PHILADELPHIA — Oncologists who treat patients with pancreatic cancer may be one step closer to understanding why gemcitabine, the only currently available treatment, works in some cases but not in others, according to a paper in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. David Tuveson, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of pancreatic cancer medicine at the University of Cambridge, utilized a laboratory model to test the combination of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in pancreatic cancer. "The combination has shown promise in an early clinical ...

Washington, D.C. (28 February 2012)—The prospect of deep cuts in the federal budget threatens to reverse the dramatic progress of a bipartisan US commitment to defeat neglected diseases in developing countries, according to a new report released today by the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC). Federal investments in global health research and development (R&D) programs that span multiple agencies have helped nurture an array of new vaccines, medicines, diagnostics, and other health products needed to combat diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis (TB), ...

Clean delivery kits combined with clean delivery practices could lead to substantial reductions in neonatal mortality in infants born at home, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine. The authors, led by Nadine Seward and Audrey Prost from the Institute of Child Health at University College London, analysed data from three previous studies to investigate the links between neonatal mortality, the use of clean delivery kits, and individual clean delivery practices in almost 20 000 home births in rural areas of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The researchers ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Cleusa Ferri of King's College London Institute of Psychiatry, UK and colleagues report on their investigation of mortality rates in over 12 000 people aged 65 years and over in Latin America, India, and China. The authors show that chronic diseases are the main causes of death, with stroke the leading cause in almost all sites studied, and that education has an important effect on mortality. The authors state: "Our findings are important in informing priorities to improve health and reduce deaths in older people…Given the much higher absolute ...

For mental health to gain significant attention, and funding from policymakers globally, it is not enough to convince people that it has a high disease burden but also that there are deliverable and cost-effective interventions – according to South African researchers writing in this week's PLoS Medicine. Mark Tomlinson and Crick Lund from the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health based at the University of Cape Town, argue that global mental health must demonstrate its social and economic impact. The authors argue: "a coherent evidence base for scalable interventions ...

In their February editorial, the PLoS Medicine Editors reflect on recent research by Olav Lindqvist and colleagues which describes nonpharmacological palliative care for cancer patients in the last days of life. The qualitative study found that the approaches used by palliative care staff were multifaceted, with physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and existential care interwoven in caregiving activities. The Editors comment: "[Lindqvist and colleagues' findings] reveal the complex and sometimes subtle caregiving approaches that palliative care staff take to improve ...

The ability to detect and respond to magnetic fields is not usually associated with living things. Yet some organisms, including some bacteria and various migratory animals, do respond to magnetic fields. In migratory animals like fish, birds, and turtles, this behavior involves small magnetic particles in the nervous system. However, how these particles form and what they are actually doing is not fully understood. In a new study, published February 28 in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, Keiji Nishida and Pamela Silver of Harvard Medical School take a major ...

Some disease-causing parasites are known to favor one sex over the other in their host species, and such differences between the sexes have generally been attributed to differences in immune responses or behavior. But in a new article, published February 28 in the magazine section of the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, David Duneau from Cornell University and Dieter Ebert from the University of Basel now propose that all sorts of characteristics that differ between the sexes of the host species can influence a parasite's adaptation. These characteristics, such ...

Reconstructing family trees dating back to 1811, Dutch researchers have estimated the death risk for people with inherited heart rhythm disorders, according to a study in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, a journal of the American Heart Association. Heart rhythm disorders can result in sudden cardiac death in apparently healthy people because of severe disturbances in the rhythm of the heart. The risk is high for people who carry one of these rare genes and have symptoms such as fainting. Before the study, the risk in people without symptoms was less certain. Thus, ...

U-Jam Fitness, a cardio dance fitness program that unites world beats with urban flavor and takes students around the world from Hip-Hop to Bollywood, announced a special 90 minute class and celebration in honor of its two year anniversary. U-Jam Fitness founders Susy C. Marks and Matt Marks launched the athletic dance fitness program in January 2010 to give students of all levels an intense and sweat-induced workout set to exciting, high energy music--a unique combination of world beats with urban rhythm. In just two years, the fitness program has exploded and now ...

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered a new 'off switch' in our immune response which could be boosted in diseases caused by over-activation of our immune system, or blocked to improve vaccines. The findings are published this week in the journal Nature Communications. The research was funded by Health Research Board, Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland. The research team, led by Dr Anne McGettrick and Professor Luke O'Neill, at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, have discovered that a protein, called TMED7, can shut down part of our immune ...

MONTREAL, February 28, 2012 – Research results published in Brain Injury by Université de Montréal neuropsychologist Dave Ellemberg reveal that adolescents are more sensitive to the effects of a sport-related concussion than adults or children. These kinds of injuries mostly affect their working memory – the brain function that enables us to process and store short-term information and that is essential for activities such as reading and mental calculation. "The frontal regions of the brain are more vulnerable to concussions. These areas oversee executive functions responsible ...

BOSTON -- (Feb. 28, 2012) -- Using high-precision microscopy and X-ray scattering techniques, University of Oregon researchers have gained eye-opening insights into the process of applying green chemistry to nanotechnology that results in high yields, improves efficiency and dramatically reduces waste and potential negative exposure to human health or the environment. University of Oregon chemist James E. Hutchison described his lab's recent efforts to monitor the dynamics of nanoparticles in an invited talk today at the American Physical Society's March Meeting (Feb. ...

New figures published today (Wednesday) estimate that there will be nearly 1.3 million deaths from cancer in 2012 in the European Union (EU) – 717,398 men and 565,703 women. Although the actual numbers have increased, the rate (age-standardised per 100,000 population) of people who die from the disease continues to decline. Writing in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1], a group of researchers from Italy and Switzerland estimate that the overall cancer death rates will be 139 per 100,000 men and 85 per 100,000 women in 2012. Compared with confirmed deaths in 2007 ...

Individual atoms of a certain chemical element can be very stubborn when it comes to separation, mainly because techniques rely on a difference in chemical and physical properties — atoms are almost identical in both regards. However, if you peer closely enough into the atoms, there are subtle differences that can have very big effects. These "different" atoms, called isotopes, are heavily relied on in areas of medicine and nuclear energy and now researchers have proposed a novel way of isolating them. Reported today, Wednesday 29 February, in the Institute of Physics ...

Lower back pain due to Modic changes can be hard to treat and the currently recommended therapy of exercise and staying active often does not help alleviate the pain. Results of a trial, published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine, comparing exercise therapy, and staying active, to daily rest and lumbar support, showed that both treatments resulted in the same small level of improvement in pain, disability, and general health. Modic changes (MC) in the spine, where the bone marrow is infiltrated by serum (fluid), fatty deposits, or by sclerosis, can ...

With the addition of Clearwater Safety lights, police motor officers in Folsom, CA now ride with increased confidence. The department recently took delivery of Clearwater "Krista" Police LED lights for the BMW R1200RT motorcycles. Folsom Police Sergeant, Kirk Morris, contacted Clearwater's owner, Glenn Stasky, upon learning of the police lights. "The light demonstration was impressive. Stasky offered to install a set of lights on one of our bikes for evaluation. We rotated the bike throughout the department and it soon became evident that we wanted to ...

Research at the University of Liverpool, using computer models to reconstruct the jaw muscle of Tyrannosaurus rex, has suggested that the dinosaur had the most powerful bite of any living or extinct terrestrial animal. The team artificially scaled up the skulls of a human, alligator, a juvenile T. rex, and Allosaurus to the size of an adult T. rex. In each case the bite forces increased as expected, but they did not increase to the level of the adult T. rex, suggesting that it had the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal. Previous studies have estimated that ...

King's College London press release Stroke is the leading cause of death in people over 65 in low- and middle-income countries, according to new research published this week. Deaths of people over 65 represent more than a third of all deaths in developing countries yet, until now, little research has focused on this group. The study was led by researchers King's College London and is published in PLoS Medicine. The study also finds that education and social protection are as important in prolonging people's lives as economic development. Professor Martin Prince, who ...

Initiatives by successive governments to provide better access to higher education for young people from less-privileged backgrounds have failed according to Understanding Society, the world's largest longitudinal study. Findings show just a five per cent increase in degrees among children of routine and manual workers. An analysis of the social backgrounds of almost 34,000 adults between the ages of 22-49, compiled by the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, reveal that it is the children of the middle classes, and not the working ...

Referring people with schizophrenia to group art therapy does not improve their mental health or social functioning, finds a study published on bmj.com today. The findings challenge national treatment guidelines which recommend that doctors consider referring all people with schizophrenia for arts therapies. Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which affects as many as one in 100 people at some point in their lives. While antipsychotic medication can reduce symptoms, many people continue to experience poor mental health and social functioning. Art therapy has ...

One in ten students now claim to know someone who is using prostitution to pay for university fees, a medical student writing for the Student BMJ claims. Although the numbers are still small, this figure as a percentage, is two and a half times larger than 10 years ago when just 4% of students claimed to know a peer placing themselves in the sex trade. This figure rose to 6% in 2006 and now stands at just under 10%. The author, a final year medical student at the University of Birmingham, writes about the obvious correlation between rising tuition fees and the prevalence ...

A study led by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, in collaboration with the University of East London UK, and Swansea University UK, is the first to show the effects of the drug ecstasy on fetal and infant development. Ecstasy is a stimulant and hallucinogen, and is one of the most widely used illegal drugs among young people, with a range of damaging effects. It is known scientifically as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA. This international prospective study, published in the Feb. 28 issue of Neurotoxicology and Teratology, shows that use of ...

The inaugural international guidelines for the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease (RHD), a disease that affects tens of millions of people worldwide, have today been published by the World Heart Federation in Nature Reviews Cardiology. The guidelines define the minimum requirements needed to diagnose RHD in individuals without a clear history of acute rheumatic fever (ARF), and will have important global and national implications. Diagnosis is conducted with an ultrasound of the heart's valves and chambers, known as an echocardiogram, but currently no guidelines ...

Yale University researchers have discovered a key cellular mechanism that may help the brain control how much we eat, what we weigh, and how much energy we have. The findings, published in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, describe the regulation of a family of cells that project throughout the nervous system and originate in an area of the brain call the hypothalamus, which has been long known to control energy balances. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are closely investigating the role of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons in controlling ...