Thousands of genetic "dimmer" switches, regions of DNA known as regulatory elements, were turned up high during human evolution in the developing cerebral cortex, according to new research from the Yale School of Medicine. Unlike in rhesus monkeys and mice, these switches show increased activity in humans, where they may drive the expression of genes in the cerebral cortex, the region of the brain that is involved in conscious thought and language. This difference may explain why the structure and function of that part of the brain is so unique in humans compared to other ...

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) appear to have better survival if they are found to have monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) first, the state that precedes MM and which is typically diagnosed as part of a medical workup for another reason, according to a study published online by JAMA Oncology. Most MGUS cases are never diagnosed; MGUS is characterized by a detectable M protein without evidence for end-organ damage or other related plasma cell or lymphoproliferative disorders. Only a small proportion of MGUS progresses to malignancy, with the ...

A genetic test for patients with breast cancer that helps to predict the risk of developing metastatic disease and the expected benefits of chemotherapy has been adopted quickly into clinical practice in a study of older patients and it appears to be used consistently within guidelines and equitably across geographic and racial groups, according to a study published online by JAMA Oncology. The 21-gene recurrence score (RS) assay was approved for coverage in 2006 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The test is meant for patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, ...

Injecting botulinum toxin A (known commercially as Botox) appears to be a safe procedure to improve smiles by restoring lip symmetry in children with facial paralysis, a condition they can be born with or acquire because of trauma or tumor, according to a report published online by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. Botulinum toxin A is an effective treatment in adults to achieve facial symmetry after facial paralysis but few investigators have described its use in children, according to the study background. Severe cases of facial paralysis can require surgical reconstruction, ...

A physician who received an experimental Ebola vaccine after experiencing a needle stick while working in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone did not develop Ebola virus infection, and there was strong Ebola-specific immune responses after the vaccination, although because of its limited use to date, the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine is not certain, according to a study appearing in JAMA. On September 26, 2014, a 44-year-old physician from the United States caring for patients in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone experienced an accidental needle stick, ...

A new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute has found that screening for and treating depression could help to reduce the risk of heart disease in patients with moderate to severe depression. Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, the flagship facility for the Intermountain Healthcare system based in Salt Lake City, analyzed the health records and rates of death, coronary artery disease and stroke of more than 26,000 patients treated by Intermountain over a three-year period. This is the first study to assess ...

A low-cost antiseptic used to cleanse the cord after birth could help reduce infant death rates in developing countries by 12%, a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library suggests. Authors of the review found that when chlorhexidine was used on babies born outside of a hospital, it reduces the number of newborn babies who died or suffer from infections. A third of deaths in newborn babies are caused by infections. As one of the World Health Organisation's Essential Medicines, chlorhexidine has been used in hospitals and other medical settings to prevent bacterial ...

More young people than ever are getting most of their information about sexual matters from school, but the majority feel they are not getting all the information they need, and men in particular are missing out, according to new research published in BMJ Open. The findings come from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), the largest scientific study of sexual health and lifestyles in Britain. The research was carried out by UCL (University College London), the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and NatCen Social Research. ...

CHICAGO --- Walking barefoot on sand "felt like walking on glass" for Keith Wenckowski, who has lived with type-one diabetes for more than two decades. One of the participants in a new Northwestern Medicine study who suffered from painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN), Wenckowski finally found relief from the constant foot pain that required him to wear shoes at all times, even to the beach. The study found that those with PDN who received two low dose rounds of a non-viral gene therapy called VM202 had significant improvement of their pain that lasted for months. "I ...

Methane is one hot gas. It's a prominent component of natural gas, an important atmospheric gas, and a product of both biology and chemical reactions. Its presence was recently confirmed in the atmosphere of Mars by NASA's Curiosity Rover and it has made the news both as a critical greenhouse gas and as a groundwater contaminant resulting from fracking. Yet, while methane seems to be everywhere, many questions remain about the reactions that produce and consume this high-energy compound. "Deciphering the many pathways by which methane is produced is one of the holy grails ...

For the first time, CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology has been employed in a whole organism model to systematically target every gene in the genome. A team of scientists at the Broad Institute and MIT's David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research have pioneered the use of this technology to "knock out," or turn off, all genes across the genome systematically in an animal model of cancer, revealing genes involved in tumor evolution and metastasis and paving the way for similar studies in other cell types and diseases. The work appears online March 5 in Cell. "Genome-scale ...

A molecule found in some plants can combat weight gain induced by a high-fat diet, but only in female mice, not males. 7,8-dihydroxyflavone (7,8-DHF) is thought to mimic the effects of a growth factor induced by exercise. Emory researchers led by Keqiang Ye, PhD, have shown that female mice treated with 7,8-DHF could consume a high-fat diet without gaining weight. In the mice, 7,8-DHF could increase energy expenditure by acting on muscle cells, without suppressing appetite. "An equivalent diet pill in humans would allow people to maintain a healthy weight, despite a ...

Did you know that our body produces its own marijuana-like compound to protect us against anxiety? A study led by Ottawa researchers, published today in Neuron, reveals a new biological pathway that regulates this system and suggests that a drug currently in clinical trials to treat obesity might also provide an attractive way to combat anxiety disorders. "Anxiety and obesity are growing problems in society," said Dr. Hsiao-Huei Chen, associate professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa and a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. "Not only ...

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its capacity to trap heat in Earth's atmosphere for a long time. The gas can originate from lakes and swamps, natural-gas pipelines, deep-sea vents, and livestock. Understanding the sources of methane, and how the gas is formed, could give scientists a better understanding of its role in warming the planet. Now a research team led by scientists at MIT and including colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Toronto, and elsewhere has developed an instrument that can ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Soybean oil accounts for more than 90 percent of all the seed oil production in the United States. Genetically modified (GM) soybean oil, made from seeds of GM soybean plants, was recently introduced into the food supply on the premise that it is healthier than conventional soybean oil. But is that premise true? Just barely, say scientists at the University of California, Riverside and their colleagues at UC Davis. The researchers compared the effects of both oils in experiments performed in the lab on mice. They found that the GM soybean oil is ...

Astronomers have glimpsed a far off and ancient star exploding, not once, but four times. The exploding star, or supernova, was directly behind a cluster of huge galaxies, whose mass is so great that they warp space-time. This forms a cosmic magnifying glass that creates multiple images of the supernova, an effect first predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity 100 years ago. Dr Brad Tucker from The Australian National University (ANU) says it's a dream discovery for the team. "It's perfectly set up, you couldn't have designed a better experiment," ...

Take a wild, common forest-dwelling mouse-like rodent, known as a vole, and subject it to 13 rounds of selection for increased aerobic exercise metabolism, and what do you get? A mighty "mouse" with a 48 percent higher peak rate of oxygen consumption and an increased basal metabolic rate, compared to unselected controls. In a new study appearing in the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution, authors Konczal et al. took advantage of an experimental evolution technique that has gained popularity, dubbed "evolve and resequence," to measure the genetic ...

The eastern coastline of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a mecca for tourists, may have been walloped by a tsunami between 1,500 and 900 years ago, says a new study involving Mexico's Centro Ecological Akumal (CEA) and the University of Colorado Boulder. There are several lines of evidence for an ancient tsunami, foremost a large, wedge-shaped berm about 15 feet above sea level paved with washing machine-sized stones, said the researchers. Set back in places more than a quarter of a mile from shore, the berm stretches for at least 30 miles, alternating between rocky headlands ...

Recent research from the Long Life Family Study (LLFS) confirms that severe mortality-associated diseases are less prevalent in the families of long-lived individuals than in the general population. The Journals of Gerontology, Series A® will publish these findings in the article titled, "Are Members of Long-Lived Families Healthier than Their Equally Long-Lived Peers? Evidence from the Long Life Family Study" on March 5, 2015. The LLFS is an international collaborative study of the genetics and familial components of exceptional survival, longevity, and healthy aging. Researchers ...

An extraordinary self-regulating heating effect that can be achieved in a particular type of magnetic material may open the doors to a new strategy for hyperthermia cancer treatment. Temperatures that can be tolerated by healthy body cells have long been known to destroy cancerous cells. An approach that uses magnetic particles that are introduced into tissue and heated remotely has found some success in treating cancer, but the technique is still some way from becoming a standard procedure. One of the problems hindering progress is the insufficient heating capacity ...

Our smartphones help us find a phone number quickly, provide us with instant directions and recommend restaurants, but new research indicates that this convenience at our fingertips is making it easy for us to avoid thinking for ourselves. The study, from researchers at the University of Waterloo and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggests that smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers -- more prone to relying on gut feelings and instincts when making decisions -- frequently use their device's search engine rather than their own brainpower. Smartphones ...

Philadelphia, PA, March 5, 2015 - Antibodies defend the body against bacterial, viral, and other invaders. But sometimes the body makes antibodies that attack healthy cells. In these cases, autoimmune disorders develop. Immune abnormalities in patients with psychosis have been recognized for over a century, but it has been only relatively recently that scientists have identified specific immune mechanisms that seem to directly produce symptoms of psychosis, including hallucinations and delusions. This 'immune hypothesis' is supported by new work published by Pathmanandavel ...

By studying specially bred mice with specific developmental and cognitive traits resembling those seen in schizophrenia, UC San Francisco researchers have provided new evidence that abnormal rhythmic activity in particular brain cells contributes to problems with learning, attention, and decision-making in individuals with that disorder. As reported in the March 5, 2015 online edition of Neuron, when the researchers corrected these cells' faulty rhythm, either by directly stimulating the cells or by administering low doses of a commonly used drug, cognitive deficits in ...

The molecular complex that guides an important class of proteins to correct locations in cell membranes does so by forming a dimeric structure with a protective pocket, report scientists from the University of Chicago in Science on Mar. 5. This structure shields tail-anchored membrane proteins - which have roles in a wide variety of cellular functions from neurotransmitter release to insulin production - from harmful aggregation or misfolding as they move through the inner environment of a cell. The findings clarify the mechanism behind a fundamental biological process. "The ...

Dr. Anne Steinemann, Professor of Civil Engineering, and the Chair of Sustainable Cities, from the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering, is a world expert on environmental pollutants, air quality, and health effects. Professor Steinemann investigated and compared volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from 37 different products, such as air fresheners, cleaning products, laundry supplies, and personal care products, including those with certifications and claims of 'green' and 'organic'. Both fragranced and fragrance-free products ...