(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – May 9, 2014) St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists studying two rare, inherited childhood neurodegenerative disorders have identified a new, possibly common source of DNA damage that may play a role in other neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and aging. The findings appear in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience. Researchers showed for the first time that an enzyme required for normal DNA functioning causes DNA damage in the developing brain. DNA is the molecule found in nearly every cell that carries the instructions ...

Scientists showed that people who have a variant of a longevity gene, called KLOTHO, have improved brain skills such as thinking, learning and memory regardless of their age, sex, or whether they have a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Increasing KLOTHO gene levels in mice made them smarter, possibly by increasing the strength of connections between nerve cells in the brain. The study was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health. "This could be a major step toward helping millions around the world who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease and ...

BELMONT - In a paper published in the latest issue of the neuroscience journal Neuron, McLean Hospital investigators report that a gene essential for normal brain development, and previously linked to Autism Spectrum Disorders, also plays a critical role in addiction-related behaviors. "In our lab, we investigate the brain mechanisms behind drug addiction – a common and devastating disease with limited treatment options," explained Christopher Cowan, PhD, director of the Integrated Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean and an associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical ...

A few minutes spent filling out a widely accepted mental health assessment in a health care provider's waiting room could make a big difference for some teenagers suffering from depression, according to new study from a nursing researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington. Sharolyn Dihigo, a nurse practitioner and clinical assistant professor in the UT Arlington College of Nursing, recently examined available research to determine whether nurse practitioners and others in primary care settings should add a mental health screening to well visits for teenage patients. ...

The ability to create conducting polymer films in a variety of shapes, thicknesses and surface properties rapidly and inexpensively will make growing and testing cells easier and more flexible, according to a team of Penn State bioengineers. "The ultimate goal of this collaborative project is to be able to create a substrate for growth and manipulation of cells," said Sheereen Majd, assistant professor of bioengineering. "Cells on a surface need to recognize biomolecules like extracellular matrix proteins to be able to adhere and grow. We ultimately would like to be able ...

Fresno, CA – New research presented last week at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego, California, suggests that regular grape consumption may help alleviate pain associated with symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee, and improve joint flexibility and overall mobility. Researchers attribute these potential benefits to the polyphenols found in grapes. The sixteen week clinical study, undertaken by Texas Woman's University, was designed to investigate the benefits of grape consumption on inflammation and osteoarthritis outcomes. 72 men and women with knee ...

Boston, MA – Calcium supplements are widely taken by women for bone health. Previous studies have suggested that calcium supplements may increase risk of cardiovascular disease, but the data has been inconsistent. A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) did not find that calcium supplement intake increases risk of cardiovascular disease in women. The study is published online this month in Osteoporosis International. Researchers examined supplemental calcium use and incident cardiovascular disease in a prospective cohort study of 74,245 women ...

ST. LOUIS – Air and surface sampling techniques currently used by the US government are effective in fighting bioterrorism and potentially saving lives, a Saint Louis University researcher finds. Results published in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism by Alexander Garza, M.D., MPH, former chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security and a team of researchers from Los Alamos National Lab reviewed the data from a series of experiments simulating a bioterrorism attack against the Pentagon. Garza is now the associate dean for public health practice and associate ...

Scientists from the University of the Philippines, Los Baños have discovered a new plant species with an unusual lifestyle — it eats nickel for a living — accumulating up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without itself being poisoned, says Professor Edwino Fernando, lead author of the report. Such an amount is a hundred to a thousand times higher than in most other plants. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys. The new species is called Rinorea niccolifera, reflecting its ability to absorb nickel in very high amounts. Nickel hyperaccumulation ...

UPTON, NY-Plant scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that certain enzymes responsible for desaturating fatty acids, the building blocks of oils, can link up to efficiently pass intermediate products from one enzyme to another. "Engineering these enzyme interactions to channel metabolites along desired metabolic pathways could be a new approach for tailoring plants to produce useful products," said Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin, lead author on a paper reporting the results in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Getting ...

Vivek Reddy, MD, Director of Arrhythmia Services for The Mount Sinai Hospital, reported his promising12-month follow-up data showing the world's first leadless pacemaker is demonstrating overall device performance comparable to conventional pacemakers. Dr. Reddy presented the one-year LEADLESS study data findings during his late-breaking clinical trial presentation on May 9 at Heart Rhythm 2014, the Heart Rhythm Society's 35th Annual Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA. The LEADLESS study's long-term follow-up has evaluated 32 patients with a slowed heartbeat, bradycardia, ...

Researchers at Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center have published results from a study in Cell Reports that discovers a new mechanism that distinguishes normal blood stem cells from blood cancers. "These findings constitute a significant advance toward the goal of killing leukemia cells without harming the body's normal blood stem cells which are often damaged by chemotherapy," said Patricia Ernst, PhD, co-director of the Cancer Mechanisms Program of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and an associate professor in Genetics at the Geisel School of Medicine. The study ...

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have identified the mechanism by which an enzyme produced in the intestinal lining helps to maintain a healthy population of gastrointestinal microbes. In their report in American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, the research team describes finding that intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria by blocking the growth-inhibiting action of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – an action first described in this paper – within the intestine. "We found that ATP ...

VIDEO: This movie of imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite from May 7 at 14:15 UTC to May 9 at 14:15 UTC shows System 90E's progression and movement on land in southwestern... Click here for more information. As the dissipating tropical low pressure system known as System 90E continued rain on Guerrero State in southern Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred there on Thursday, May 8 around noon local time (1 p.m. EDT). NASA's Aqua satellite ...

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a 3D-printed device inspired by the liver to remove dangerous toxins from the blood. The device, which is designed to be used outside the body -- much like dialysis – uses nanoparticles to trap pore-forming toxins that can damage cellular membranes and are a key factor in illnesses that result from animal bites and stings, and bacterial infections. Their findings were published May 8 in the journal Nature Communications. Nanoparticles have already been shown to be effective at neutralizing pore-forming ...

Over the past two decades or so, there has been increasing interest and development in measuring slow dynamics in disordered systems at the nanoscale, brought about in part from a demand for advancements in the food and consumer products industries. Some of the techniques that have been developed over recent years to study the dynamic properties of these materials include X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and speckle visibility spectroscopy (SVS). Both of these techniques however suffer from some fundamental limitations ranging from the use of only specialized ...

Amsterdam, 9 May. Rates of obesity and overweight in both male and females are projected to increase in almost all countries of Europe by 2030, according to a statistical modelling study. However, the forecast rates vary throughout the 53 Euro-region countries, with projected male obesity levels ranging from 15% in the Netherlands and Belgium, to 47% in Ireland. The highest obesity prevalence in females was projected in Ireland (47%), and the lowest in Romania (10%). The study, from investigators which included the WHO Regional Office for Europe, was presented at the ...

In recent years the cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) has colonized American continent. Invasive species are a worldwide problem and studies are devoted to assess the damage they cause to local species populations. Thus, the process of colonization of a new territory that has continental dimensions such as Brazil offers an excellent opportunity to examine how non-native species disperse, adapt and survive. A new study of the colonization patterns of the cattle egret in Brazil, published in the open access journal NeoBiota, offers a new take on the study of alien species. The ...

Coyotes are a major predator of white-tailed deer across the East, especially fawns born each spring, but wildlife managers nonetheless are able to stabilize and even grow deer herds, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Coyotes -- Canis latrans -- are a relatively recent arrival to eastern North America, appearing first in the region in noticeable numbers in the 1970s. They are a significant source of deer mortality and most often prey on whitetails in the earliest months of their lives. Coyotes have long inhabited the American West. With ...

HOUSTON – (May 9, 2014) – Texas Hispanics were more than twice as likely as whites to have enrolled in health insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplace between September 2013 and March 2014, according to a report released today by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation. The report also found that Hispanic adults in Texas experience more difficulty in affording health services than white adults and are three times as likely to be uninsured. In addition, Hispanic respondents ...

Northeastern University researchers at the Marine Science Center have shown that the behavior of the "middle child" in the predator-prey food chain plays a strong role in determining how the reef as a whole will fare. The new research from the team was published online on Tuesday in the journal Ecology Letters. Northeastern ecologist David Kimbro, who claims to have watched a lot of TV growing up, particularly The Brady Bunch, compares the "middle child" behavior of oyster reefs to the show: "You could kind of get a flavor for how an episode was going to turn out based ...

Short height and long life have a direct connection in Japanese men, according to new research based on the Kuakini Honolulu Heart Program (HHP) and the Kuakini Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS). "We split people into two groups – those that were 5-foot-2 and shorter, and 5-4 and taller," said Dr. Bradley Willcox, one of the investigators for the study and a Professor in the University of Hawai`i (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine's Department of Geriatric Medicine. "The folks that were 5-2 and shorter lived the longest. The range was seen all the way across from being ...

Boston, MA — Two widely used neonicotinoids—a class of insecticide—appear to significantly harm honey bee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study replicated a 2012 finding from the same research group that found a link between low doses of imidacloprid and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which bees abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die. The new study also found that low doses of a second neonicotinoid, clothianidin, had the same negative effect. Further, ...

A previous study showed that, 1 week after avulsion of the spinal nerve root, small motor neurons (< 500 μm2) negative for 27 kDa heat shock protein (HSP27) immunoreactivity died and only large (> 500 μm2) HSP27-positive motor neurons survived in the spinal cord ventral horn. This was followed by the enhancement of HSP27 expression in motor neurons observed after mild crush of the spinal nerve root. Dr. Lin Li and co-workers from Nanjing Medical University in China investigated whether preconditioning crush can increase the survival rate of motor neurons, which ...

Notch1 signaling can induce astrogliosis in glioma. However, it remains unknown whether Notch1 signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. A recent study by Xijin Liu and co-workers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China observed overexpression of Notch1 in the brain tissue of temporal lobe epilepsy rats. After Notch1 regulation, it was relatively effective in reducing seizure frequency and reducing brain discharges, thereby resulting in the ease of seizures to a certain extent. Increased presence of Notch 1 and hairy and enhancer of split-1 ...