BARCELONA (6 October 2013) – The extracellular-signal regulated kinase (ERK) pathway plays a role in multiple drug addictions and appears to modulate neuronal plasticity through epigenetic mechanisms, say French scientists. The discovery could pave the way for new therapeutic options for treating drug addictions, the researchers claim. "The molecular adaptations induced by ERK include epigenetic regulation that causes a stable response that modifies the structure of DNA, hence accounting for long-term neuronal plasticity," says Dr Jocelyne Caboche, from the Pierre-and-Marie-Curie ...

Many subalpine lakes may look beautiful and even pristine, but new evidence suggests they may also be contaminated with potentially hazardous plastics. Researchers say those tiny microplastics are likely finding their way into the food web through a wide range of freshwater invertebrates too. The findings, based on studies of Italy's Lake Garda and reported on October 7th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, suggest that the problem of plastic pollution isn't limited to the ocean. "Next to mechanical impairments of swallowed plastics mistaken as food, many ...

Seniors in long-term care facilities are at high risk of head injuries, with 37% of people experiencing head impact in falls, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Falls account for more than 60% of hospital stays for traumatic brain injury in seniors over age 65 years, and the incidence is increasing, especially in people over age 80. "Recent studies have documented a rapid increase among older adults in age-adjusted rates for fall-related head injuries, especially in the long-term care environment," writes Stephen Robinovitch, ...

Two gene alterations pair up to promote the growth of leukemia cells and their escape from anti-cancer drugs, according to a study in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is an aggressive cancer of the blood that is often treated with a drug called Imatinib (a.k.a. Gleevec). Although Gleevec is highly effective, some cancer cells can develop resistance to the drug. The mechanism that drives this resistance is not completely understood, but there is evidence that cancerous stem-like cells are particularly resistant and help to perpetuate ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Most patients whose breast cancer has spread to their lymph nodes have most of the lymph nodes in their armpit area removed after chemotherapy to determine if any cancer remains. A study conducted through the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group and led by Judy Boughey, M.D., a breast surgeon at Mayo Clinic, shows that a less-invasive procedure known as sentinel lymph node surgery successfully identified whether cancer remained in lymph nodes in 91 percent of patients with node-positive breast cancer who received chemotherapy before their surgery. ...

A new study published by JAMA questions using the rate of postoperative blood clots as a hospital quality measure. The study is being released early online to coincide with the American College of Surgeons 2013 Annual Clinical Congress. The study examined whether surveillance bias (i.e., the greater the intensity of a search for a condition the greater likelihood it will be found) influences the reported rate of venous thromboembolism (VTE; blood clot). Venous thromboembolism, which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a common postoperative ...

Judy C. Boughey, M.D., Kelly K. Hunt, M.D., and colleagues for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology conducted a study to determine the false-negative rate of sentinel lymph node surgery in patients with node-positive breast cancer receiving chemotherapy before surgery. A false-negative is occurrence of negative test results in subjects known to have a disease for which an individual is being tested. The study, published by JAMA, is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Surgeons 2013 Annual Clinical Congress. Axillary ...

Emergency surgery and advanced cardiac disease are risk factors for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) after noncardiac surgery in patients with recent coronary stent implantation, according to a study published by JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Surgeons 2013 Annual Clinical Congress. "Approximately 600,000 percutaneous coronary stent procedures are performed annually in the United States. Twelve to 23 percent of these patients undergo noncardiac surgery within 2 years of coronary stent placement," ...

Snake and eel bodies are elongated, slender and flexible in all three dimensions. This striking body plan has evolved many times independently in the more than 500 million years of vertebrate animals history. Based on the current state of knowledge, the extreme elongation of the body axis occurred in one of two ways: either through the elongation of the individual vertebrae of the vertebral column, which thus became longer, or through the development of additional vertebrae and associated muscle segments. Long body thanks to doubling of the vertebral arches A team of ...

Hercules, CA — October 7, 2013 — Since its introduction in 2011, Bio-Rad Laboratory's Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR™) technology has demonstrated the potential to be a transformative technology, particularly in clinical applications. At the second annual CHI Digital PCR Conference in San Diego, CA, Oct. 7–9, 2013, 12 scientists using Bio-Rad's Droplet Digital PCR systems will highlight ddPCR applications that have advanced their research. These researchers will share how ddPCR technology provides greater precision, reproducibility, and sensitivity than real-time PCR approaches ...

BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Food addiction is not yet recognised as a mental disorder but certain obese individuals clearly display addictive-like behaviour towards food. To achieve a formal diagnostic status, 'food addiction' requires a stronger evidence base to support the claim that certain ingredients have addictive properties identical to addictive drugs of abuse. This topic is up for debate in the session, 'Binge eating obesity is a food addiction'. This year's fifth edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) recognises 'binge ...

BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Improved understanding of the roles of inflammation and oxidative stress in psychiatric disorders has generated new leads in the search for novel therapies. One such investigative compound currently in clinical trials is an amino acid, N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), which appears to reduce the core symptoms of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, autism and cravings in addictions including cocaine, cannabis abuse and cigarette smoking. At the start of the decade of the brain, in the early 1990s, there was great hope that a flurry ...

BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Improved understanding of the role of female sex hormones on the drivers and symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) may shed light on the complex interactions between sex hormones and mood, potentially helping to explain the increased prevalence of mood disorders in women. Most women are unaffected by the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle, however approximately 20% of women experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS), or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a more severe form of PMS. The latter affects roughly 5% of ...

BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – A selective GABA inverse agonist has restored cognitive function in a mouse model of Down's syndrome (DS) and has the potential to benefit humans, French researchers have revealed. "The drug we used is a specific GABA-A α5 inverse agonist (α5IA) that hypothetically could combat the abnormal neuronal excitation/inhibition balance associated with DS", explained lead researcher Dr Benoit Delatour from the Research Centre of the Institute of Brain and Spinal Cord (Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de Moelle Epinière) ...

BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Up to two-thirds of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) find their disorder persists into adulthood yet only a small proportion of adults ever receive a formal diagnosis and treatment, research suggests. ADHD, a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood, continues into adulthood in the majority of children. Prevalence figures show that 3-4% of adults are affected by ADHD and it is associated with a broad range of psychosocial impairments. Dr Esther Sobanski investigates the pharmacological ...

A person sliding a finger across a topographic map displayed on a touch screen can feel the bumps and curves of hills and valleys, despite the screen's smooth surface, with the aid of a novel algorithm created by Disney Research, Pittsburgh for tactile rendering of 3D features and textures. By altering the friction encountered as a person's fingertip glides across a surface, the Disney algorithm can create a perception of a 3D bump on a touch surface without having to physically move the surface. The method can be used to simulate the feel of a wide variety of objects ...

Electric current sufficient to light a string of LEDs, activate an e-paper display or even trigger action by a computer can be generated by tapping or rubbing simple, flexible generators made of paper, thin sheets of plastic and other everyday materials, researchers at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, have demonstrated. This new approach to energy harvesting uses electrets, materials with special electrical properties that already are used in microphones and in tiny MEMS devices. This latest application, developed by researchers at Disney Research, Pittsburgh and at Carnegie ...

The kinds of traits that show genealogical relationships between species are often minute and easily overlooked. Dr. Neil Snow, a botanist at Pittsburg State University, published a paper in 1996 that included observations of some odd-shaped hairs on three species of grass native to Africa. Their odd shape stems from distinctly swollen tips that are then pinched into a small party-hat structure at the very apex. "A tongue-twisting technical term for that shape is 'clavicorniculate', but 'club-shaped' is a workable simplification we often prefer," remarked Snow. In ...

Monitoring a dog's behaviour could be used as an early warning sign that an older owner is struggling to cope or their health is deteriorating. Experts at Newcastle University, UK, are using movement sensors to track normal dog behaviour while the animals are both home alone and out-and-about. Providing a unique insight into the secret life of man's best friend, the sensors show not only when the dog is on the move, but also how much he is barking, sitting, digging and other key canine behaviours. By mapping the normal behaviour of a healthy, happy dog, Dr Cas Ladha, ...

Swedish soccer star Zlatan is associated with happiness, but not iPhones. A new study at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Lund University suggests that our collective picture of what makes us happy is more about relationships, and less about things. News articles published online by Swedish dailies during 2010 were analyzed in the study. By analyzing which words most often occurred in the same articles as the Swedish word for happiness, the researchers could pinpoint our collective happiness. "It's relationships that are most important, not material things, and this is in ...

A team of researchers based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has shown how temporal control of a single gene solves two problems during fruit ripening in strawberry. Not only human consumers find the rich red color of ripe strawberries attractive. In wild strawberries, it also serves to lure the animals which the plant exploits to spread its seeds. When birds and small mammals feed on the fruit, they subsequently excrete the indigestible seeds elsewhere, thus ensuring the dispersal of the species. However, ...

BOSTON – Although Parkinson's disease is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder in the U.S., there are no standard clinical tests available to identify this widespread condition. As a result, Parkinson's disease often goes unrecognized until late in its progression, when the brain's affected neurons have already been destroyed and telltale motor symptoms such as tremor and rigidity have already appeared. Now researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have discovered that an important clue to diagnosing Parkinson's may lie just beneath ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Bile salts scream seduction – for sea lampreys, that is. New research at Michigan State University shows that bile salts, secreted from the liver and traditionally associated with digestive functions, are being used as pheromones by sea lampreys. The interesting twist, though, is that this scent has evolved as the invasive species' cologne of choice. The evolution of bile salts from digestive aid to pheromone, featured in the current issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, mirrors humans' adaptation of perfume. "It's similar to how perfume ...

Retinal damage is one of the most common complications of diabetes, affecting about 90 percent of type 1 diabetics and 75 percent of type 2 diabetics. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in adults of working age, and its incidence is showing an upward trend. The retina is the part of the eye that converts optical images into nerve signals, which are then transmitted to the brain where vision is interpreted. Numerous proteins and molecules are involved in the process of signal transduction. Diabetic retinal ...

This news release is available in German. Leipzig/ Halle. The Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research has gained new insights on the influence of tobacco smoke in utero. For the first time, it could be demonstrated with smoking pregnant women and their children, how exposure to tobacco smoke affects the development of human immune system on molecular level. The focus thereby was on microRNA – a short, single-stranded RNA molecule that is now recognised as playing an important role in gene regulation. For some time now, the impact of environmental ...