A new Australian study shows that cells which form the bulk of our fast-acting 'innate' immune system behave differently, depending on whether an injury is infected or not. It is well known that paparazzi-like 'neutrophils' swarm to sites of injury within minutes to undertake damage control and kill invaders. Most have very short lives and self-destruct once their job is done. Sydney researchers now demonstrate that in certain cases neutrophils can also enlist reinforcements in their fight against pathogens. If the injury is infected, neutrophils seek out accomplices ...

A ground-breaking discovery by Monash University researchers could revolutionise treatments given to lupus sufferers, saving thousands of people each year from serious illness or death caused by secondary infections. Lupus is a vicious and widespread autoimmune disease that can attack any part of the body. It affects one in 1,000 Australians and 5 million people worldwide, and its victims are typically young women. Indigenous and Asian people suffer higher rates than other groups. Current treatments for lupus essentially 'switch off' the patient's immune system to stop ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Compelling clinical activity of PM1183 in second line, achieving 67% response rate and a progression-free survival of 4.7 months in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), a type of tumor with very limited treatment alternatives Data from an interim analysis from the pivotal Phase 3 trial of YONDELIS® in soft tissue sarcoma, SAR-3007, will be presented in an oral presentation Phase 2 data showcase activity of YONDELIS® in malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer that is largely related ...

Even a busy job may not provide enough exercise to meet current activity recommendations for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, according to a study reported today at the EuroPRevent congress in Lisbon.1 Dr Eleanor McIntyre from the Galway University Hospital in Ireland said that the workplace - where most adults spend around 60% of their waking hours - "represents a significant domain where short bouts of physical activity can be accrued and counted towards the recommended guidelines" for CVD prevention. However, results from this small study, which assessed the ...

WASHINGTON (May 13, 2015) -- An early phase study testing an anti-PDL1 agent in combination with standard chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer has provided promising early results, prompting multiple phase III studies in lung cancer. The findings are being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In this phase 1b study, patients with untreated non-small cell lung cancer received one of three standard platinum-based chemotherapy regimens (paclitaxel/carboplatin, pemetrexed/carboplatin or nab-paclitaxel/carboplatin) ...

MANHATTAN, Kansas -- Our belief in pure evil influences our feelings about capital punishment, finds a Kansas State University psychology study. Donald Saucier, associate professor of psychological sciences and 2015-2016 Coffman chair for distinguished teaching scholars, looked at how beliefs in pure evil influenced how people treated those who committed crimes. He recently completed the study with Russell Webster at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Approximately 200 participants were given a summary of a case in which a murderer confessed to his crime. Researchers then ...

AURORA, Colo. (May 14, 2015) - More than half of all Medicaid enrollees prefer the "one-stop shop" of a hospital emergency department to receive care for conditions that could be treated effectively at a primary care clinic, according to an article by a researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. The finding exposes a gap in the services provided to Medicaid enrollees. From a patient's perspective, going to the hospital emergency department may be less expensive because patients can avoid costs of travel and time away from ...

PHILADELPHIA - In the first-of-its-kind study since the passage of the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act (the HOPE Act), which lifted the ban on organ donations from one HIV-positive person to another, Penn Medicine researchers report on the quality of these organs and how their use might impact the country's organ shortage. The study, published online ahead of print May 14 in the American Journal of Transplantation, revealed that there are nearly 400 HIV-positive potential organ donors who could be sources of donated organs annually for HIV-positive patients waiting for organ ...

All land is not created equal. Some ecosystems do triple duty in the benefits they provide to society. Massachusetts forests, for example, filter public drinking water while also providing habitat for threatened species and storing carbon to combat climate change. Ecologists and conservation groups single out the hardest-working ecosystems -- called "hotspots" -- for their exceptional conservation value. A new study published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology reports that the number of ecosystem hotspots has increased in Massachusetts over the past decade, with ...

In 2013, the United States government passed the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, which allows research to be conducted on the safety of organ donation from deceased donors with HIV to recipients with HIV. A new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation explores the quality of these organs and how their use might impact the country's organ shortage. In the United States, there are not enough organ donors to meet the needs of all patients who might benefit from lifesaving organ transplants. Some patients waiting for organs are infected with HIV, and ...

CHICAGO -- With the increasing demand for food with health benefits, high nutritional value food materials are attracting more attention from both consumers and food manufacturers. A new study by researchers at Wilmar (Shanghai) Biotechnology Research and Development Center Co., Ltd. in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), found that germinated buckwheat, an important raw material for food and functional food production, had better nutritional value than ungerminated buckwheat. Germination is a complex process in which ...

An article publishing online today in Brain: A Journal of Neurology has found that individual differences in brain structure could help to determine the risk for future drug addiction. The study found that occasional users who subsequently increased their drug use compared with those who did not, showed brain structural differences when they started using drugs. In the two studies, researchers, led by Dr. Benjamin Becker, scanned the brain structure of 66 participants to provide the first likely evidence showing volumes of fronto-striato-limbic regions of the brain have ...

A robotic arm that can bend, stretch and squeeze through cluttered environments has been created by a group of researchers from Italy. Inspired by the eight arms of the octopus, the device has been specifically designed for surgical operations to enable surgeons to easily access remote, confined regions of the body and, once there, manipulate soft organs without damaging them. It is believed the device could reduce the number of instruments, and thus entry incisions, necessary in surgical operations, with part of the arm being used to manipulate organs whilst another ...

The use of glycated haemoglobin (sugar-bound haemoglobin, or HbA1c) is now in almost universal use to assist doctors in the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. However new research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) highlights how anaemia--a common condition in the general population, especially in women--can lead to a false diagnosis of diabetes based on HbA1c, when a person's blood sugar control is actually normal. The research is by Dr Emma English, University of Nottingham, UK, and colleagues. In recent years, ...

Weak grip strength is linked with shorter survival and a greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke, according to an international study involving almost 140000 adults from 17 culturally and economically diverse countries [1]. The study, published in The Lancet, also found that grip strength is a stronger predictor of death than systolic blood pressure, and the authors suggest that it could be used as a quick, low-cost screening tool by doctors or other healthcare professionals to identify high-risk patients among people who develop major illnesses such as heart ...

Hamilton, ON (May 13, 2015) - The firmness of your hand grip is better than your blood pressure at assessing your health, Hamilton researchers have found, and reduced muscular strength, measured by your grip, is consistently linked with early death, disability and illness. The research by the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences was published in the journal The Lancet today. "Grip strength could be an easy and inexpensive test to assess an individual's risk of death and cardiovascular disease," said principal investigator ...

PHILADELPHIA - Four different financial incentive programs, each worth roughly $800 over six months, all help more smokers kick the habit than providing free access to behavioral counseling and nicotine replacement therapy. Further, the way in which equally-sized payouts are structured influences their effectiveness. The findings are the result of a year-long randomized trial among CVS Caremark (now CVS Health) employees that was conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and is published online first in the New England ...

PITTSBURGH, May 13, 2015 - Some cases of male infertility are due to mutations in the maternal X chromosome that prevent development of viable sperm, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI). The study was published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Nearly half of cases of male infertility not due to a physical obstruction are estimated to have genetic roots, and about 20 percent of infertile men have azoospermia, meaning they don't make sperm, explained ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 13, 2015 - Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) today announced it will present data from 19 clinical studies at the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting to be held May 29 to June 2, 2015 in Chicago, Ill. Key podium presentations will highlight new prospective research programs with advanced companion diagnostic and molecular diagnostic tests aimed at revolutionizing how we treat and prevent cancers. Abstracts of the Company's presentations are available at: abstracts.asco.org. "Advances in personalized medicine will include ...

A new study finds the economic burden of cancer extends beyond diagnosis and treatment, and concludes that cancer survivors face thousands of dollars of excess medical expenses every year as well as excess employment disability and loss of production at work. The study abstract is being presented at the upcoming ASCO Annual Meeting and was released online today. Researchers led by Zhiyuan "Jason" Zheng examined the economic burden among survivors of the three most prevalent cancers (colorectal, female breast, and prostate) in nonelderly and elderly populations in the ...

MINNEAPOLIS - A new study suggests that medical marijuana pills may not help treat behavioral symptoms of dementia, such as aggression, pacing and wandering. The research is published in the May 13, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. However, researchers did find that the drug dosage used in the clinical trial was safe and well-tolerated. "Our study results are valuable since any firm evidence of the effectiveness and safety of medical marijuana in this disease area is scarce," said study author Geke A.H. van ...

DALLAS, May 13, 2015 -- Persistent depression may double the risk of stroke in adults over 50 -- and stroke risk remains higher even after symptoms of depression go away, according to research in the Journal of the American Heart Association. "Our findings suggest that depression may increase stroke risk over the long term," said Paola Gilsanz, Sc.D., study lead author and ?Yerby Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. Researchers used data from 16,178 participants (ages 50 and older) who had been interviewed ...

Boston, MA -- Adults over 50 who have persistent symptoms of depression may have twice the risk of stroke as those who do not, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Researchers found that stroke risk remains higher even after symptoms of depression go away, particularly for women. The study will be published online May 13, 2015 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. "This is the first study evaluating how changes in depressive symptoms predict changes in stroke risk," said lead author Paola Gilsanz, Yerby ...

Time is critical when it comes to stroke, and early treatment is associated with better outcomes. According to the Screening with MRI for Accurate and Rapid stroke Treatment (SMART) study, small changes in quality improvement procedures enabled clinicians to use MRI scans to diagnose stroke patients before giving acute treatment, within 60 minutes of hospital arrival. MRI scans provide detailed images but take longer to complete than CT scans, which are commonly used in most centers. The findings, published in Neurology, were supported in part by the National Institutes ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- May 13, 2015 -- A study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has for the first time matched dozens of infantile diseases and syndromes involving muscle weakness and stiff joints to their likely genetic origins. The study, in association with the University of British Columbia and BC Children's Hospital Vancouver, was published this month (May) in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. The study's goal is to better enable physicians and geneticists to advance new treatments that might help these children. "It's amazing to us ...