New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that the protein keratin 17 - the presence of which is used in the lab to detect and stage various types of cancers - is not just a biomarker for the disease, but may play a critical role in tumor growth. This new understanding of how keratin 17 works, the researchers say, could lead to the development of better ways to detect and prevent cancer, and identify new targets for therapeutic treatment. A report on the findings is published July 13 in Nature Genetics. "Keratin 17 is a sensitive ...

North Carolina State University researchers have developed an effective and environmentally benign method to combat bacteria by engineering nanoscale particles that add the antimicrobial potency of silver to a core of lignin, a ubiquitous substance found in all plant cells. The findings introduce ideas for better, greener and safer nanotechnology and could lead to enhanced efficiency of antimicrobial products used in agriculture and personal care. In a study being published in Nature Nanotechnology July 13, NC State engineer Orlin Velev and colleagues show that silver-ion ...

A follow-up to a 2005 study of industry relationships among members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at academic health centers finds both improvements in the management of such relationships, with increased levels of disclosure and fewer problematic relationships, and the persistence of problems such as IRB members' voting on protocols with which they may have conflicts of interest, a violation of federal regulations. The new study from the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital appears in the July 13 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. ...

Contact with another player was the most common way boys and girls sustained concussions in a study of U.S. high school soccer players, while heading the ball was the most common soccer-specific activity during which about one-third of boys and one-quarter of girls sustained concussions, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Soccer has increased in popularity in the United States over the past three decades. In 1969-1970, there were 2,217 schools that fielded 49,593 boys' soccer players and no girls' soccer players compared to 2013-2014 when 11,718 ...

While the percentage of institutional review board (IRB) members with an industry relationship has not changed significantly since 2005, the percentage of members who felt other members had not properly disclosed a financial relationship has decreased as did the percentage of IRB members who felt pressure from their institution or department to approve a protocol, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Academic-industry relationships are defined as academics who provide life science companies (for example biotechnology, drug and device companies) ...

A small imaging study suggests cortical cerebral microbleeds in the brain, which are the remnant of red blood cell leakage from small vessels, were associated with reduced brain blood flow in a group of cognitively normal older patients, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology. Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are a common finding in magnetic resonance imaging of elderly patients. Some previous research has suggested an association between CMBs and cognitive deficits, although the mechanism is not clear. Some studies also have suggested CMBs may be related ...

Global air travel contributes around 3.5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions behind/driving anthropogenic climate change, according to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But what impact does a warming planet have on air travel and how might that, in turn, affect the rate of warming itself? A new study by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and University of Wisconsin Madison found a connection between climate and airline flight times, suggesting a feedback loop could exist between the carbon emissions of airplanes and our changing ...

The remarkable ease and accuracy with which scientists can alter genomes using the CRISPR-Cas9 system has led to promising advances toward improving human health and the environment through genetic engineering. Cas9, a protein found naturally in certain bacteria, functions like a pair of molecular scissors to precisely cut sections of DNA and is extremely effective as a gene-editing tool. It can be directed to a specific gene through the use of a matching guide RNA sequence to perform gene mutations, putting programmable control of gene editing in the hands of scientists. Even ...

Scientists from the University of Leeds have uncovered the most comprehensive list yet of genes implicated in a group of common inherited diseases. The research, published in Nature Cell Biology today, means that these disorders, known as ciliopathies, can be diagnosed more quickly and could lead to new treatments for patients. Ciliopathies are caused by defects in cilia, finger-like projections from cells that act as microscopic "antenna" to detect and respond to chemical changes or fluid flow outside the cell. Kidney disease, which often leads to kidney failure, ...

UNSW Australia scientists have discovered a link between autism and genetic changes in some segments of DNA that are responsible for switching on genes in the brain. The finding is the result of a world-first study of the human brain that identified more than 100 of these DNA segments, known as enhancers, which are thought to play a vital role in normal development by controlling gene activity in the brain. "Our study provides a unique resource of information on gene function in the human brain which could help reveal the basis of autism and related neurological disorders," ...

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin is one of the most frequent cancers in humans affecting more than half million new persons every year in the world. The transformation of a normal cell to a cancer cell is caused by an accumulation of genetic abnormalities in the progeny of single cells. The spectrum of genetic anomalies found in a variety of human cancers have been described. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) arising from various organs including head-and-neck, lung, esophagus and skin, are induced by carcinogens, such as tobacco and UV exposure. Mouse models of carcinogen-induced ...

Numerous long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been conducted to investigate the long-term, factor concentrate-based treatment of patients with severe haemophilia A or B, despite the rareness of the diseases and the lack of incentives for pharmaceutical companies. These RCTs include three studies comparing prophylactic versus on-demand treatment (i.e. treatment initiated only in the event of bleeding). For patients with haemophilia A, both hints and an indication of an added benefit of prophylactic versus on-demand treatment can be inferred from these studies, ...

July 13, 2015 - For people who use cocaine, stopping or reducing cocaine use is associated with decreased levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1)--a protein that plays a key role in the development of coronary artery disease, reports a study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. The findings help in understanding the high rate of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) associated with cocaine use, according to the report by Dr. Shenghan Lai and colleagues of Johns ...

Canadian and British researchers have discovered that chromosomes play an active role in animal cell division. This occurs at a precise stage - cytokinesis - when the cell splits into two new daughter cells. It was observed by a team of researchers including Gilles Hickson, an assistant professor at the University of Montreal's Department of Pathology and Cell Biology and researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, his assistant Silvana Jananji, in collaboration with Nelio Rodrigues, a PhD student, and Sergey Lekomtsev, a postdoc, working in the group led by Buzz ...

This news release is available in French. Montréal, July 13, 2015 - It's no coincidence that the earthworm's slender shape makes it perfect for weaving through narrow tunnels. Evolution moulds the shapes of living creatures according to the benefits they offer. At the microscopic level, do the various shapes of bacteria also contribute to their survival? Does a spherical bacterium (coccus) have a better chance of infecting its host than its stick-shaped neighbour (bacillus)? Analysis of the evolution of the pathogenic bacteria that live in the nasopharynx suggests ...

WASHINGTON (July 13,2015) - The American College of Cardiology's National Cardiovascular Data Registry was the source of data for research published in the first half of 2015, including a study that examines public reporting and PCI outcomes as well as research that showed implantable cardioverter-defibrillators are underutilized in older patients. Is There a Link Between Public Reporting and PCI Outcomes? Patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in states with mandated public reporting of outcomes had similar predicted risks but significantly ...

July 13, 2015 -Children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who are doing well on specific biological medications should not be switched to recently approved "biosimilar" products, concludes an expert consensus statement of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN). The statement appears in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, the official journal of the European Society of Paediatric Gatroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and ...

The world's rarest ape has an increased chance of survival after a team led by international conservation charity the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) found a new family group of Hainan gibbons (Nomascus hainanus). Until last month, it was thought that there were just 25 Hainan gibbons living in three social groups on an island off the Chinese mainland. The discovery of a new fourth group, a mating pair with a young baby, sighted within Bawangling National Nature Reserve, Hainan Province, increases the known population by almost 12%. The discovery of this fourth ...

Numerous long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been conducted to investigate the long-term, factor concentrate-based treatment of patients with severe haemophilia A or B, despite the rareness of the diseases and the lack of incentives for pharmaceutical companies. These RCTs include three studies comparing prophylactic versus on-demand treatment (i.e. treatment initiated only in the event of bleeding). For patients with haemophilia A, both hints and an indication of an added benefit of prophylactic versus on-demand treatment can be inferred from these studies, ...

Children consume more low-nutrition, high-calorie food such as cookies and candy after observing seemingly overweight cartoon characters, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The results of the new study, involving Colorado State University and published online in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, show that kids are responsive to the apparent bodyweight of cartoon characters like the aptly named Grimace, a rotund, milkshake-loving creature created by McDonald's restaurant in the 1970s. Children tend to perceive ovoid, or ...

Immune cells that creep across blood vessels trigger potentially fatal bleeding in platelet-deficient mice, according to a report published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. If the same is true in humans, blocking the passage of these cells could prevent dangerous complications in patients undergoing transplants or chemotherapy. Bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy are known to deplete blood-clotting cells called platelets, resulting in potentially fatal bleeding (hemorrhage) in some patients. Previous studies showed that inflammation was required for bleeding ...

BOSTON (July 13, 2015)--Physicians in their medical residency training programs often focus on scientific reasoning and research evidence in their efforts to provide medical care. While appropriate, this focus may overshadow subtle and indirect communication that reveals important information about the patient's experience with their illness that will help the physician provide better care. A new study by researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and Boston College presents the results of a strategy to train medical residents to reflect on interactions with patients ...

James Cook University scientists have helped invent a clever technique to tell black leopards apart - a trick that may end up saving their skins. Scientists from JCU in Australia and others have been studying the leopards on the Malay Peninsula - where almost all of the big cats are jet black. Experts have no idea why the leopards are black and, until recently, could not tell them apart, hindering research and conservation efforts. But researchers have now devised a simple method to solve the problem by manipulating the mechanism of automatic cameras. "Most automatic ...

Scientists have found that strains of the wheat pathogen causing severe yellow rust epidemics in Europe have their origin in the centre of diversity in the Himalayan region. This disease can have a great impact on wheat production in Europe, including organic crop production in Denmark. Wheat is the most widely cultivated food crop in the world. However, the global production of wheat is under constant threat from devastating fungal diseases. The ever more frequent and severe large-scale epidemics caused by these fungi pose a severe threat to global food security. Scientists ...

A new study has found that cancer survivors' options for adoption may be limited by adoption agencies' policies. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study also indicates that a training program for oncology healthcare providers can help them provide valuable information to patients who are making decisions about fertility and adoption. Because cancer and the therapies used to treat it can leave some patients infertile, many young cancer survivors may turn to adoption when hoping to start--or add to--a family. Adoption ...