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Medicine28 Feb 2013

DNA's twisted communication

During embryo development, genes are dynamically, and very precisely, switched on and off to confer different properties to different cells and build a well-proportioned and healthy animal. Fgf8 is one of the key genes in this process, controlling in particular the growth of the limbs and the formation of the different regions of the brain. Researchers at EMBL have elucidated how Fgf8 in mammal embryos is, itself, controlled by a series of multiple, interdependent regulatory elements. Their findings, published today in Developmental Cell, shed new light on the importance ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

UGA researchers identify brain pathway triggering impulsive eating

Athens, Ga. – New research from the University of Georgia has identified the neural pathways in an insect brain tied to eating for pleasure, a discovery that sheds light on mirror impulsive eating pathways in the human brain. "We know when insects are hungry, they eat more, become aggressive and are willing to do more work to get the food," said Ping Shen, a UGA associate professor of cellular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "Little is known about the other half—the reward-driven feeding behavior—when the animal is not so hungry but they still get ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Grape seed and skin extract – a weapon in the fight against kidney disease caused by high-fat diets

Ottawa, ON (February 28, 2013) – New insight into grape seed extract as a therapeutic and preventative measure to fight obesity-induced kidney damage is presented in a new study. Grape seed and skin extract (GSSE) is known to contain powerful antioxidants. This study, published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, is the first to make a link between GSSEs and high-fat-diet-induced renal disease. The authors examined the effect of GSSE processed from a grape cultivar ('Carignan') of Vitis vinifera from northern Tunisia on rats. Rats were fed ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

LSU researchers find new information about 'Snowball Earth' period

It is rather difficult to imagine, but approximately 635 million years ago, ice may have covered a vast portion of our planet in an event called "Snowball Earth." According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, the massive ice age that occurred before animal life appeared, when Earth's landmasses were most likely clustered near the equator, precipitated relatively rapid changes in atmospheric conditions and a subsequent greenhouse heat wave. This particular period of extensive glaciation and subsequent climate changes might have supplied the cataclysmic event that gave rise ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Aggressive advertising makes for aggressive men

Does advertising influence society, or is it merely a reflection of society's pre-existing norms? Where male attitudes are concerned, a new study implicates magazine advertisements specifically aimed at men as helping to reinforce a certain set of views on masculinity termed "hyper-masculinity." The article by Megan Vokey, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Manitoba, and colleagues is published in Springer's journal Sex Roles. Hyper-masculinity is an extreme form of masculine gender ideology comprised of four main components: toughness, violence, dangerousness and ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Nemo helps anemone partner breath by fanning with his fins

Setting up home in the stinging tentacles of a sea anemone might seem like a risky option, but anemonefish – also known as clownfish and popularised in the movie Finding Nemo – are perfectly content in their unlikely abode. Fending off peckish anemone predators in return for refuge, plucky clownfish have achieved a satisfactory arrangement with their deadly partners. Yet Joe Szczebak from Auburn University, USA, wondered whether there might be more to the unconventional collaboration than met the eye. According to Szczebak, coral reefs are awash with oxygen during the day, ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Mayo Clinic researchers identify possible treatment window for memory problems

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Researchers have identified a possible treatment window of several years for plaques in the brain that are thought to cause memory loss in diseases such as Alzheimer's. The Mayo Clinic study is published in the Feb. 27 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Our study suggests that plaques in the brain that are linked to a decline in memory and thinking abilities, called beta amyloid, take about 15 years to build up and then plateau," says lead author Clifford Jack, Jr., M.D., a Mayo Clinic radiologist, ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Quantity of sugar in food supply linked to diabetes rates, Stanford researcher says

STANFORD, Calif. — Does eating too much sugar cause diabetes? For years, scientists have said "not exactly." Eating too much of any food, including sugar, can cause you to gain weight; it's the resulting obesity that predisposes people to diabetes, according to the prevailing theory. But now the results of a large epidemiological study suggest sugar may also have a direct, independent link to diabetes. Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco examined data on sugar ...

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Social Science28 Feb 2013

Louse genetics offer clues on human migrations

A new genetic analysis of human lice from across the world sheds light on the global spread of these parasites, their potential for disease transmission and insecticide resistance. The results are published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Marina S. Ascunce and colleagues from the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. Lice have been constant travel companions for humans ever since they left Africa and began colonizing other parts of the world. Since they have evolved along with humans, the geographic distribution of lice can reveal ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Higher indoor humidity inactivates flu virus particles

Higher humidity levels indoors can significantly reduce the infectivity of influenza virus particles released by coughing, according to research published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by John Noti and colleagues from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers tested the effect of relative humidity on the capacity of flu virus released in a simulated 'cough' to re-infect cells. They found that an hour after being released in a room at a relative humidity of 23% or less, 70-77% ...

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Social Science28 Feb 2013

Heading a soccer ball may affect cognitive performance

Sports-related head injuries are a growing concern, and new research suggests that even less forceful actions like 'heading' a soccer ball may cause changes in performance on certain cognitive tasks, according to a paper published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anne Sereno and colleagues from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The researchers tested the effects of non-injurious head-to-ball impacts on cognitive function using a tablet-based app. They found that high school female soccer players were significantly slower than ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Wii-playing surgeons may improve performance on laparoscopic procedures

Laparoscopic surgeons may improve certain aspects of surgical performance by regularly playing on a Nintendo® Wii, according to research published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Gregorio Patrizi and colleagues from the University of Rome, Italy. Considering the technical skills required to perform laparascopic procedures, several studies aim to evaluate and improve training for surgeons outside the operating room. Previous studies have assessed the effect of playing video games on hand-eye coordination and spatial attention. In the current research, ...

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Social Science28 Feb 2013

Children with autism show increased positive social behaviors when animals are present

The presence of an animal can significantly increase positive social behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Marguerite E O'Haire and colleagues from the University of Queensland, Australia. The authors compared how 5-13 year old children with ASD interacted with adults and typically-developing peers in the presence of two guinea pigs compared to toys. They found that in the presence of animals, children with ASD demonstrated more social behaviors like talking, looking ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Nut-cracking monkeys use shapes to strategize their use of tools

VIDEO: This video shows two episodes in which a bearded capuchin monkey places and strikes a nut with the Stop meridian marked with a black line or a black-hatched line, and... Click here for more information. Bearded capuchin monkeys deliberately place palm nuts in a stable position on a surface before trying to crack them open, revealing their capacity to use tactile information to improve tool use. The results are published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Ectopic eyes function without connection to brain

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (February 27, 2013) – For the first time, scientists have shown that transplanted eyes located far outside the head in a vertebrate animal model can confer vision without a direct neural connection to the brain. Biologists at Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences used a frog model to shed new light – literally – on one of the major questions in regenerative medicine, bioengineering, and sensory augmentation research. "One of the big challenges is to understand how the brain and body adapt to large changes in organization," says Douglas ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Infusion of stem cells and specially generated T-cells from same donor improves leukemia survival

SEATTLE – In a significant advance for harnessing the immune system to treat leukemias, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the first time have successfully infused large numbers of donor T-cells specific for a key anti-leukemic antigen to prolong survival in high-risk and relapsed leukemia patients after stem cell transplantation. Both the stem cells for transplant and the T-cells came from the same matched donors. Reporting results of a pilot clinical trial in the Feb. 27 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers describe ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Risk of heart attack death may increase after adult sibling's death

Your risk of dying from a heart attack may increase after your adult sibling dies, according to new research in the Journal of the American Heart Association. "Death of a family member is so stressful that the resulting coping responses could lead to a heart attack," said Mikael Rostila, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor at Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. "But our results suggest that this association between the loss of a sibling and having a heart attack is more likely to occur some years after bereavement." The ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Researchers look to breath to identify stress

The perennial stress-buster – a deep breath – could become stress-detector, claims a team of researchers from the UK. According to a new pilot study, published today, 28 February, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Breath Research, there are six markers in the breath that could be candidates for use as indicators of stress. The researchers hope that findings such as these could lead to a quick, simple and non-invasive test for measuring stress; however, the study, which involved just 22 subjects, would need to be scaled-up to include more people, over a wider range of ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Modified protein could become first effective treatment for vitiligo

MAYWOOD, Il. – Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researchers have developed a genetically modified protein that dramatically reverses the skin disorder vitiligo in mice, and has similar effects on immune responses in human skin tissue samples. The modified protein is potentially the first effective treatment for vitiligo, which causes unsightly white patches on the face, hands and other parts of the body. Loyola University Chicago has submitted a patent application for the protein, and researchers are seeking regulatory approval and funding for a ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Spinal cancer: Guidelines for diagnosis unsupported in patients with lower back pain

A new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library has raised doubts as to the effectiveness of "red flag" indicators at both identifying and excluding cancer in patients with lower back pain. The authors of the review concluded that most individual red flags were poor at diagnosing spinal malignancies and call for further studies focused on combinations of red flags. Lower back pain is a common complaint, often with no obvious cause. In around 1-5% of patients with lower back pain, the condition results from a more serious underlying problem, such as a tumour. ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Screening decisions are better informed when risk information is personalized

Patients' ability to make genuinely informed choices about undergoing disease screening increases when the risk information that they receive is related to their own personal risk, rather than average risks, according to the results of a Cochrane systematic review. The authors reviewed data from studies, largely on cancer screens, in which patients were provided with personalised risk estimates. The benefits of screening are not clear-cut. For example, screening can help detect cancer early, leading to successful treatment, but it can also lead to unnecessary treatment ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Housing improvements should be targeted at those in poorest health

Improving housing can improve health, particularly when interventions are targeted at those in the poorest health, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The authors say their review underscores the importance of targeting those most in need when devising programmes for housing improvement. Despite a wealth of research linking housing to health, it remains difficult to separate the effects of poor housing from the effects of other socioeconomic factors that influence health, such as poverty. The link could be made more strongly by showing ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

Patients with diabetes at no greater risk for infection

Rosemont, Ill. – Patients with diabetes were no more likely to suffer infection, deep vein thrombosis (a deep vein blood clot) or other complications following total knee replacement (TKR) than patients without diabetes, according to new research published online today, in advance of its publication in the March 2013 Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). The study authors sought to determine whether or not blood sugar level (glycemic control) influenced outcome in TKR. Fifty-two percent of people with diabetes have arthritis. Previous studies have found that poor ...

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Science28 Feb 2013

Scientists discover molecule that does double duty in stopping asthma attacks

BOSTON, MA—Scientists from Brigham and Women's Hospital are on the brink of the next treatment advancement that may spell relief for the nearly nineteen million adults and seven million children in the United States suffering from asthma. The scientists discovered two new drug targets in the inflammatory response pathway responsible for asthma attacks. The study will be published on February 27, 2013 in Science Translational Medicine. Researchers studied the lungs and blood of 22 people with mild and severe asthma. They saw that immune cells called natural killer ...

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Medicine28 Feb 2013

New study shows viruses can have immune systems

BOSTON (February 27, 2013, embargoed until 1 p.m. US ET) — A study published today in the journal Nature reports that a viral predator of the cholera bacteria has stolen the functional immune system of bacteria and is using it against its bacterial host. The study provides the first evidence that this type of virus, the bacteriophage ("phage" for short), can acquire a wholly functional and adaptive immune system. The phage used the stolen immune system to disable – and thus overcome – the cholera bacteria's defense system against phages. Therefore, the phage can kill ...

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