Between the blueprint of the genome and the products of its expression lie microRNAs, which can boost or lower the rate at which genes become stuff. In fact, many cancers use microRNA to magnify the expression of faulty genes or shrink the expression of helpful genes that would otherwise suppress tumors. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the December issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that in medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor of children, microRNA-218 is especially low. The article also shows that adding microRNA-218 to neural ...

Tropical montane cloud forest trees use more than their roots to take up water. They also drink water from clouds directly through their leaves, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have discovered. While this is an essential survival strategy in foggy but otherwise dry areas, the scientists say that the clouds the trees depend on are now disappearing due to climate change. "The study highlights the vulnerability of this rare and already endangered ecosystem to climate change," said Todd Dawson, senior author of the study and UC Berkeley professor of integrative ...

PASADENA, Calif.—Humans have a tendency to spontaneously synchronize their movements. For example, the footsteps of two friends walking together may synchronize, although neither individual is consciously aware that it is happening. Similarly, the clapping hands of an audience will naturally fall into synch. Although this type of synchronous body movement has been observed widely, its neurological mechanism and its role in social interactions remain obscure. In a new study, led by cognitive neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), researchers ...

1. Singapore scientists have identified FAIM, a molecule that typically prevents cell death, as a potential biomarker to identify an incurable form of cancer in the bone marrow. Patients with this form of cancer usually do not get cured with current standard treatments such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, with an average survival of only about four years. FAIM could thus be a therapeutic target in these patients, as drugs developed to target the molecule could destroy multiple myeloma cells and hence eradicate the cancer. 2. Multiple myeloma is an incurable ...

One major cause of illness from food-borne diseases is the parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). New insights into how the immune system combats T. gondii are provided in a study published by Cell Press December 13th in the journal Immunity. The findings could lead to the development of long-sought vaccines to protect against T. gondii and related parasites. To fight off pathogens, the immune system relies on Toll-like receptors (TLRs)—a class of proteins that recognize microbes and activate immune responses. The important role of TLR11 in recognizing the T. gondii ...

A simple screening test of musculo-skeletal fitness has proved remarkably predictive of all-cause mortality in a study of more than 2000 middle-aged and older men and women. The study, performed in Brazil by Dr Claudio Gil Araújo and colleagues at the Clinimex - Exercise Medicine Clinic in Rio de Janeiro, is reported today in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention.(1,2) The test was a simple assessment of the subjects' ability to sit and then rise unaided from the floor. The assessment was performed in 2002 adults of both sexes and with ages ranging from 51 ...

PHILADELPHIA — A novel approach to identifying potential anticancer drug combinations revealed that pairing cholesterol-reducing drugs called statins with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors might provide an effective approach to treating intractable melanomas driven by mutations in the NRAS and KRAS gene. David F. Stern, Ph.D., professor of pathology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues reported these data in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "The identification of gene mutations that ...

Scientists have isolated cancer stem cells that lead to the growth of Wilms' tumours, a type of cancer typically found in the kidneys of young children. The researchers have used these cancer stem cells to test a new therapeutic approach that one day might be used to treat some of the more aggressive types of this disease. The results are published online in EMBO Molecular Medicine. "In earlier studies, cancer stem cells were isolated from adult cancers of the breast, pancreas and brain but so far much less is known about stem cells in paediatric cancers," remarked Professor ...

A type of immune cell found in the small intestine plays a previously unsuspected role in monitoring antigens circulating in the bloodstream. The findings from a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers clarify how dendritic cells in the intestinal lining collect antigens from both intestinal contents and the circulation, leading to the generation of T cells that suppress inflammation. Disruption of that regulatory system may lead to the development of autoimmune disorders, inflammatory bowel disease or food allergies. "In the circuitry we uncovered, ...

Thursday, December 13, 2012, Cleveland: Cleveland Clinic researchers from the Lerner Research Institute have uncovered two new genes associated with Cowden syndrome (CS) according to a new study, published today in the online version of the American Journal of Human Genetics. Cowden syndrome is a difficult-to-recognize, under-diagnosed condition that carries high risks of breast, thyroid, and other cancers. The discovery of the two new genes – led by Charis Eng, MD, Ph.D., Chair and Founding Director of the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute's Genomic Medicine ...

LONDON – Globally, health advances present most people with a devastating irony: avoid premature death but live longer and sicker. That's one of the main findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010), a collaborative project led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The findings are being announced at the Royal Society in London on Dec. 14 and published in The Lancet, the first time the journal has dedicated an entire triple issue to one study. The seven scientific papers and accompanying commentaries ...

Over 9 million people died as a consequence of high blood pressure in 2010, making it the health risk factor with the greatest toll worldwide, say experts. Smoking and alcohol use have also overtaken child hunger in the last two decades to become the second and third leading risks globally, according to a study estimating the disease burden attributable to 43 risk factors in 1990 and 2010. The analysis was undertaken by an international consortium of scientists as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, which is published in The Lancet today. "Overall we're ...

Boston, MA — No matter where they live, how much education they have, or what their incomes are, people have very similar perceptions on the impact of diseases and injuries. This finding – counter to the prevailing belief that people throughout the world view different health conditions in very different ways depending on their culture or individual circumstances – is part of a collaborative project, the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010). GBD 2010, launched by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) ...

Scientists have discovered new evidence about the evolution of viruses, in work that will change our understanding about the control of infectious diseases such as winter flu. Researchers at the University of Exeter's conducted experiments to manipulate a virus to see if it could evolve the ability to switch its behaviour according to how many other viruses infect a host. Previous research has focussed on trying to force harmful microbes to become less threatening to human health as they evolve. But the new research, which was carried out in collaboration with the ...

New York, NY, December 13, 2012— Despite important progress in research and development (R&D) for global health over the past decade, only a small fraction of new medicines developed between 2000 and 2011 were for the treatment of neglected diseases, highlighting the 'fatal imbalance' between global disease burden and drug development for some of the world most devastating illnesses, said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), in an analysis to be presented today at an international conference aimed ...

Mountain View, Calif. – December 13, 2012 -- 23andMe, the leading personal genetics company, today announced the availability of Ancestry Composition, a new feature that provides state-of-the-art geographic illustration of an individual's ancestral origins. Using 22 reference populations, the feature indicates what percent of a person's ancestry comes from various regions around the world. The analysis includes DNA inherited from all ancestors on both sides of the family. The results reflect where an individual's ancestors lived going back approximately 500 years. Ancestry ...

Scientists have identified a new mutation in the gene that causes the inherited disease known as Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (Alpha-1), which affects roughly one in 2,500 people of European descent. Alpha-1 can lead to serious lung disease in adults, or liver disease at any age. The finding extends understanding of Alpha-1 at the molecular level, potentially leading to new drug development and better diagnostic tools. Dr Darren Saunders from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Professor Vanessa Hayes, from the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego, ...

Primary sources publisher, Adam Matthew, has announced the release of the fourth section of its highly renowned Victorian Popular Culture Portal. "Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema" explores the cultural history of optical entertainments from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, bringing to life the rich cultural and scientific history from which cinema was born. From shadow puppets to dioramas, and from zoetropes to Hollywood, the long and varied evolution of visual entertainments is represented through objects, ephemera and ...

MAMMALS could be at a greater risk of extinction due to predicted increases in extreme weather conditions, states a paper published today by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Scientists have mapped out land mammal populations, and overlapped this with information of where droughts and cyclones are most likely to occur. This allowed them to identify species at high risk of exposure to extreme weather. The paper, published this week in the journal Conservation Letters, describes the results of assessing almost six thousand species of land mammals in this way. Lead ...

A hearing system component thought to be unique in toothed whales like dolphins has been discovered in insects, following research involving the University of Strathclyde. The research is challenging ideas about how a large group of insects including crickets and katydids hear, revealing the unexpected similarity to toothed whale hearing. Scientists from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Auckland, with colleagues from Plant & Food Research in New Zealand, led the research with engineers from the University of Strathclyde working on the biomechanical ...

An anesthetic regimen typically used during surgery on pregnant mothers appears to have a negative effect on the development of the fetus, according to a new study on mice conducted by neurobiologists from the National Center for Toxicological Research, in Arizona. In the article 'Inhalation Anesthesia-Induced Neuronal Damage and Gene Expression Changes in Developing Rat Brain' published earlier this month in Systems Pharmacology, an open access journal by Versita – Dr. Fang Liu and Dr. Cheng Wang describe the effect of major, commonly used anesthetic compounds – Nitrous ...

Scientists have developed a new method for studying parasite numbers in the stomachs of individual seabirds in the wild. The technique enables the recording of video footage of worms inside seabird stomachs and is an important step forward in understanding the impact of parasites on seabird populations. The research is published today (13 December 2012) in the scientific journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. The research team trialled the use of endoscopy, often used in human and veterinary medicine but rarely in field situations, to measure natural parasite loads, ...

Labour conditions, the amount of hours and working during the morning are the factors that most negatively affect the academic development of children who work. Using data from the 'Edúcame primero Colombia' Project ('Educate me first Colombia' in Spanish), a group of researchers in which the University of Seville participates has confirmed the incompatibility between studying and child labour. The International Labour Organisation states that, in 2010, approximately 215 million children across the world were working. This figure has been progressively decreasing in ...

More than two hundred gene locations have now been identified for the chronic bowel condition Crohn's Disease, in a study that analysed the entire human genome. Published today in The American Journal of Human Genetics, scientists at UCL have devised a new method for identifying and mapping gene locations for complex inherited diseases. Using this method, they have been able to identify a large number of additional genes for Crohn's Disease, making a total of more than 200, which is more than have been found for any other disease. For example, there are just 66 known ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 13, 2012) – Analysis of media portrayals of nursing homes finds that negative stories outnumber positive stories by five to one, reports a study in the December issue of Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health. Negative news coverage of nursing homes may shape public perceptions and consumer care choices, suggest Edward Alan Miller, PhD, MPA, of University of Massachusetts Boston and Denise A. Tyler, PhD, of Brown University. They write, "Our findings suggest that negative reporting ...