Gene therapies for regenerative surgery are getting closer, says review in PRS

When assessing information presented by the tobacco industry, the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and regulatory bodies in other countries, should be aware that they are dealing with companies with a long history of intentionally misleading the public. They therefore should actively protect their public-health policies on smoking from the commercial interests of the tobacco industry and not consider the industry as a stakeholder, concludes a study by experts from the US and Germany published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The researchers, led by Stanton ...

Treatments for depression that don't involve antidepressant drugs but rather focus on different forms of talking therapy (referred to as psychotherapeutic interventions) are all beneficial, with no one form of therapy being better than the others, according to a study by international researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. These findings are important as they suggest that patients with depression should discuss different forms of non-drug therapy with their doctors and explore which type of psychotherapy best suits them. The researchers, led by Jürgen Barth ...

Women who have mental health disorders around the time of birth are more likely to have previously experienced domestic violence, according to a study by UK researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The researchers, led by Louise Howard from King's College London, found that high levels of symptoms of perinatal* depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder were linked to having experienced domestic violence either during pregnancy, the past year, or over a woman's lifetime. The researchers (also the authors of the published study) reached these ...

Recent reduction in the use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal feeds has resulted in a dramatic increase in the severe poultry disease - necrotic enteritis. New research suggests that the disease, which is costing the worldwide poultry industry an estimated £600 million a year, could be prevented by immunisation with a vaccine that is being developed at the University of Exeter. Professor Richard Titball of the University of Exeter said: "Necrotic enteritis is a major concern for the poultry farming industry worldwide and poultry producers are waiting for this ...

A new study, published 28 May in the open access journal PLOS Biology, has revealed the potential importance of rare species in the functioning of highly diverse ecosystems. Using data from three very different ecosystems—coral reefs, tropical forests and alpine meadows—a team of researchers led by David Mouillot at the University of Montpellier 2, France, has shown that it is primarily the rare species, rather than the more common ones, that have distinct traits involved in unique ecological functions. As biodiversity declines, these unique features are therefore particularly ...

Ithaca, N.Y.--A novel disease in songbirds has rapidly evolved to become more harmful to its host on at least two separate occasions in just two decades, according to a new study. The research provides a real-life model to help understand how diseases that threaten humans can be expected to change in virulence as they emerge. "Everybody who's had the flu has probably wondered at some point, 'Why do I feel so bad?'" said Dana Hawley of Virginia Tech, the lead author of the study to be published in PLOS Biology on May 28, 2013. "That's what we're studying: Why do pathogens ...

EPFL researchers have detected microplastic pollution in one of Western Europe's largest lakes, Lake Geneva, in large enough quantities to raise concern. While studies in the ocean have shown that these small bits of plastic can be harmful to fish and birds that feed on plankton or other small waterborne organisms, the full extent of their consequences in lakes and rivers is only now being investigated. The study, which is being extending under a mandate by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, was published in the latest issue of the journal Archives des Sciences. ...

There is a higher risk of death for patients who have elective surgery later in the week and at the weekend, compared with those earlier in the week, a paper published today on bmj.com suggests. Previous research has suggested a significantly higher risk of death if admitted as an emergency patient at the weekend compared with a weekday. Plus, other papers have described the "weekend effect". Researchers offer two potential explanations for this: poorer quality of care at the weekend (which can be attributed to staffing levels and / or less senior / experienced staff) ...

Trusted organisations, such as the NHS and some UK royal colleges, profit by selling commercial advertisers access to pregnant women through promotions such as Bounty bags. On bmj.com today, GP Margaret McCartney says these potential conflicts of interests are unacceptable. For example, she describes how a commercial company was offered access to mothers through adverts and editorial content in 'Baby and You' – a magazine being set up by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which it plans to give for free to pregnant women. The college receives £90,000 ...

This news release is available in German. Wild great apes are widely infected with malaria parasites. Yet, nothing is known about the biology of these infections in the wild. Using faecal samples collected from wild chimpanzees, an international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin has now investigated the effect of the animals' age on malaria parasite detection rates. The data show a strong association between age and malaria parasite positivity, with significantly lower ...