Researchers untangle molecular pathology of giant axonal neuropathy Giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) is a rare genetic disorder that causes central and peripheral nervous system dysfunction. GAN is known to be caused by mutations in the gigaxonin gene and is characterized by tangling and aggregation of neural projections, but the mechanistic link between the genetic mutation and the effects on neurons is unclear. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Robert Goldman and colleagues at Northwestern University uncover how mutations in gigaxonin contribute ...

Giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) is a rare genetic disorder that causes central and peripheral nervous system dysfunction. GAN is known to be caused by mutations in the gigaxonin gene and is characterized by tangling and aggregation of neural projections, but the mechanistic link between the genetic mutation and the effects on neurons is unclear. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Robert Goldman and colleagues at Northwestern University uncover how mutations in gigaxonin contribute to neural aggregation.They demonstrated that gigaxonin regulates the degradation ...

Platinum compounds, such as cisplatin and carboplatin, induce DNA cross-linking, prohibiting DNA synthesis and repair in rapidly dividing cells. They are first line therapeutics in the treatment of many solid tumors, but cancer cells frequently develop resistance to these drugs. Mechanisms of resistance typically include reduced platinum uptake and increased platinum export. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Anil Sood and colleagues at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center identified a cellular membrane protein, ATP11B, that mediates cisplatin resistance in ...

Their study is the first to evaluate a smartphone app as the sole method for monitoring weight loss, with researchers creating My Meal Mate to trial against similar products for monitoring food intake, an online food diary and the traditional paper version. The My Meal Mate app allows users to monitor their food intake and exercise, set a weight loss target and sends a weekly update on progress via text message. The smartphone app was used on average every other day in the trial, whilst the average use of the website and paper diary was about once a week. As a result, ...

High blood levels of the serum C-peptide are linked to heart disease and death in people without diabetes, according to a large study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Researchers looked at data from the Third Nutrition and Health Examination Survey (NHANES III) and the NHANES III Linked Mortality File to determine the link between C-peptide levels and death from all causes as well as from heart disease. They looked at mortality data on 5902 adults aged 40 years or older representative of the US population. People with high serum C-peptide levels ...

Cognitive training exercises — or mental exercise — may help prevent cognitive decline in healthy older adults, while evidence for the benefits of pharmacologic substances and exercise is weak, outlines a review published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Mild cognitive impairment (cognitive decline that is more than normal for someone of a specific age) affects 10%-25% of people over age 70. The annual rate of decline to dementia (which is cognitive decline in several areas along with some functional ability) is about 10%. With an aging population, it is ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The taste of beer, without any effect from alcohol itself, can trigger dopamine release in the brain, which is associated with drinking and other drugs of abuse, according to Indiana University School of Medicine researchers. Using positron emission tomography (PET), the researchers tested 49 men with two scans, one in which they tasted beer, and the second in which they tasted Gatorade, looking for evidence of increased levels of dopamine, a brain neurotransmitter long associated with alcohol and other drugs of abuse. The scans showed significantly more ...

This press release is available in German. A team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has now carried out an experiment with photons, in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have thus provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience. The results of this study appear this week in the renowned journal Nature (Advance Online Publication/AOP). When we observe an object, we make a number of intuitive assumptions, among them that the unique properties of the object have been ...

The invasive kudzu bug has the potential to be a major agricultural pest, causing significant damage to economically important soybean crops. Conventional wisdom has held that the insect pests will be limited to areas in the southern United States, but new research from North Carolina State University shows that they may be able to expand into other parts of the country. Kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) are native to Asia, and were first detected in the U.S. in Georgia in 2009. They have since expanded their territory as far north as Virginia. The bugs have an interesting ...

Women who had sufficient amounts of vitamin D were 32 percent less likely to develop fibroids than women with insufficient vitamin D, according to a study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Fibroids, also known as uterine leiomyomata, are noncancerous tumors of the uterus. Fibroids often result in pain and bleeding in premenopausal women, and are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States. The study of 1,036 women, aged 35-49, living in the Washington, D.C., area from 1996 to 1999, was led by Donna Baird, Ph.D., a researcher at the National ...

South Africa is home to the largest HIV epidemic in the world with a total of 5.6 million people living with HIV. Large-scale clinical trials evaluating combination methods of prevention and treatment are often prohibitively expensive and take years to complete. In the absence of such trials, mathematical models can help assess the effectiveness of different HIV intervention combinations, as demonstrated in a new study¹ by Elisa Long and Robert Stavert from Yale University in the US. Their findings appear in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer. Currently ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Patients whose severe depression goes into remission for six months following electroconvulsive therapy report a quality of life similar to that of healthy individuals, researchers say. "If we can get you into remission, you get this big, big improvement in quality of life at six months such that our patients' quality of life is as good as that of the overall general population," said Dr. W. Vaughn McCall, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University. Researchers looked at ...

URBANA – Approximately 55 percent of the horseradish produced in the United States is grown in the Collinsville, Ill., area, the self-proclaimed "Horseradish Capital of the World." The product is of such high quality that Europeans import it for gourmet and industrial use. But when crop sciences professor Mohammad Babadoost first arrived at the University of Illinois in 1999, he was told that growers had been experiencing significant yield reductions due to internal discoloring and root rot. "If the roots are discolored, they are not accepted for processing," Babadoost ...

A type of marine algae could become bigger as increasing carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the oceans, according to research led by scientists based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS). The study, published this month in PLoS ONE, investigated how a strain of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi might respond if all fossil fuels are burned by the year 2100 – predicted to drive up atmospheric CO2 levels to over four times the present day. Specimens grown under this high CO2 scenario were compared with specimens grown under present day CO2 levels. Coccolithophores ...

People believe they'll be happy in the future, even when they imagine the many bad things that could happen, because they discount the possibility that those bad things will actually occur, according to a new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "I've always been fascinated by the changeability of people's perceptions of happiness," says psychological scientist Ed O'Brien of the University of Michigan. "On some days our futures seem bright and exciting, but on other days the same exact future event can feel ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 15, 2013—Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) derived from blood contains growth factors and other bioactive molecules that promote healing at sites of tissue injury. However, it is difficult to deliver and retain these molecules at a target site, and clinical results have proven to be mixed – until now. A new solid form of bioactive plasma-based biomaterials, known as PBMs, can accelerate tissue healing. Not only are PBMs easier to work with, inexpensive to produce, and safe to use, they are available as off-the-shelf products. All of these promising advantages, ...

Sex apparently is like income: People are generally happy when they keep pace with the Joneses and they're even happier if they get a bit more. That's one finding of Tim Wadsworth, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who recently published the results of a study of how sexual frequency corresponds with happiness. As has been well documented with income, the happiness linked with having more sex can rise or fall depending on how individuals believe they measure up to their peers, Wadsworth found. His paper, "Sex and the Pursuit ...

Cyclone Imelda reached hurricane strength on April 14 and its eye "opened" and became apparent on visible imagery on imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite. By April 15, the eye had "closed" and become filled in with clouds. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Imelda on April 14 at 0955 UTC (5:55 a.m. EDT), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard captured a visible image that clearly showed the eye of the storm. The image was created by the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, ...

VIDEO: A new study that examined how the brain learns and retains motor skills provides insight into musical skill. Performance of a musical task improved among pianists whose practice of a new... Click here for more information. A new study that examined how the brain learns and retains motor skills provides insight into musical skill. Performance of a musical task improved among pianists whose practice of a new melody was followed by a night of sleep, says researcher Sarah ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in transforming skin cells directly into oligodendrocyte precursor cells, the cells that wrap nerve cells in the insulating myelin sheaths that help nerve signals propagate. The current research was done in mice and rats. If the approach also works with human cells, it could eventually lead to cell therapies for diseases like inherited leukodystrophies — disorders of the brain's white matter — and multiple sclerosis, as well as spinal cord injuries. The study will be published ...

Agricultural fires are set all over the world at different times to prepare the soil for the planting of new crops. Several fires in India and many dozen fires in Nepal have been set and are burning in this image from April 13, 2013. This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner. INFORMATION: ...

(WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013) – A new study on how the progression of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is influenced by the bone marrow environment has demonstrated for the first time that targeting a specialized protein known as osteopontin (OPN) may be an effective strategy to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with this type of blood cancer. Study data were published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a cancer of white blood cells, which normally fight infection in the body. ...

New research by Professor James Jaccard, Ph.D., and Nicole Levitz, M.P.H., of the New York University Silver School of Social Work and its Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) has led them to suggest 12 evidence-based principles that can be used to improve contraceptive counseling of adolescents in U.S. health care clinics, doctor's offices, and health service organizations. Jaccard and Levitz write in the article – "Counseling Adolescents About Contraception: Towards the Development of an Evidence-Based Protocol for Contraceptive Counselors," just published ...

Taking a significant step toward improving the power delivery of systems ranging from urban electrical grids to regenerative braking in hybrid vehicles, researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have synthesized a material that shows high capability for both the rapid storage and release of energy. In a paper published April 14 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Materials, a team led by professor of materials science and engineering Bruce Dunn defines the characteristics of a synthesized form of niobium oxide — a compound based ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 15, 2013 – Data from a new study of British adults suggest that adherence to a "Western-style" diet (fried and sweet food, processed and red meat, refined grains, and high-fat dairy products) reduces a person's likelihood of achieving older ages in good health and with higher functionality. Study results appear in the May issue of The American Journal of Medicine. "The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with ...