For the first time, researchers have used a simplified technique derived from a defense mechanism evolved by bacteria and other single-celled organisms to successfully insert a large DNA sequence into a predetermined genomic site in mammalian cells. The methods used may help investigators genetically engineer cells to produce high levels of certain proteins--for example by placing the DNA sequence of a particular protein at the site of a highly active gene. "The CRISPR-Cas system has been previously used to insert a foreign DNA sequence into a targeted genomic site ...

Since Ebola was first described in 1976, there have been several outbreaks, but all have been self-limiting. In a new Journal of Internal Medicine review, Dr. Ali Mirazimi of the Karolinska Institutet considers why the latest outbreak occurred and discusses the factors that contributed to making it the largest, most sustained, and most widespread outbreak of Ebola. He also notes that several potential treatments are now undergoing clinical trials and have shown initial promising results. "Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases will continue to challenge both human ...

Researchers have developed a non-invasive technique that allows clinicians to accurately detect various forms of skin cancer. The current clinical "gold standard" non-invasive technique, called dermoscopy, is a highly subjective method. But by using what's called Raman spectroscopy, investigators found that malignant melanoma could be detected with an accuracy of 91% and non-melanoma skin cancers could be detected with accuracy between 73% and 85%. "The non-invasive and label-free nature of Raman spectroscopy enables the application in various medical fields. The method ...

Differences in the number of oil-secreting glands in the skin may help explain why wrinkles are shallower in the forehead than in the outer eye area, suggests new research conducted on cadavers. Investigators suspect that the presence of oil-secreting glands and a thinner inner layer of skin, or dermis, may let the skin deform more easily and might be a cause for the development of wrinkles. The findings are published in Clinical Anatomy. INFORMATION: ...

Long QT syndrome (LQTS), a rare hereditary heart condition, can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias, or fast heartbeat irregularities. New research indicates that children with LQTS who take medications for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk of experiencing heart-related problems--especially syncope, or the loss of consciousness. "In light of these findings, special attention is needed when prescribing ADHD medications for LQTS patients, starting with the lowest effective dose and planning close follow-up," said Dr. Valentina Kutyifa, ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) - The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes have been decreasing in the United States and Europe, however they appear to be on the rise in Asia, particularly Japan, according to a guest editor page published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Using data from epidemiological studies and examining a health program launched by the Japanese government, guest editor Masafumi Kitakaze, M.D., Ph.D., found many risk factors in the Japanese population remain unchanged or even ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) -- Adults who walked briskly, were moderately active in their leisure time, drank moderately, didn't smoke and avoided obesity had half the risk of heart failure as adults who did not optimize these modifiable risk factors, according to a study that followed nearly 4,500 adults for two decades. The study was published today in JACC: Heart Failure. Heart failure, a condition where the heart fails to pump as much blood as the body needs, is increasing in frequency in the United States and is a leading cause of hospitalization for people over age ...

Common extra heartbeats known as premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) may be a modifiable risk factor for congestive heart failure (CHF) and death, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. The study, which is in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), is based on more than a decade of research of 1,139 participants from the national Cardiovascular Health Study. PVCs are extra, abnormal heartbeats that occur in the ventricles. They disrupt the heart's regular rhythm but usually are no reason for concern or require treatment. ...

(Philadelphia, PA) - Lupus, multiple sclerosis, and type-1 diabetes are among more than a score of diseases in which the immune system attacks the body it was designed to defend. But just why the immune system begins its misdirected assault has remained a mystery. Now, researchers at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) have shown that bacterial communities known as biofilm play a role in the development of the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus -- a discovery that may provide important clues about several autoimmune ailments. A team led by TUSM ...

Adolescents who saw advertising for medical marijuana were more likely to either report using marijuana or say they planned to use the substance in the future, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Studying more than 8,000 Southern California middle school students, researchers found that youth who reported seeing any ads for medical marijuana were twice as likely as peers who reported never seeing an ad to have used marijuana or report higher intentions to use the drug in the future. The study was published online by the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Researchers ...

Converting large tracts of the Midwest's marginal farming land to perennial biofuel crops carries with it some key unknowns, including how it could affect the balance of water between rainfall, evaporation and movement of soil water to groundwater. In humid climates such as the U.S. Midwest, evaporation returns more than half of the annual precipitation to the atmosphere, with the remainder available to recharge groundwater and maintain stream flow and lake levels. A recent study from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and published in Environmental Research ...

Worcester, Mass. - A study by a multidisciplinary research team, co-directed by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), offers new insights into how virulent fungi adapt through genetic modifications to fight back against the effects of medication designed to block their spread, and how that battle leaves them temporarily weakened. These insights may provide clues to new ways to treat notoriously difficult-to-cure fungal infections like thrush and vaginitis. The team studied patients infected with the fungus Candida albicans (C. albicans), which causes common yeast infections ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) -- The investigation of a simple protein has uncovered its uniquely complicated role in the spread of the childhood cancer, osteosarcoma. It turns out the protein, called ezrin, acts like an air traffic controller, coordinating multiple functions within a cancer cell and allowing it to endure stress conditions encountered during metastasis. It's been known that ezrin is a key regulator of osteosarcoma's spread to the lungs, but its mechanism was not known. Osteosarcoma is a tumor of bone that afflicts children, adolescents and young adults. In ...

Mohamed Boutjdir, PhD, professor of medicine, cell biology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, has led a study with international collaborators identifying the mechanism by which patients with various autoimmune and connective tissue disorders may be at risk for life-threatening cardiac events if they take certain anti-histamine or anti-depressant medications. Dr. Boutjdir is also director of the Cardiac Research Program at VA New York Harbor Healthcare System. The researchers published their findings in the online edition of the American ...

Investigators have discovered the precise molecular steps that enable immune cells implicated in certain forms of asthma and allergy to develop and survive in the body. The findings from Weill Cornell Medical College reveal a new pathway that scientists could use to develop more effective treatments and therapies for the chronic lung disorder. More than 1 in 12 Americans are affected by asthma, a disorder characterized by an overactive immune response to normally harmless substances such as pollen or mold. Scientists had previously discovered that an overabundance of ...

Providers of mental-health services still rely on intervention techniques such as physical restraint and confinement to control some psychiatric hospital patients, a practice which can cause harm to both patients and care facilities, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo. The study, which appears in a special mental health issue of Healthcare Management Forum, found that almost one in four psychiatric patients in Ontario hospitals are restrained using control interventions, such as chairs that prevent rising, wrist restraints, seclusion rooms or acute ...

Older patients with traumatic spinal cord injury are less likely than younger patients to receive surgical treatment and experience a significant lag between injury and surgery, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) The number of people with traumatic spinal cord injury over age 70 is increasing, and it is projected that people in this age group will eventually make up the majority of those with new spinal cord injuries. Currently, most spinal cord injuries occur in people aged 16 to 30 years. To determine whether patients over age ...

Treatment with inhaled nitric oxide (NO) has proven to be life saving in newborns, children and adults with several dangerous conditions, but the availability of the treatment has been limited by the size, weight and complexity of equipment needed to administer the gas and the therapy's high price. Now a research team led by the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician who pioneered the use of inhaled nitric oxide has developed a lightweight, portable system that produces NO from the air by means of an electrical spark. The investigators describe their invention in ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Nitrous oxide, commonly known as "laughing gas," has been used in anesthesiology practice since the 1800s, but the way it works to create altered states is not well understood. In a study published this week in Clinical Neurophysiology, MIT researchers reveal some key brainwave changes among patients receiving the drug. For a period of about three minutes after the administration of nitrous oxide at anesthetic doses, electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings show large-amplitude slow-delta waves, a powerful pattern of electrical firing that sweeps across ...

The human organism contains hundreds of distinct cell types that often differ from their neighbours in shape and function. To acquire and maintain its characteristic features, each cell type must express a unique subset of genes. Neurons, the functional units of our brain, develop through differentiation of neuronal precursors, a process that depends on coordinated activation of hundreds and possibly thousands of neuron-specific genes. A new study published in Nature Communications by researchers from the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology (MRC CDN) at IoPPN, carried ...

Intermittent dosing with rapamycin selectively breaks the cascade of inflammatory events that follow cellular senescence, a phenomena in which cells cease to divide in response to DNA damaging agents, including many chemotherapies. The finding, published in Nature Cell Biology, shows that once disrupted, it takes time for the inflammatory loop to reestablish, providing proof-of-principal that intermittent dosing could provide a way to reap the benefits of rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug that extends lifespan and healthspan in mice, while lessening safety issues associated ...

Carrying around a spare tire is a good thing -- you never know when you'll get a flat. Turns out we're all carrying around "spare tires" in our genomes, too. Today, in ACS Central Science, researchers report that an extra set of guanines (or "G"s) in our DNA may function just like a "spare" to help prevent many cancers from developing. Various kinds of damage can happen to DNA, making it unstable, which is a hallmark of cancer. One common way that our genetic material can be harmed is from a phenomenon called oxidative stress. When our bodies process certain chemicals ...

One of the questions raised by climate change has been whether it could cause more species of animals to interbreed. Two species of flying squirrel have already produced mixed offspring because of climate change, and there have been reports of a hybrid polar bear and grizzly bear cub (known as a grolar bear, or a pizzly). "Climate change is causing species' ranges to shift, and that could bring a lot of closely related species into contact," said Meade Krosby, a research scientist in the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group. She is the lead author of a ...

Screening mammography was associated with increased diagnosis of small cancers in a study across U.S. counties but not with significant changes in breast cancer deaths or a decreased incidence of larger breast cancers, which researchers suggest may be the result of overdiagnosis, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. The goal of screening mammography is to reduce breast cancer death by detecting and treating cancer early in the course of the disease. If screening detects tumors early, the diagnosis of smaller and more treatable cancers should ...

Many physicians and advanced practice clinicians, including registered nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants, reported to work while being sick despite recognizing this could put patients at risk, according to the results of a small survey published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Health-care associated infections can lead to substantial illness and death and excess costs. This is especially true for immunocompromised patients and others at high risk, including neonates. However, a gap in knowledge exists about the reasons why attending physicians and advanced ...