Lung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and is associated with very low survival rates. Two new genome-sequencing studies have uncovered novel genes involved in the deadly disease, as well as striking differences in mutations found in patients with and without a history of smoking. The findings, published September 13th by Cell Press in the journal Cell, could pave the way for personalized therapies that boost survival rates. "These efforts should spur more studies to fully understand the genomic landscape of lung cancer—more specifically, those who have no ...

CINCINNATI – New research reveals that fruit flies and mammals may share a surprising evolutionary link in how they control body temperature through circadian rhythm, unlocking new ways to study the insects as models of human development and disease. The study posted online Sept. 13 by Current Biology reports that similar to people, Drosophila fruit flies – a common research tool in life sciences – have a genetically driven internal clock. This circadian clock prompts the insects to seek out warmer or cooler external temperatures according to the time of the day. Cold-blooded ...

In a study at the University of California, San Diego and VA San Diego Healthcare, researchers were able to regenerate "an astonishing degree" of axonal growth at the site of severe spinal cord injury in rats. Their research revealed that early stage neurons have the ability to survive and extend axons to form new, functional neuronal relays across an injury site in the adult central nervous system (CNS). The study also proved that at least some types of adult CNS axons can overcome a normally inhibitory growth environment to grow over long distances. Importantly, ...

BOSTON – Invariant natural killer T-cells (iNKT) are a unique subset of immune cells that are known to influence inflammatory responses. Now, a scientific team led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that iNKT cells play a protective role in guarding against obesity and the metabolic syndrome, a major consequence of obesity. Their discovery, published on-line today in the journal Immunity, also finds that although iNKT cells are lost when humans become obese, they can be restored through weight loss, and further suggests that therapies ...

VIDEO: The video shows beating heart muscle cells, or cardiomyoctes, at day 10 of differentiation. Click here for more information. SAN FRANCISCO, CA—September 13, 2012— Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have revealed the precise order and timing of hundreds of genetic "switches" required to construct a fully functional heart from embryonic heart cells—providing new clues into the genetic basis for some forms of congenital heart disease. In a study being published ...

BOSTON, MA—Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and is the leading cause of death from skin disease. Rates are steadily increasing, and although risk increases with age, melanoma is now frequently seen in young people. But what if we could pinpoint when seemingly innocuous skin pigment cells mutate into melanoma? Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have achieved this. Teams led by Yujiang Geno Shi, PhD, from BWH's Department of Medicine, and George F. Murphy, MD, from BWH's Department of Pathology have discovered a new biomarker for the lethal ...

AUDIO: Lung cancer patients with a history of smoking have 10 times more genetic mutations in their tumors than those with the disease who have never smoked, according to a new... Click here for more information. Lung cancer patients with a history of smoking have 10 times more genetic mutations in their tumors than those with the disease who have never smoked, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "None of us were surprised that ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – If you think this summer was hot, it's nothing compared to the summer of 1913, when the hottest temperature ever recorded was a searing 134 F in Death Valley, Calif. But while that reading was made 99 years ago, it is only being recognized today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the most extreme temperature ever recorded. That's because an international team of meteorologists recently finished an in-depth investigation of what had been the world-record temperature extreme of 58 C (136.4 F), recorded on Sept. 13, 1922 in El Azizia, Libya. ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 13, 2012) – Several years ago, biologists discovered that regular body cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells — cells with the ability to become any other type of cell. Such cells hold great promise for treating many human diseases. These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are usually created by genetically modifying cells to overexpress four genes that make them revert to an immature, embryonic state. However, the procedure works in only a small percentage of cells. Now, new genetic markers identified by researchers at ...

University of Rochester Medical Center scientists discovered new genetic evidence linking cholesterol and cancer, raising the possibility that cholesterol medications could be useful in the future for cancer prevention or to augment existing cancer treatment. The data, published in the online journal Cell Reports, support several recent population-based studies that suggest individuals who take cholesterol-lowering drugs may have a reduced risk of cancer, and, conversely that individuals with the highest levels of cholesterol seem to have an elevated risk of cancer. The ...

New research could clarify how inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), conditions that include ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, are triggered and develop. Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have shown how the immune system can compensate for a "leaky gut" and prevent disease in mice that are susceptible to intestinal inflammation. These findings could explain why some individuals who are susceptible to developing IBD do or do not get the disease. The results will be published online Sept. 13 in the journal Immunity. "Our results suggest that when ...

Patients admitted to hospital with obstructed heart arteries were three times more likely to experience complications when they were in hospital if they felt they were not in control of their condition, according to research published in the October issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. However, persistent anxiety on its own appeared to have little effect on whether patients experienced complications or not. Researchers looked at 171 patients admitted to hospitals in the USA, Australia and New Zealand with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), following them for two years. ...

It isn't only birds that move south as autumn approaches. Some insects also live their lives on the same principle. A new study of migratory insects has just been published that shows that a considerably higher number of insects survive and migrate back south in the autumn than was previously believed. "These results are really exciting, because we have managed to show that it really is profitable for insects to migrate north at the start of the summer", says Lars Pettersson, a Reader at the Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden. The findings help to fundamentally ...

Amsterdam, September 12, 2012 - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the publication of a position statement by the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in the journal Maturitas. The society published a clinical guide on low-dose vaginal estrogens for postmenopausal vaginal atrophy also including a summary of recommendations. Vaginal atrophy is common after menopause and adversely affects quality of life in one out of every two women. This guide provides the evidence for ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 13, 2012 – Ghrelin is a hormone released by the lining of the stomach that promotes feeding behavior. Decreasing ghrelin levels could potentially help combat obesity -- in fact, a vaccine that lowers ghrelin levels in order to reduce appetite is being studied as a treatment for obesity. However, many people eat as a way to relieve stress. If low ghrelin levels increase stress, its effectiveness as a treatment for obesity may be reduced. In the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers led by Dr. Zane Andrews of Monash University in ...

Inhibitory neurotransmitters dampen the activity of neurons. This regulatory effect forms the basis for the action of many anesthetics. For example, propofol, a common anesthetic, interacts with receptors on neural cell membranes that normally bind the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA). Binding of GABA opens protein channels through which negatively charged chloride ions stream into the cell. By raising the resting electrical potential across the membrane, this makes the cell less likely to fire in response to an incoming stimulus. Propofol magnifies ...

An international team of scientists headed from the University of Santiago de Compostela ensures that reading the labels on food products is linked to obesity prevention, especially in women. According to the study which used data from the USA, female consumers who consult food labels weigh nearly 4 kilograms less. Along with the Universities of Tennessee, Arkansas (USA) and the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural Finance Research, the University of Santiago de Compostela has participated in a study on the relationship between reading the food label and obesity. The ...

WHAT: Several large clinical trials have demonstrated that a daily oral dose of one or two antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV infection can prevent infection in an approach known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The level of protection, however, depends on taking the drugs regularly. For instance, the landmark iPrEx study (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Pages/iPrEx.aspx) found that overall, men who have sex with men who received a daily dose of tenofovir plus emtricitabine (Truvada) had a 44 percent lower risk of HIV infection compared with ...

A mysterious form of cell death, coded in proteins and enzymes, led to a discovery by UNC researchers uncovering a prime suspect for new cancer drug development. CIB1 is a protein discovered in the lab of Leslie Parise, PhD , professor and chair of the department of biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The small calcium binding protein is found in all kinds of cells. Cassandra Moran, DO, was a pediatric oncology fellow at UNC prior to accepting a faculty position at Duke University. She is interested in neuroblastoma, a deadly form of ...

VIDEO: To develop a program that allows computers to recognize rough sketches, we need to understand how humans actually sketch objects. Researchers from Brown University and the Technical University of Berlin... Click here for more information. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — First they took over chess. Then Jeopardy. Soon, computers could make the ideal partner in a game of Draw Something (or its forebear, Pictionary). Researchers from Brown University and the ...

Cancer of the oesophagus is becoming more common in Europe and North America. Around 7,800 people in the UK are diagnosed each year. The exact causes of this cancer aren't fully understood. It appears to be more common in people who have long-term acid reflux (backflow of stomach acid into the oesophagus). Other factors that can affect the risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus include: Gender – It is more common in men than in women. Age – The risk of developing oesophageal cancer increases as we get older. It occurs most commonly in people over 45. Smoking ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Millions of women experience a loss of bladder control, or urinary incontinence, in their lifetime. It's a common and often embarrassing problem that many patients don't bring up with their doctors – and when they do, it may be mentioned as a casual side note during a visit for more pressing medical issues. Now, new guidelines from doctors at the University of Michigan Health System offer family physicians a step-by-step guide for the evaluation of urinary leakage, to prevent this quality-of-life issue from being ignored. "I think a lot of physicians ...

TORONTO, ON – Men with divorced parents are significantly more likely to suffer a stroke than men from intact families, shows a new study from the University of Toronto. The study, to be published this month in the International Journal of Stroke, shows that adult men who had experienced parental divorce before they turned 18 are three times more likely to suffer a stroke than men whose parents did not divorce. Women from divorced families did not have a higher risk of stroke than women from intact families. "The strong association we found for males between parental ...

It seems as if a tumor deprived of oxygen would shrink. However, numerous studies have shown that tumor hypoxia, in which portions of the tumor have significantly low oxygen concentrations, is in fact linked with more aggressive tumor behavior and poorer prognosis. It's as if rather than succumbing to gently hypoxic conditions, the lack of oxygen commonly created as a tumor outgrows its blood supply signals a tumor to grow and metastasize in search of new oxygen sources – for example, hypoxic bladder cancers are likely to metastasize to the lungs, which is frequently deadly. ...

VIDEO: The movie shows the injector firing into open air without a skin or gel target. The jet, which is approximately the diameter of a human hair, seems dispersed but a... Click here for more information. WASHINGTON, Sept. 13—From annual flu shots to childhood immunizations, needle injections are among the least popular staples of medical care. Though various techniques have been developed in hopes of taking the "ouch" out of injections, hypodermic needles are still the ...