walls. But a new study, published online on April 10 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that the heart-healthy effect of one antioxidant has nothing to do with inhibiting oxidation.
Each year, over 300,000 people die of African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the Free University of Brussels have coupled the human protein ApoL-1 with a nanobody in order to very specifically eliminate the infection caused by the pathogenic parasites, against which our defense mechanism is powerless. Tests on mice are already promising. The published results offer new possibilities for people who have contracted this disease.
Fat may have finally met its match: laser light. Researchers at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) have shown, for the first time, that a laser can preferentially heat lipid-rich tissues, or fat, in the body without harming the overlying skin.
Hap1, which is abundant in the brain's hypothalamus, serves as the link between circulating insulin in the blood and the neural circuitry that controls feeding behavior in mice. Illumination of the neural pathway used by hormones to regulate appetite and eating behavior could eventually provide new drug targets for treating eating disorders and obesity.
The Grand National spurs over a third of the adult population of the United Kingdom into having a flutter making it the country's single biggest gambling event. However, even with the recent boom in internet gambling, problems with gambling are often overlooked.
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