The so-called Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription, or STATs, are key components of many different signalling pathways. Not surprisingly, then, when something goes wrong with their regulation the consequences can be severe and many types of cancer are known to be associated with increased activities of one or more STAT protein. STAT3 is a frequent culprit and is often found to be activated in tumour cells. Considerable efforts are going into developing inhibitors of STAT3 for use in cancer therapy but it is unclear whether these will turn out to be suitable ...

New research out of Queen's University could give insight into what terrorists are thinking. Professor David Skillicorn (School of Computing) analyzed language used in two jihadist magazines to gain intelligence about terrorist strategy. He examined the language used in Inspire, an online magazine reportedly published by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which aims to increase the availability of their message, and the Islamic State News published by ISIS. Inspire has attracted attention because of its goal of attracting lone-wolf attacks in Western countries. "The payoff ...

The immunosuppressive drug fingolimod (trade name: Gilenya) was approved for an expanded therapeutic indication in May 2014: It is now also available for adults with highly active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who had received other pretreatment than interferon beta (IFN-β). In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether the drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy in this ...

A previously unknown mechanism through which the brain produces new nerve cells after a stroke has been discovered at Lund University and Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The findings have been published in the journal SCIENCE. A stroke is caused by a blood clot blocking a blood vessel in the brain, which leads to an interruption of blood flow and therefore a shortage of oxygen. Many nerve cells die, resulting in motor, sensory and cognitive problems. The researchers have shown that following an induced stroke in mice, support cells, so-called astrocytes, start to form ...

A novel technique which reduces image degradation caused by respiratory motion during a PET scan was developed in a recent study at the University of Eastern Finland. PET scanning is routinely used to detect cancer and heart conditions. The new technique presented in the PhD thesis of Tuomas Koivumäki, MSc (Tech.), is based on bioimpedance measurement and it allows for image reconstruction at a specific phase of the patient's breathing pattern. This, in turn, makes it possible to reduce image degradation caused by motion. In the future, the newly developed technique ...

New Orleans, LA – A special study using data from LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health's Louisiana Tumor Registry has found that colorectal cancer incidence rates in the Louisiana Acadian parishes are among the highest in the United States. This study appears to be the first to identify a high rate of cancer in a large, regional, US founder population, raising the possibility of a genetic predisposition. Alternatively, an unidentified, robust environmental risk factor may be present. The paper is published online in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology, ...

A small, "empty" space teeming with activity: a synapse is a complex structure where the neural (electrical) signal from the presynaptic neuron, as it travels towards its target –a muscle, a gland or another neuron – turns into a chemical signal capable of crossing the synaptic space before becoming electrical again once on the other side. A synapse is a "dynamic" space not only because of the endless work that goes on there, but also for its ability to change its action over time (synaptic plasticity) as a result of either normal physiological processes (e.g., ...

The sanitation intervention delivered under the terms of the Government of India's Total Sanitation Campaign—the world's largest sanitation initiative—provided almost 25 000 individuals in rural India with access to a latrine. However, it did not reduce exposure to faecal pathogens or decrease the occurrence of diarrhoea, parasitic worm infections, or child malnutrition. "The programme is effective in building latrines, but not all households participate"*, explains lead author Professor Thomas Clasen from Emory University, Atlanta, USA and the London School ...

VIDEO: Dr. Myron M. Levine, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine describes the Ebola vaccine testing taking place in Mali, West Africa. Click here for more information. Professor Myron M. Levine, MD, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), and UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that the CVD, in conjunction with its sister institution, ...

LA JOLLA, CA – October 9, 2013 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have created a synthetic molecule that mimics "good" cholesterol and have shown it can reduce plaque buildup in the arteries of animal models. The molecule, taken orally, improved cholesterol in just two weeks. This research, published in the October issue of Journal of Lipid Research, points scientists toward a new method for treating atherosclerosis, a condition where plaque buildup in the arteries can cause heart attacks and strokes. "Atherosclerosis is the number one killer ...

Large numbers of fish will disappear from the tropics by 2050, finds a new University of Britsh Columbia study that examined the impact of climate change on fish stocks. The study identified ocean hotspots for local fish extinction but also found that changing temperatures will drive more fish into the Arctic and Antarctic waters. Using the same climate change scenarios as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, researchers projected a large-scale shift of marine fish and invertebrates. In the worst-case scenario, where the Earth's oceans warm by three degrees ...

Using a recently developed biomarker of aging known as an epigenetic clock, UCLA researchers working closely with a German team of investigators have found for the first time that obesity greatly accelerates aging of the liver. This finding could explain the early onset of many age-related diseases, including liver cancer, in obese subjects Although it had long been suspected that obesity ages a person faster, it hadn't been possible to prove the theory, said study first author Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA ...

The ideal cost per dose for a new meningitis vaccine ranges from £3 up to a possible £22 only if several vaccine favourable factors all coincide, according to research which has analysed how to maximise the reduction in cases while making a new vaccination programme cost-effective. Bexsero is the first vaccine to broadly protect against meningitis B disease, but research now suggests the Government would need to negotiate a considerable reduction in the £75 list price in order to provide the same value for money as other programmes in the NHS. In March ...

Proteins regulating cell division determine tumour growth. Ongoing clinical trials are currently studying inhibitors for two of these proteins, Cdk4 and Cdk6, targeting several types of cancer, such as breast cancer, lung cancer and leukaemia. The Cell Division and Cancer Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Marcos Malumbres, has discovered the molecular mechanism behind the interaction of these proteins. Researchers also demonstrated in mice that the simultaneous inhibition of both molecules is more effective than the individual inhibition. ...

Focusing on large, star-forming galaxies, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University were able to measure radiation leaks in an effort to better understand how the universe evolved as the first stars were formed. Sanchayeeta Borthakur, an assistant research scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the university's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, reports in a paper published online Oct. 9 in the journal Science that an indicator used for studying star-forming galaxies that leak radiation is an effective measurement tool for other scientists to use. ...

(PHILADELPHIA) – Some cancers, like breast and prostate cancer, are driven by hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, but to date, there are none that are driven by the lack of a hormone. New evidence suggests that human colon cells may become cancerous when they lose the ability to produce a hormone that helps the cells maintain normal biology. If verified by further studies, it suggests that treating patients at high risk for colon cancer by replacing the hormone guanylin could prevent the development of cancer. The researchers at Thomas Jefferson University ...

PHILADELPHIA — Higher levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides, two types of fat, in the blood of men who underwent surgery for prostate cancer, were associated with increased risk for disease recurrence, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "While laboratory studies support an important role for cholesterol in prostate cancer, population-based evidence linking cholesterol and prostate cancer is mixed," said Emma Allott, PhD, postdoctoral associate at Duke ...

Intensive parenting and health education provided in homes of pregnant American Indian teens reduced the mothers' illegal drug use, depression and behavior problems, and set their young children on track to meet behavioral and emotional milestones they may have otherwise missed. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research also suggests that employing local community health educators instead of more formally educated nurses to counsel young at-risk mothers could be cost effective and provide badly needed jobs to high school graduates from the same ...

Adoption of a combination of five key healthy behaviors is associated with a reduction in the risk of developing bowel cancer. Researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke quantified the impact of combined multiple healthy lifestyle behaviors on the risk of developing bowel cancer, and found that this impact is stronger in men than in women. Lead author, Krasimira Aleksandrova, says: "These data provide additional incentive to individuals, medical professionals and public health authorities to invest in healthy lifestyle initiatives. Each ...

The sanitation intervention delivered under the terms of the Government of India's Total Sanitation Campaign—the world's largest sanitation initiative—provided almost 25 000 individuals in rural India with access to a latrine. However, it did not reduce exposure to faecal pathogens or decrease the occurrence of diarrhoea, parasitic worm infections, or child malnutrition. "The programme is effective in building latrines, but not all households participate"*, explains lead author Professor Thomas Clasen from Emory University, Atlanta, USA and the London School ...

Washington, DC (October 9, 2014) — Recent policy and guideline changes related to the care of patients with kidney failure have not created racial disparities, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Such studies are needed to ensure that all patients continue to receive the highest quality of care after such changes are implemented. In 2011, the End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System went into effect, which changed the way dialysis facilities were paid for care related to kidney ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – An emerging class of electrically conductive plastics called "radical polymers" may bring low-cost, transparent solar cells, flexible and lightweight batteries and ultrathin antistatic coatings for consumer electronics and aircraft. Researchers have established the solid-state electrical properties of one such polymer, called PTMA, which is about 10 times more electrically conductive than common semiconducting polymers. "It's a polymer glass that conducts charge, which seems like a contradiction because glasses are usually insulators," said ...

The largest migration on the planet is the movement of small animals from the surface of the open ocean, where they feed on plants under cover of darkness, to the sunless depths where they hide from predators during the day. University of Washington researchers have found that this regular migration helps shape our oceans. During the daylight hours below the surface the animals release ammonia, the equivalent of our urine, that turns out to play a significant role in marine chemistry, particularly in low-oxygen zones. Results are published online this week in the Proceedings ...

PHILADELPHIA - An automated early warning and response system for sepsis developed by Penn Medicine experts has resulted in a marked increase in sepsis identification and care, transfer to the ICU, and an indication of fewer deaths due to sepsis. A study assessing the tool is published online in the Journal of Hospital Medicine. Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection; it can severely impair the body's organs, causing them to fail. There are as many as three million cases of severe sepsis and 750,000 resulting deaths in the United States ...

Just look into the light: not quite, but researchers at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience and Department of Psychology have used light to erase specific memories in mice, and proved a basic theory of how different parts of the brain work together to retrieve episodic memories. Optogenetics, pioneered by Karl Diesseroth at Stanford University, is a new technique for manipulating and studying nerve cells using light. The techniques of optogenetics are rapidly becoming the standard method for investigating brain function. Kazumasa Tanaka, Brian Wiltgen and colleagues ...