Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found an explanation for why the level of kynurenic acid (KYNA) is higher in the brains of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disease with psychosis. The study, which is published in the scientific periodical Molecular Psychiatry, identifies a gene variant associated with an increased production of KYNA. The discovery contributes to the further understanding of the link between inflammation and psychosis – and might pave the way for improved therapies. Kynurenic acid (KYNA) is a substance that affects several signalling ...

In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, but the precise cause has not been clear. A study published by Cell Press on March 5th in Cell Metabolism reveals that a single mutation in the "longevity gene" SIRT1 can cause type 1 diabetes in humans. The findings unearth the role this gene plays in human autoimmunity and disease and also offer new avenues for treating a range of autoimmune disorders. "We describe one of the first single gene defects leading to type 1 diabetes, as well as the first human mutation in the SIRT1 gene," ...

Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) researchers Alfonso Valencia, Director of the Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme and David de Juan, jointly with Florencio Pazos, from the Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), publish a review on the latest computational methods that, based on evolutionary principles, are revolutionising the field of analysis and prediction of protein structure, function and protein-protein interactions, as well as the short- and long-term expectations for the field. "The computational and mathematical analysis ...

Mitochondria, which are probably derived from distant bacterial ancestors incorporated into our cells, have their own DNA. However, we know little about how these organelles, which convert oxygen and consumed nutrients into energy, regulate the expression of their own genes. Jean-Claude Martinou, professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and his team, have discovered the existence of compartments at the heart of mitochondria, consisting of hundreds of different proteins. It is here that RNA molecules (the many copies made from DNA) come together to be ...

March 5, 2013 (Toronto) – Some of the dramatic differences seen among patients with schizophrenia may be explained by a single gene that regulates a group of other schizophrenia risk genes. These findings appear in a new imaging-genetics study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The study revealed that people with schizophrenia who had a particular version of the microRNA-137 gene (or MIR137), tended to develop the illness at a younger age and had distinct brain features – both associated with poorer outcomes – compared to patients who did not have ...

Among eukaryotes with modified nuclear genetic codes, viruses are unknown. Until now it had been believed that the modifications to the genetic code effectively prevented new viral infections. However, researchers have now reported the first example of a virus that can be shown to have crossed the boundary from organisms using the standard genetic code to those with an alternate genetic code. "The finding is significant because it means that virus-host co-evolution after a genetic code shift can be more extensive than previously thought", said researcher Derek J. Taylor, ...

In California Culex mosquitoes are considered to be the principle vectors of West Nile virus (WNV), which infects birds, humans, and other mammals during the summer. In addition, these mosquitoes may also serve as overwintering reservoir hosts as the virus is passed "vertically" from female mosquito to egg, then larva, and then adult. To find out how often this happens, California researchers monitored WNV in mosquitoes in the field and in the lab, and observed how the virus is transmitted between generations and between insect stages. The results are published in the ...

Ottawa, Canada, March 5, 2013 - A research team led by the Canadian Museum of Nature has identified the first evidence for an extinct giant camel in Canada's High Arctic. The discovery is based on 30 fossil fragments of a leg bone found on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut and represents the most northerly record for early camels, whose ancestors are known to have originated in North America some 45 million years ago. The fossils were collected over three summer field seasons (2006, 2008 and 2010) and are about three-and-a-half million years old, dating from the mid-Pliocene ...

Changes in the brain following amputation have been linked to pain arising from the missing limb, called 'phantom pain', in an Oxford University brain imaging study. Arm amputees experiencing the most phantom limb pain were found to maintain stronger representation of the missing hand in the brain – to the point where it was indistinguishable from people with both hands. The researchers hope their identification of brain responses correlated with the level of phantom pain can aid the development of treatment approaches, as well as increase understanding of how the brain ...

University of Adelaide researchers have found the answer to one of natural history's most intriguing puzzles – the origins of the now extinct Falkland Islands wolf and how it came to be the only land-based mammal on the isolated islands – 460km from the nearest land, Argentina. Previous theories have suggested the wolf somehow rafted on ice or vegetation, crossed via a now-submerged land bridge or was even semi-domesticated and transported by early South American humans. The 320-year-old mystery was first recorded by early British explorers in 1690 and raised again ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – It is possible to tell who a person is thinking about by analyzing images of his or her brain. Our mental models of people produce unique patterns of brain activation, which can be detected using advanced imaging techniques according to a study by Cornell University neuroscientist Nathan Spreng and his colleagues. "When we looked at our data, we were shocked that we could successfully decode who our participants were thinking about based on their brain activity," said Spreng, assistant professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. Understanding ...

Adults whose parents were divorced are more likely to switch religions or disassociate themselves from institutional religions altogether — but growing up in a single-parent family does not have any effect on private religious life, including praying, according to a study by a Baylor University sociologist. The findings also suggest that being a child of divorced parents is not in itself as important a factor in a person's religious life as previous research has indicated, according to Jeremy Uecker, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology in Baylor's College of Arts ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Religious college students report less alcohol use than their classmates – and the reason may have to do with how their parents handle stress, according to new research by a Michigan State University scholar. The study found that students who used religious practices such as praying and meditating as a coping mechanism reported less frequent alcohol use and less heavy drinking. Further, the parents of those students reported using religious or spiritual practices when facing stress, which was linked to the behaviors reported by the students. This ...

TAMPA, Fla. (March 5, 2013) – Chemists at the University of South Florida and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have discovered a more efficient, less expensive and reusable material for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and separation. The breakthrough could have implications for a new generation of clean-air technologies and offers new tools for confronting the world's challenges in controlling carbon. Publishing this month in the journal Nature, the international group of scientists has identified a previously underused material – known as SIFSIX-1-Cu - ...

Abell 68, pictured here in infrared light, is one of these galaxy clusters, and it greatly boosts the power of Hubble, extending the telescope's ability to observe distant and faint objects [1]. The fuzzy collection of blobs in the middle and upper left of the image is a swarm of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars and vast amounts of dark matter. The effect of this huge concentration of matter is to deform the fabric of spacetime, which in turn distorts the path that light takes when it travels through the cluster. For galaxies that are even further away ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Marriage may not always be as beneficial to health as experts have led us to believe, according to a new study. Researchers made two discoveries that explain why: First, marriage provides less protection against mortality as health deteriorates, even though it does seem to benefit those who are in excellent health. Secondly, married people tend to overestimate how healthy they are, compared to others. "We believe marriage is still good for the health of some people, but it is not equally protective for everyone," said Hui Zheng, lead author of the study ...

Researchers from Norway found that women with a pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) of 40 had an increased risk of vacuum extraction delivery or Cesarean section (C-section). Findings that appear in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology, indicate that women with more than a 16 kg (30 lbs) weight gain during pregnancy increased their risk of forceps or vacuum extraction, and C-section. Obesity is a global health crisis, with the World Health Organization ...

Jena (Germany) Fish is healthy: easy to digest and with a high level of precious proteins, fish is considered an important part of a healthy diet. And with the so-called omega-3 fatty acids fish contains real 'fountains of youth'. These fatty acids – like docosahexaeonic acid (DHA) occur mostly in fatty fish like herring, salmon and mackerel. They are thought to lower the blood pressure, to strengthen the immune system and to have positive effects on the development on the nervous system and the cardiovascular system. "Clinical studies about the intake of nutritional ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For a bunch of inanimate chemical compounds, the nucleic and amino acids caught up in the infamous "selfish" segregation distorter (SD) saga have put on quite a soap opera for biologists since the phenomenon was discovered in fruit flies 50 years ago. A new study, a highlight in the March issue of the journal Genetics, provides the latest plot twist. In TV listings the series would be described this way: "A gene exploits a rival gene's excesses, sabotaging any sperm that bear the rival's chromosome." The listing is not an exaggeration ...

Philadelphia - A new study led by a researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania adds support to current medical recommendations stating that screening colonoscopy substantially reduces an average-risk adult’s likelihood of being diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) in either the right or left side of the colon. In recent years, colonoscopy has begun to rapidly replace sigmoidoscopy – a procedure used to detect abnormalities in the rectum and left side of the colon – despite initially limited evidence of its efficacy and higher ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A multi-university research team has used a new spectroscopic method to gain a key insight into how light is emitted from layered nanomaterials and other thin films. The technique, called energy-momentum spectroscopy, enables researchers to look at the light emerging from a thin film and determine whether it is coming from emitters oriented along the plane of the film or from emitters oriented perpendicular to the film. Knowing the orientations of emitters could help engineers make better use of thin-film materials in optical devices ...

In a paper about to be published in EPJ Data Science, Barbara Jasny, deputy editor for commentary at Science magazine in Washington, DC, USA, looks at the history of the debates surrounding data access during and after the human genome "war". In this context, she outlines current challenges in accessing information affecting research, particularly with regard to the social sciences, personalised medicine and sustainability. The trouble is that most researchers do not currently share their data. This is due both to research practices and research culture. Scientists withholding ...

Researchers in India have developed a filter system based on a medicinal herb, which they say can quickly and easily remove "fluoride" from drinking water. The technology described in the March issue of the International Journal of Environmental Engineering uses parts of the plant Tridax procumbens as a biocarbon filter for the ion. Drinking water can contain natural fluoride or fluoride might be added as a protective agent for teeth by water companies. However, its presence is not without controversy while in some natural drinking water levels may be above those considered ...

Kirk and Spock may not need a Vulcan mind meld to share cognition: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have found that our cold reasoning and hot feelings may be more intimately connected than previously thought. "We tend to believe we have rational parts, like Spock, and separate emotional parts, like Kirk. But our research suggests that's not true," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, who led the study. "We're all a combination of logical Spock and intuitive Kirk. Cold ...

MARCH 5, 2013—Baltimore, MD—The Center for Biosecurity of UPMC today released online ahead of print a new report, When Good Food Goes Bad: Strengthening the US Response to Foodborne Disease Outbreaks. The authors analyzed existing data and studies on foodborne illness outbreak response, identified emerging trends, and interviewed dozens of federal and state-level officials and experts from industry, professional organizations, academia, and relevant international organizations. The report puts forth a series of recommendations to accelerate and strengthen responses to foodborne ...