A team of Australian scientists has discovered a new type of cell in the immune system. The new cell type, a kind of white blood cell, belongs to a family of T-cells that play a critical role in protection against infectious disease. Their findings could ultimately lead to the development of novel drugs that strengthen the immune response against particular types of infectious organisms. It is also potentially significant for many other important diseases including allergies, cancer and coronary artery disease. The research team includes Dr Adam Uldrich and Professor ...

The main causes of increases in blood pressure over a lifetime are modifiable and could be targeted to help prevent cardiovascular disease: although high blood pressure sometimes has no obvious symptoms, this condition, which affects about a third of the adult UK and US populations, can lead to life-threatening heart attacks and stroke, so reducing blood pressure is very important for health. As reported in this week's PLoS Medicine, a team of researchers, led by Andrew Wills from the Medical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, ...

This observational cohort study, by Andrew Edmonds and colleagues, reports that treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) markedly improves the survival of HIV-infected children in Kinshasa, DRC, a resource-deprived setting. The findings presented suggest that HAART is as effective for improving the survival of HIV-infected children in a severely resource-deprived country (still recovering from civil war) as in more resource-privileged settings. Most observational studies on the effects of antiretroviral treatment on child survival have been undertaken ...

HIV prevention activities aiming to reduce incidence could be targeted more effectively and efficiently if a quick, easy, valid, and precise method of estimating incidence in populations were available. These are the conclusions of a group of international experts convened to discuss the challenges and progress in the field, with the aim of stimulating new investment in technologies for identifying recent HIV infections. To tackle the challenges—which include technical and market-related issues—and move towards the goal of having a thoroughly validated incidence assay, ...

In the fifth article of a six-part PLoS Medicine series on migration & health, Zachary Steel from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and colleagues discuss the health risks associated with "interception strategies" that are used by governments to control and order international migration, especially in terms of halting the movement of irregular migrants, including asylum seekers. Some strategies like immigration detention, the authors argue, pose a serious threat to health and mental health, while others like visa restrictions have a potentially large ...

PHILADELPHIA — Scientists at Harvard University have created a laboratory model using time-lapse video microscopic technology that allows observation of early stages of ovarian cancer metastasis. "We were able to observe key molecular mechanisms that are necessary for the force-dependent processes associated with metastasis," said Joan Brugge, Ph.D., professor and chair of cell biology at Harvard University. These findings are published in Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. According to Brugge, who served as program ...

BOSTON, Mass. (June 14, 2011) — A team led by Joan Brugge, the Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, recently shed light on how ovarian cancer spreads. In a paper published in the July edition of the journal Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Brugge and colleagues found that ovarian cancer cells act like bullies, using brute force to plow their way through tissue and colonize additional organs. "This is the first time that mechanical force has been implicated in the spread of ovarian ...

Genes control everything from eye color to disease susceptibility, and inheritance - the passing of the genes from generation to generation after they have been duplicated - depends on centromeres. Located in the little pinched waist of each chromosome, centromeres control the movements that separate sister chromosomes when cells divide ensuring that each daughter cell inherits a complete copy of each chromosome. It has long been known that centromeres are not formed solely from DNA; rather, centromere proteins (CENPs) facilitate the assembly of a centromere on each chromosome. ...

With an increased emphasis on grading hospitals and a push to withhold payments from hospitals who don't meet certain standards, two Johns Hopkins researchers argue that more attention needs to be paid to the quality of the measurement tools used to praise and punish. The science of outcomes reporting is young and lags behind the desire to publically report adverse medical outcomes, write Elliott R. Haut, M.D., an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., a Johns Hopkins professor of anesthesiology ...

In an examination of trends of malpractice claims, there has been a greater decline in the rate of paid claims for inpatient settings than outpatient settings, and in 2009, the number of malpractice claims for events resulting in paid malpractice claims in outpatient and inpatient settings were similar, according to a study in the June 15 issue of JAMA. Much attention has been given to patient safety, but most initiatives have centered around inpatient care. "For example, in the past 5 years, the number of studies funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality ...

In an analysis of data from several studies, watching television for 2-3 hours per day or more was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease and all-cause death, according to a study in the June 15 issue of JAMA. Television (TV) viewing is the most commonly reported daily activity apart from working and sleeping in many populations around the world. In the United States, the average number of daily hours of TV viewing has recently been reported to be 5 hours. "Beyond altering energy expenditure by displacing time spent ...

Patients in the early stages of chronic kidney disease who had elevated levels of the endocrine hormone fibroblast growth factor 23 (that regulates phosphorus metabolism) had an associated increased risk of end-stage renal disease and death, according to a study in the June 15 issue of JAMA. Circulating levels of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) increase progressively as kidney function declines. A high level of FGF-23 is associated with mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease, but little is known about its relationship with adverse outcomes in the larger ...

Boston, MA – Watching television is the most common daily activity apart from work and sleep in many parts of the world, but it is time for people to change their viewing habits. According to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers, prolonged TV viewing was associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. The study appears in the June 15, 2011, edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The message is simple. Cutting back on TV watching can significantly reduce risk of type ...

(14 June 2011) Singapore and Trondheim, Norway: Quantum key distribution (QKD) is an advanced tool for secure computer-based interactions, providing confidential communication between two remote parties by enabling them to construct a shared secret key during the course of their conversation. QKD is perfectly secure in principle, but researchers have long been aware that loopholes may arise when QKD is put into practice. Now, for the first time, a team of researchers at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore, the Norwegian University ...

People who use a mist inhaler to deliver a drug widely prescribed in more than 55 countries to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be 52 percent more likely to die, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests. The findings, published by BMJ, the British Medical Journal, raise concerns not only about the mist inhaler — a device that delivers the soluble form of the medication tiotropium — but also about the drug itself. The mist inhaler has not yet gained regulatory approval in the United States, but the drug in its powdered form is commonly used to treat ...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have figured out how copper induces misfolding in the protein associated with Parkinson's disease, leading to creation of the fibrillar plaques which characterize the disease. This finding has implications for both the study of Parkinson's progression, as well as for future treatments. The protein in question, alpha-synuclein, is the major component of fibrillar plaques found in Parkinson's patients. Researchers had already discovered that certain metals, including copper, could increase the rate of misfolding by binding ...

A new study from Mount Sinai School of Medicine has found that a cellular signaling pathway governs the differentiation of cells into fat tissue or smooth muscle, which lines the vascular system. Engaging this signaling pathway and its capacity to govern cell differentiation has important implications in preventing obesity and cardiovascular disease. The study is published in the June issue of Developmental Cell. This research, by Philippe M. Soriano, PhD, Professor, Developmental and Regenerative Biology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Lorin E. Olson, PhD, previously ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Government guidelines published today on the use of dried blood spots collected during mandatory newborn screening underemphasize the importance of getting the public on board with the practice, according to University of Michigan researcher. Educating the public about the value of research on newborn blood as well as asking parents their preference on the storage and use of specimens would go a long way in eliminating government mistrust and opposition to the practice of using newborn blood for valuable research, says Beth A. Tarini, M.D., M.S., a ...

University of British Columbia researchers – using an innovative, atom-by-atom substitution method – have uncovered the mechanism by which a particular class of drugs controls irregular heartbeats. The findings, published today in the online journal Nature Communications, shed light on why certain anti-arrhythmic drugs (AADs) have dramatically different effects on the heart's behavior compared to others, and why the same drug can be beneficial in some instances and fatal in others. The discovery points the way toward development of better treatments for the condition, ...

Sophia Antipolis, France: Tuesday 14 June : The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working Group of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology has published a position paper to raise the profile of vulnerable plaques and the need for greater use of therapies to promote plaque stabilisation. The position paper, published online today in Thrombosis and Haemostasis, is also calling for more research into the causes of plaque rupture, and for the development of better diagnostics and treatments. "We want more medical professionals to understand the concept that stabilising ...

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a particular form of leukemia or cancer of the bone marrow, which can be treated with targeted imatinib. However, in some cases this medicine has no effect. Researchers at the VIB Vesalius Research Centre, K.U. Leuven, under the direction of Peter Carmeliet, have investigated the role of placental growth factor (PlGF) in mice with CML. Blocking this growth factor increases the life expectancy of these mice, even in those resistant to imatinib. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) In our body, white blood cells combat foreign intruders, ...

Telling your partner to watch her weight is not recommended-unless you're a male cleaner fish, reports a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Cleaner fish feed in male-female pairs by removing parasites from larger 'client' fish. While providing this cleaning service, cleaners may get greedy and bite clients rather than sticking to parasites. This cheating by cleaners causes mealtimes to come to an abrupt end as the disgruntled client fish swims off. Females that bite clients receive aggressive punishment from their male partners for such greedy behaviour. Scientists ...

Tiny fibres used to strengthen everyday products such as bicycle frames and hockey sticks could pose health hazards to those involved in their manufacture. Certain types of carbon nanotubes – cylindrical molecules about one-thousandth of the width of a human hair – could cause cancer in the lining of the lung, University of Edinburgh researchers have found. The study in mice found that while short carbon nanotubes appeared relatively harmless if they entered lung cavities, longer nanotubes were more likely to get stuck there and ultimately cause a type of cancer known ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method that can accurately predict the behavior of players in online role-playing games. The tool could be used by the game industry to develop new game content, or to help steer players to the parts of a game they will enjoy most. "We are able to predict what a player in a game will do based on his or her previous behavior, with up to 80 percent accuracy," says Brent Harrison, a Ph.D. student at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. The research team developed the data-driven predictive ...

Jerusalem, June 13, 2011 – Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have conducted an initial survey of what appears to be an important, ancient water source in a cave that was been discovered during excavation work for a new train station being constructed at the entrance to Jerusalem. The work was done by members of the Cave Research Unit of the university, headed by Prof. Amos Frumkin of the Department of Geography. The cave was exposed near the base of a deep service shaft that was dug for the train tunnel leading into the new station, located opposite the main ...