IFR microbiologists are reinvigorating a way of battling C. difficile infections that they hope will help overcome the growing problem of antibiotic resistant superbugs in hospitals. Our digestive system is home to trillions of bacteria, which are crucial to our overall health, through helping us digest food and battling potentially harmful microbes. When we take antibiotics to combat bacterial infections these beneficial bacteria can also be killed off, leaving us at risk of infection by harmful bacteria. Clostridium difficile is one of these harmful bacteria and is the ...

A new computational method for working out in advance whether a chemical will be toxic will be reporting in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics. There is increasing pressure on the chemical and related industries to ensure that their products comply with increasing numbers of safety regulations. Providing regulators, intermediary users and consumers with all the necessary information to allow them to make informed choices with respect to use, disposal, recycling, environmental issues and human health issues is critical. Now, ...

The glial scar is the main inhibitor of axon regeneration and functional recovery in the central nervous system. Appropriate dose X-ray irradiation has been shown to inhibit the formation of glial cells, thereby promoting axonal regeneration. In addition, X-rays militate against the death and degeneration of neurons, and improve the recovery of locomotor function following spinal cord injury. However, the optimal treatment time window and dose of X-irradiation for spinal cord injury is still unknown. Prof. Shiqing Feng and colleagues from Tianjin Medical University have ...

Persons with Alzheimer's disease are able to manage their everyday activities longer and they suffer from less psychological and behavioural symptoms if the diagnosis is made and treatment begun at a very early phase of the disease, indicates a recent study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland. The study followed persons with Alzheimer's disease over a course of three years. The study participants were diagnosed either at the very mild or mild phase of the disease and treated within the standard healthcare system. According to the study, persons with a very ...

The plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s lives on today with a different genetic blueprint and an even larger arsenal of weaponry to harm and kill plants. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, North Carolina State University plant pathologist Jean Ristaino and colleagues Mike Martin and Tom Gilbert from the University of Copenhagen compared the genomes, or sets of all genes, of five 19th century strains of the Phytophthora infestans pathogen with modern strains of the pathogen, which still wreaks havoc on potatoes and tomatoes. The ...

A phase 2 EORTC trial for patients with inoperable desmoid-type fibromatosis has shown that moderate dose radiotherapy is an effective treatment for patients with such a rare type of tumor. The study results published in Annals of Oncology show that response after radiation therapy is slow, and that continuing regression is seen even after three years. Dr. Ronald B. Keus, Arnhem Radiotherapy Institute in The Netherlands and Coordinator of this study says, "Although one should still be cautious to use radiotherapy in these young patients, it is important to have shown ...

Most bacteria are able to communicate with each other by secreting signaling molecules. Once the concentration of signals has reached a critical density («the Quorum), the bacteria are able to coordinate their behavior. Only when this critical population density has been reached certain genes are activated that lead to, for example, the formation of biofilms or the expression of virulence factors. Bacteria utilize this so-called «Quorum Sensing» (QS) to synchronize their behavior to regulate functions that benefit the entire population. The most commonly used signaling ...

Researchers from the University of York have demonstrated that the change in cannabis declassification in 2009 has coincided with a significant increase in hospital admissions for cannabis psychosis - rather than the decrease it was intended to produce. The UK Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) divided controlled drugs into three groups – A, B and C – with descending criminal sanctions attached to each class. Cannabis was originally assigned to Group B, but in 2004, it was transferred to the lowest risk group, Group C. In 2009, on the basis of increasing concerns about a link ...

Scientists in Granada, Spain, have patented a new biomaterial that facilitates generating bone tissue—artificial bones in other words—from umbilical cord stem cells . The material, consisting of an activated carbon cloth support for cells that differentiate giving rise to a product that can promote bone growth, has recently been presented at a press conference at the Biomedical Research Centre, Granada. Although the method has not yet been applied with 'in vivo' models, laboratory results are highly promising. In the future, they could help manufacture medicines for the ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — They say a good man is hard to find. Were it not for a newly discovered protein, the X chromosome of a male fruit fly could never be found by a gene-regulating complex that male flies need to develop and survive. And that case is just one example of what the new finding means. More generally, the research provides biologists with a model of how proteins that govern gene transcription find their targets on chromosomes, a process that's essential to healthy cell function and sometimes implicated in disease. The new protein, dubbed CLAMP ...

Evaporation is so common that everybody thinks it's a well understood phenomenon. Appearances can be, however, deceptive. Recently, a new, earlier not predicted mechanism of evaporation was discovered. Experiments and simulations performed at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Physics of the PAS not only confirm its existence, but also indicate that it plays the crucial role in evaporation process in the nanoscale. Too hot? It's not only because of summer. It's also likely that the sweat on your skin stopped to evaporate ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke Medicine researchers have identified biochemical changes in people taking antidepressants – but only in those whose depression improves. These changes occur in a neurotransmitter pathway that is connected to the pineal gland, the part of the endocrine system that controls the sleep cycle, suggesting an added link between sleep, depression and treatment outcomes. The study, published on July 17, 2013, in the journal PLOS ONE, uses an emerging science called pharmacometabolomics to measure and map hundreds of chemicals in the blood in order to define ...

Bacteria of the genus Legionella have evolved a sophisticated system to replicate in the phagocytic cells of their hosts. Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have now identified a novel component of this system. In humans, Legionella is responsible for the so-called Legionnaires' disease, a form of bacterial pneumonia that is often lethal. The bacteria can also cause Pontiac fever, a flu-like condition characterized by coughing and vomiting. Most Legionella-associated illnesses in humans are caused by Legionella pneumophila. These microorganisms ...

Beetles with unusual "green thumbs" for growing fungi are threatening avocado crops and could transform into a more destructive pest, according to an international team of researchers. Ambrosia beetles are insects that bore into trees and cultivate fungi to use as a food source for their young. The fungi -- species of Fusarium -- carried by types of the Ambrosia beetle can damage or even kill trees, making the beetle and its fungi a threat to avocado production in the U.S. and Israel, according to Matthew Kasson, who recently received his doctorate in forest pathology ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (July 18, 2013) - For patients with cancer, "prehabilitation"— interventions given between the time of diagnosis and the start of treatment—has the potential to reduce complications from treatments and improve physical and mental health outcomes, according to a report in the August American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AJPM&R). AJPM&R, the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. "A growing body of evidence supports preparing newly diagnosed ...

Stanford University scientists have created the thinnest, most efficient absorber of visible light on record. The nanosize structure, thousands of times thinner than an ordinary sheet of paper, could lower the cost and improve the efficiency of solar cells, according to the scientists. Their results are published in the current online edition of the journal Nano Letters. "Achieving complete absorption of visible light with a minimal amount of material is highly desirable for many applications, including solar energy conversion to fuel and electricity," said Stacey Bent, ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (July 18, 2013) – Most professional athletes are able to return to competition within a year after vertebral fusion surgery on the upper (cervical) spine, reports a study in the July issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Another study in the July Neurosurgery finds variations in treatment for patients with minor head injuries seen in the emergency department (ED) versus the doctor's office. A third paper discusses the ...

BOSTON -- Investigators at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have published the most thorough description of gene expression in the human retina reported to date. In a study published today in the journal BMC Genomics, Drs. Michael Farkas, Eric Pierce and colleagues in the Ocular Genomics Institute (OGI) at Mass. Eye and Ear reported a complete catalog of the genes expressed in the retina. The retina is the neural tissue in the back of the eye that initiates vision. It is responsible to receiving light signals, converting them into neurologic signals ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The sounds of success are ringing at Kansas State University through a research project that has potential to treat human deafness and loss of balance. Philine Wangemann, university distinguished professor of anatomy and physiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and her international team have published the results of their study in the July issue of the journal PLOS Genetics: "SLC26A4Targeted to the Endolymphatic Sac Rescues Hearing and Balance in SLC26A4 Mutant Mice." "When the SLC26A4 gene is mutated, it leads to a loss of pendrin expression, ...

Evolutionary changes induced by fisheries may benefit the fishers, according to a new study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But if fisheries are not well-managed, this potential benefit turns into economic losses, as stocks decline from overfishing and further suffer from evolution. The bad news is that today very few fisheries are managed in a way that will lead to yield increases in the long term. While these fisheries may not be in danger of collapsing, IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program Leader Ulf Dieckmann says, "There ...

A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified a mechanism that can prevent the normal prion protein from changing its molecular shape into the abnormal form responsible for neurodegenerative diseases. This finding, published in the July 18 issue of Cell Reports, offers new hope in the battle against a foe that until now has always proved fatal. Prion diseases include Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease and fatal familial insomnia. Unlike other transmissible diseases, the infectious agent is not a virus or bacteria, but an abnormally ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., July 18, 2013 -- Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have developed a new way to measure the cumulative effect of impacts to the head incurred by football players. The metric, called Risk Weighted Cumulative Exposure (RWE), can capture players' exposure to the risk of concussion over the course of a football season by measuring the frequency and magnitude of all impacts, said senior author of the study Joel Stitzel, Ph.D., chair of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest Baptist and associate head of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University ...

Boston, MA – Computerized cognitive testing is increasingly playing a key role in therapy development for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. This week at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, Keith Wesnes Ph.D., Practice Leader of Bracket and founder of the CDR System™, discussed new data for novel therapies at two poster presentations at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference. Poster Title: Cognitive evidence in Alzheimer's disease patients that compromised hippocampal neurogenesis is related both to APOE4 status and CSF Abeta42 This presentation ...

Bethesda, MD (July 18, 2013) — A new drug, teduglutide, offers significant relief for patients with short-bowel syndrome intestinal failure who are reliant on intravenous nutrition, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Patients with this relatively rare condition experience massive bowel loss and are unable to absorb nutrients, vitamins and water from digested foods. They rely on parenteral nutrition, or intravenous feeding, to deliver their daily nutrients. "Short-bowel ...

Registration is now open for the Mushrooms and Health Summit held at the Mayflower Renaissance hotel in Washington D.C. on September 9-10, 2013. The meeting is of interest to scientists, writers and researchers looking to learn and discuss the unique and comprehensive examination of the global research that links mushrooms to today's and future health issues. A world-class scientific event Learn from the world's top scientists, researchers and nutrition experts who will provide a broad range of perspectives and facilitate discussions around mushrooms from spore to spoon. ...