An immune cell protein, ID2, is critical for the maintenance of healthy gut microbiota and helps these good bacteria fight off harmful bacteria, report scientists from the University of Chicago. The study, published in Immunity on April 21, suggests that novel therapeutics or microbiota transplantation could be used to promote the development of good gut microbiota to indirectly kill harmful bacteria for patients with recurrent gut infection. "Our study reveals how our body's immune system shapes the gut microbiota to naturally limit infections," says senior author Yang-Xin ...

The immune system is designed to protect us from disease. But what if it was malfunctioning? Would it make a disease worse? That appears to be the case with Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder, and possibly in other neurological disorders as well, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine has found. UVA's discovery suggests that immune cells bearing a mutation in the Rett gene, MeCP2, cannot perform their normal function and are instead amplifying the disease. By identifying a new role of the immune system in the disorder, through cells ...

In order to sing or speak, around one hundred different muscles in our chest, neck, jaw, tongue, and lips must work together to produce sound. Beckman researchers investigate how all these mechanisms effortlessly work together--and how they change over time. "The fact that we can produce all sorts of sounds and we can sing is just amazing to me," said Aaron Johnson, affiliate faculty member in the Bioimaging Science and Technology Group at the Beckman Institute and assistant professor in speech and hearing science at Illinois. "Sounds are produced by the vibrations of ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - It's estimated that six out of 1,000 children worldwide are affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 50 percent demonstrate serious and disruptive behavior, including tantrums, aggression, self-injury and noncompliance. For children with ASD, serious disruptive behavior interrupts daily functioning and social skills development, limits their ability to benefit from education and speech therapy, can increase social isolation and intensify caregiver stress. Luc Lecavalier and his team of researchers from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical ...

In a small study that included seven children and teens with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a rare immunodeficiency disorder, use of gene therapy resulted in clinical improvement in infectious complications, severe eczema, and symptoms of autoimmunity, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the WAS gene. The condition is characterized by thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), eczema, and recurring infections. In the absence of definitive treatment, patients ...

In a study that included approximately 95,000 children with older siblings, receipt of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was not associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), regardless of whether older siblings had ASD, findings that indicate no harmful association between receipt of MMR vaccine and ASD even among children already at higher risk for ASD, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. Although a substantial body of research over the last 15 years has found no link between the MMR vaccine ...

A 24 week parent training program, which provided specific techniques to manage disruptive behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder, resulted in a greater reduction in disruptive and noncompliant behavior compared to parent education, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects an estimated 6 per 1,000 children worldwide and is a major public health challenge. As many as 50 percent of children with ASD exhibit behavioral problems, including tantrums, noncompliance, aggression, and ...

In a pilot study that included children at high risk for type 1 diabetes, daily high-dose oral insulin, compared with placebo, resulted in an immune response to insulin without hypoglycemia, findings that support the need for a phase 3 trial to determine whether oral insulin can prevent islet autoimmunity and diabetes in high-risk children, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. A few specific proteins are often the trigger for immune responses that cause autoimmune diseases. This has led to the experimental use of antigen­specific ...

The incidence of a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, in youth in Colorado at the time of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes increased by 55 percent between 1998 and 2012, suggesting a growing number of youth may experience delays in diagnosis and treatment, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at the time of type 1 diabetes (T1D) diagnosis has detrimental long-term effects and is characterized by dangerously high blood sugar and the presence of substances in ...

A multi-site study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) finds young children with autism spectrum disorder and serious behavioral problems respond positively to a 24-week structured parent training. The benefits of parent training endured for up to six months post intervention. Published in the April 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association the study found parent training was more effective in reducing disruptive and aggressive behavior than 24 weeks of parent education. Parent training provided parents with specific strategies ...

Researchers from the University of Tokyo have revamped an old e-paper concept to make an inexpensive handwriting-enabled e-paper well suited to large displays like whiteboards. They describe the e-paper in the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing. Traditional ink and paper is convenient for both reading and writing. In e-paper development the writing feature has generally lagged behind. Handwriting-enabled displays mainly show up in the inexpensive, but feature-limited realm of children's toys, and in the high-end realm of touch-screen e-readers and smart ...

French teams from CIC Biothérapie (AP-HP/Inserm), from pediatric hematology department of Necker Hospital for Children (AP-HP), led by Marina Cavazzana, Salima Hacein Bey Albina and Alain Fischer and from Genethon led by Anne Galy (Genethon/Inserm UMR-S951), and English teams from UCL Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London led by Adrian Thrasher and Bobby Gaspar demonstrated the efficacy of gene therapy treatment for Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS). Six children that were treated and followed for at least 9 months had their immune system ...

BOULDER, Colo. -- In another advance at the far frontiers of timekeeping by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers, the latest modification of a record-setting strontium atomic clock has achieved precision and stability levels that now mean the clock would neither gain nor lose one second in some 15 billion years*--roughly the age of the universe. Precision timekeeping has broad potential impacts on advanced communications, positioning technologies (such as GPS) and many other technologies. Besides keeping future technologies on schedule, ...

Scientists from the DFG Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden, TU Dresden and the Institut für Diabetesforschung, Helmholtz Zentrum München, together with researchers from Vienna, Bristol and Denver (USA) have successfully completed the first step in development of an insulin vaccine to prevent type 1 diabetes. As reported by these diabetes researchers in the current edition of the renowned scientific journal JAMA, evaluations of the international Pre-POINT study point to a positive immune response in persons at risk for the disease who were given oral doses ...

AURORA, Colo. (April 21, 2015) - The incidence of a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes, called diabetic ketoacidosis, increased by 55 percent between 1998 and 2012 in youth in Colorado, according to a study by researchers from the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes and the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. The finding is published in the April 21 issue of JAMA. Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at the time of type 1 diabetes diagnosis has detrimental long-term effects and is characterized by dangerously high ...

AURORA, Colo. (April 21, 2015) - Children at risk for type 1 diabetes, who were given daily doses of oral insulin, developed a protective immune response to the disease that researchers with the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus say could possibly lay the groundwork for a vaccine against the chronic illness. The pilot study, published Tuesday, April 21, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), was carried out in the U.S., Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. "This is the first time ...

Sweet potatoes from all over the world naturally contain genes from the bacterium Agrobacterium. Researchers from UGent and the International Potato Institute publish this discovery in PNAS. Sweet potato is one of the most important food crops for human consumption in the world. Because of the presence of this 'foreign' DNA, sweet potato can be seen as a 'natural GMO.' The researchers discovered the foreign DNA sequences of Agrobacterium while searching the genome - this is the entire DNA-code - of sweet potato for viral diseases. Instead of contributing this peculiar ...

Female liver cells, and in particular those in menopaused women, are more susceptible to adverse effects of drugs than their male counterparts, according to new research carried out by the JRC. It is well known that women are more vulnerable when it comes to drug-induced liver effects, but it's the first time it has been shown that there are differences at cellular level. The findings are striking and clinically relevant, and emphasise the importance of considering sex-based differences in human health risk assessment. In this study, five prevalently used drugs (diclofenac, ...

WORCESTER, MA -- In a promising breakthrough for smokers who are trying to quit, neuroscientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and The Scripps Research Institute have identified circuitry in the brain responsible for the increased anxiety commonly experienced during withdrawal from nicotine addiction. "We identified a novel circuit in the brain that becomes active during nicotine withdrawal, specifically increasing anxiety," said principal investigator Andrew Tapper, PhD , associate professor of psychiatry. "Increased anxiety is a prominent nicotine ...

Before web developers add the newest bells and the latest whistles to their website designs, a team of researchers suggests they zoom in on the tools that click with the right users and for the right tasks. "When designers create sites, they have to make decisions on what tools and features they use and where they put them, which takes a lot of planning," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. "You not only have to plan where the feature will be, you also have to design what will go underneath ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT physicists have developed a new tabletop particle detector that is able to identify single electrons in a radioactive gas. As the gas decays and gives off electrons, the detector uses a magnet to trap them in a magnetic bottle. A radio antenna then picks up very weak signals emitted by the electrons, which can be used to map the electrons' precise activity over several milliseconds. The team worked with researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Washington, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and ...

DURHAM, N.C. - A new study based on 1,000 years of temperature records suggests global warming is not progressing as fast as it would under the most severe emissions scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "Based on our analysis, a middle-of-the-road warming scenario is more likely, at least for now," said Patrick T. Brown, a doctoral student in climatology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. "But this could change." The Duke-led study shows that natural variability in surface temperatures -- caused by interactions ...

The study conducted at Sant Pau and Bellvitge hospitals, published in the American journal Molecular Psychiatry and conducted with the use of neuroimaging techniques, demonstrates for the first time that cannabis consumers have a less active hippocampus, a key structure related to the storage of memories. Consumers of cannabis show distortions in their memories and can even come to imagine situations which differ from reality. The study compared the memories of consumers to that of non-consumers to find differences in the retention of situations and experiences. The ...

New research led by NYU Langone Medical Center examines what happens when a patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) who is clinically stable stops taking their medication. The international, multi-site study found almost 40 percent of patients had some disease activity return when they stopped taking their meds. The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting held April 18-25, in Washington, D.C. "Despite long periods of disease stability while taking medication, we found a large minority of patients who stopped experienced relapses or disability ...

PHILADELPHIA - RNA is both the bridge between DNA and the production of proteins that carry out the functions of life and what guides which and how much protein gets made. As messenger RNA (mRNA) is transcribed from DNA to carry genetic information out of the nucleus, segments that don't code for actual proteins need to be removed from the RNA strand and the remaining pieces spliced together. Different pieces of the expressed gene (exons) are cut out, and these sections are joined together to form the final mRNA strand. Cells gain their ability to produce proteins with ...