AURORA, Colo. (March 23, 2015) - Discontinuing statin use in patients with late-stage cancer and other terminal illnesses may help improve patients' quality of life without causing other adverse health effects, according to a new study by led by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Duke University and funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). The finding, to be published in JAMA Internal Medicine on March 23, indicates that care for patients with advanced illness can be improved by discontinuing some therapies that are ...

DETROIT - Innovative angles of attack in research that focus on how the human brain protects and repairs itself will help develop treatments for one of the most common, costly, deadly and scientifically frustrating medical conditions worldwide: traumatic brain injury. In an extensive opinion piece recently published online on Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, Henry Ford Hospital researcher Ye Xiong, M.D., Ph.D., makes the case for pioneering work underway in Detroit and elsewhere seeking to understand and repair brain function at the molecular level. "To date, ...

A blood thinning agent is helping researchers at the University of East Anglia understand more about the body's natural barriers to HIV. New research published today reveals how the protein langerin, which is present in genital mucous and acts as a natural HIV barrier during the first stages of contamination, interacts with the drug heparin. The research team has been able to identify two different mechanisms for that interaction - involving different sites or 'faces' at the surface of the langerin protein. Lead researcher Dr Jesus Angulo from UEA's school of Pharmacy ...

Lexington, MA (March 23, 2015) - Research results published in the Journal of Neurotrauma and conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) as part of a collaboration with Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. showed that a novel deuterium-containing sigma-1 agonist invented at Concert, called C-10068, demonstrated anti-seizure and anti-inflammatory effects in a preclinical model of traumatic brain injury (TBI). C-10068, a novel metabolically-stabilized morphinan derivative, is based on a compound first identified at WRAIR in the 1990s as possessing anticonvulsant ...

Many smartphone users know that free apps sometimes share private information with third parties, but few, if any, are aware of how frequently this occurs. An experiment at Carnegie Mellon University shows that when people learn exactly how many times these apps share that information they rapidly act to limit further sharing. In one phase of a study that evaluated the benefits of app permission managers - software that gives people control over what sensitive information their apps can access - 23 smartphone users received a daily message, or "privacy nudge," telling ...

March 23, 2015 - Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome are more than twice as likely to have migraine headaches, reports a study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery--Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The association also runs in the other direction, with migraine patients having higher odds of carpal tunnel syndrome, according to research by Dr. Huay-Zong Law and colleagues of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The findings add a new piece of evidence in the ongoing debate ...

This news release is available in French. Raising the age of eligibility for the Old Age Security pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement will increase inequalities between older people. "This change will force retired people into greater dependence on their private savings to support them as they get older. Research shows that greater privatisation of the retirement income system results in growing inequalities among the older population. When you raise the pension eligibility age, you are also opening the door to rising disparities" according to demographer Yves ...

Implementing a well-established business approach allowed physicians to shave hours off pediatric patient discharges without affecting readmission rates, according to researchers at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital. This approach could help hospitals around the country open up existing beds to more patients, and reduce emergency department crowding and lost referrals without investing significant capital. Most hospitals have a fixed number of staffed beds available for patients. When hospitals are at or exceed capacity, admitted patients may be kept in the ED ...

An extensive study of global habitat fragmentation - the division of habitats into smaller and more isolated patches - points to major trouble for a number of the world's ecosystems and the plants and animals living in them. The study shows that 70 percent of existing forest lands are within a half-mile of the forest edge, where encroaching urban, suburban or agricultural influences can cause any number of harmful effects - like the losses of plants and animals. The study also tracks seven major experiments on five continents that examine habitat fragmentation ...

NAIROBI, KENYA (20 March 2015)--African cattle infected with a lethal parasite that kills one million cows per year are less likely to die when co-infected with the parasite's milder cousin, according to a new study published today in Science Advances. The findings suggest that "fighting fire with fire" is a strategy that might work against a range of parasitic diseases. The immediate implications are for the battle in Africa against a tick-borne cattle-killing parasite, Theileria parva, which causes East Coast fever. The disease kills one cow every 30 seconds and claims ...

PHILADELPHIA- Penn Medicine researchers have discovered that hypermethylation - the epigenetic ability to turn down or turn off a bad gene implicated in 10 to 30 percent of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) - serves as a protective barrier inhibiting the development of these diseases. Their work, published this month in Neurology, may suggest a neuroprotective target for drug discovery efforts. "This is the first epigenetic modification of a gene that seems to be protective against neuronal disease," says lead author ...

Philadelphia, PA, March 20, 2015 - A new study provides the first evidence that the mediator complex subunit 15 (MED15) may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). MED15 overexpression was found to be associated with higher mortality rates in HNSCC patients with cancer recurrence, particularly in oral cavity/oropharyngeal tumors, according to the study published in The American Journal of Pathology. MED15 overexpression was also associated with heavy alcohol consumption, which is an HNSCC risk factor. HNSCC is the sixth ...

This news release is available in German. Erectile dysfunction is a taboo subject among men. No one likes to talk about it. But the fact is that as men age, an increasing number will suffer from erectile dysfunction. From the age of 30, the number of men who have unsatisfactory erections or none at all increases. In the over-60 age group, more than half of all men have been affected by erectile dysfunction. The main causes include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hormonal imbalance, neurological disease and the side-effects of medication. Even spinal paralysis can ...

Philadelphia, PA, March 23, 2015 - Many adults, regardless of their weight, resolve to avoid fatty foods and unhealthy desserts. But despite one's best intentions, when the moment for decision comes, that chocolate lava cake is often too enticing and self-control vanishes. This behavior is normal because hunger increases the intensity of food rewards. Yet, individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN), despite their state of starvation, are able to ignore such food-related rewards. A new study by Dr. Christina Wierenga, Dr. Walter Kaye, and colleagues, published in the current ...

A chance discovery by a team of researchers, including a University of York scientist, has provided experimental evidence that stars may generate sound. The study of fluids in motion - now known as hydrodynamics - goes back to the Egyptians, so it is not often that new discoveries are made. However when examining the interaction of an ultra-intense laser with a plasma target, the team observed something unexpected. Scientists including Dr John Pasley, of the York Plasma Institute in the Department of Physics at York, realised that in the trillionth of a second after the ...

(WASHINGTON - March 23, 2015) - New research reports that when compared to healthy pregnant women, pregnant women with a severe form of sickle cell disease (SCD) are six times more likely to die during or following pregnancy and have an increased risk for stillbirth, high blood pressure, and preterm delivery. Research findings, published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), are the first to estimate several health risks facing pregnant women with SCD and identify those who are at highest risk of complications. People with ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Despite reports indicating job dissatisfaction among some physicians, at least one group of doctors seems to be starting their careers on the right note - pediatricians. The majority of new general pediatricians say the most important factor in their top choice for their first job was lifestyle, spouses or family - and more than two- thirds believe their current jobs are consistent with their career goals, a new University of Michigan study says. The findings, which appear today in Pediatrics, come just as medical students around the country learned ...

Tumors that produce more stress granules are more likely to metastasize, according to a study published in The Journal of Cell Biology. The results suggest that drugs to inhibit the formation of these structures might rein in cancer metastasis. When cells are under duress, they curtail almost all protein synthesis and stash their mRNAs in stress granules. These structures help healthy cells, but they also allow tumor cells to survive harsh conditions. A protein named YB-1, which is overexpressed in many types of tumors, accumulates in stress granules, but researchers ...

WASHINGTON - When it comes to adolescents with math and science homework, more isn't necessarily better -- an hour a day is optimal -- but doing it alone and regularly produces the biggest knowledge gain, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers from the University of Oviedo in Spain looked at the performance of 7,725 public, state-subsidized and private school students in the principality of Asturias in northern Spain. The students had a mean age of 13.78. Girls made up 47.2 percent of the sample. The article was published ...

Research by biologists at the University of York has identified new mechanisms potentially driving progression of an aggressive form of dementia. The research, which was funded by Alzheimer's Society and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), is published today in The Journal of Cell Biology. Working with scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and University of Puerto Rico, the researchers studied how synapses - the connections between neurons - are affected by changes in the protein CHMP2B that are linked to Frontotemporal ...

LOS ANGELES (March 23, 2015) - Men who exercise more have better erectile and sexual function, regardless of race, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. While past studies have highlighted the relationship between better erectile function and exercise, African-American men have been underrepresented in this literature. "This study is the first to link the benefits of exercise in relation to improved erectile and sexual function in a racially diverse group of patients," said Adriana Vidal, PhD, senior author of the study and investigator ...

DENVER, March 23, 2015 -- Saccharin, the artificial sweetener that is the main ingredient in Sweet 'N Low®, Sweet Twin® and Necta®, could do far more than just keep our waistlines trim. According to new research, this popular sugar substitute could potentially lead to the development of drugs capable of combating aggressive, difficult-to-treat cancers with fewer side effects. The finding will be presented today at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The meeting features nearly ...

DENVER, March 23, 2015 -- Squid are the ultimate camouflage artists, blending almost flawlessly with their backgrounds so that unsuspecting prey can't detect them. Using a protein that's key to this process, scientists have designed "invisibility stickers" that could one day help soldiers disguise themselves, even when sought by enemies with tough-to-fool infrared cameras. The researchers will present their work today at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting ...

DENVER, March 23, 2015 -- More than a year into Colorado's experiment legalizing marijuana, labs testing the plants are able for the first time to take stock of the drug's potency and contaminants -- and openly paint a picture of what's in today's weed. At the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), one such lab will present trends -- and some surprises -- that its preliminary testing has revealed about the marijuana now on the market. ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features ...

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen are the first in the world to develop a secure way of measuring the important protein apo-M. This could prove relevant for research into diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis and sclerosis. For the first time, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have managed to develop a secure way of measuring the protein apo-M in our blood. The protein is interesting because it may prove important to research into diseases such as multiple sclerosis, arteriosclerosis and diabetes. 'We know that apo-M is of importance to ...