San Diego—Researchers at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine have shown that G protein-coupled receptor expression may predict the prognosis of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Their findings may identify new ways to treat such patients. The UCSD researchers, led by Paul A. Insel, M.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine, will present their findings on April 24. A clinical problem for many diseases, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) the most common form of leukemia in adults, is the lack of tests or biomarkers that can predict ...

San Diego, CA — Oregano, the common pizza and pasta seasoning herb, has long been known to possess a variety of beneficial health effects, but a new study by researchers at Long Island University (LIU) indicates that an ingredient of this spice could potentially be used to treat prostate cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the prostate gland and usually occurs in older men. Recent data shows that about 1 in 36 men will die of prostate cancer. Estimated new cases and deaths from this disease ...

Dr. Sandeep Jejurikar says a newly approved silicone-gel-filled breast implant increases the variety of implants available to patients, and he explains the breast augmentation options available at his plastic surgery practice near Chicago. The new implant is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for female breast augmentation patients age 22 and older and for female breast reconstruction patients of any age. "It's great to see how safe choices for plastic surgery procedures are expanding," Dr. Jejurikar says. "Safety is the most ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Here's an anatomical packing list for making that historic trip from water to land circa 370 million years ago: Lungs? Check. Legs? Check. Patches of highly vascular bone in the skin? In a new paper, scientists propose why many of the earliest four-legged creatures that dared breathe on land carried bony skin features. The "dermal bones" within the skin, especially the bones covering the skull roof and forming part of the shoulder girdle, had a highly complex surface of ridges and furrows called "dermal sculpture." The authors suggest ...

Dr. Anna Petropoulos of The New England Facial & Cosmetic Surgery Center says changes she has seen in her Boston area BOTOX Cosmetic patients support the findings of a study recently published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The study found a positive correlation between the use of botulinum toxin to treat the glabellar region of the face and a temporary reduction in depression. Dr. Petropoulos says she sees similar results in some of her patients who receive treatment with BOTOX in the Boston area. "BOTOX, which was the first FDA-approved medication ...

UPTON, NY - Detailed studies of one of the best-performing organic photovoltaic materials reveal an unusual bilayer lamellar structure that may help explain the material's superior performance at converting sunlight to electricity and guide the synthesis of new materials with even better properties. The research, published in Nature Communications April 24, 2012, was conducted by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from Stony Brook University, Seoul National University in Korea, the Max Planck ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University School of Medicine neuroscientists have demonstrated, in a study to be published online April 24 in Stroke, that a compound mimicking a key activity of a hefty, brain-based protein is capable of increasing the generation of new nerve cells, or neurons, in the brains of mice that have had strokes. The mice also exhibited a speedier recovery of their athletic ability. These results are promising, because the compound wasn't administered to the animals until a full three days after they had suffered strokes, said the study's senior ...

Etna Interactive, a dynamic Web services firm, will be a featured exhibitor at The Aesthetic Meeting 2012 in Vancouver. During The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) meeting, May 5-8 at the Vancouver Convention Center, board-certified plastic surgeons from around the world will engage with industry-related companies about their products and services. As a special bonus, Etna Interactive will be offering free half-hour website assessments, personalized Web marketing advice and a show guide handout with helpful tips for choosing reliable Web marketing ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Because a function of RNA is to be translated as the genetic instructions for the protein-making machinery of cells, RNA editing is the body's way of fine-tuning the proteins it produces, allowing us to adapt. The enzyme ADAR, which does this editing job in the nervous system of creatures ranging from mice to men, even edits itself. In a new study that examined the self-editing process and locked it down at two extremes in fruit flies, Brown University scientists found some surprising insights into how this "fine-tuning of the fine-tuner" ...

As part of their commitment to providing useful information in plain English, specialist niche insurance broker Cover4caravans.co.uk have added a fun and useful infographic to their website highlighting information you may not know from the caravan universe. For example: - it is estimated that there are a whopping 500,000 tourers on the road in the UK- with around 15-20% not insured; - the average cost of a claim is 19.25% more than cost of a caravan insurance policy; - the UK's most expensive static caravan in the UK is the Haulfryn Anniversary Lodge in Wales, that ...

CHICAGO – A text messaging intervention with education-related messages sent to parents increased influenza vaccination coverage compared with usual care in a traditionally hard-to-reach, low-income, urban, minority population of children and adolescents, although coverage overall remained low, according to a study in the April 25 issue of JAMA. "Timely vaccination is the cornerstone of influenza prevention through vaccination of susceptible populations before illness becomes epidemic in communities. The effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in children and adolescents ...

April has proved to be a lucky month for a Casino UK player when she hit the jackpot playing slot games. D.W. was playing the classic slots game Cash Splash when she hit a big win of EUR16,758. She is one of the many players who have struck it lucky this month. The game Cash Splash is a 3-Reel slot with a Progressive Jackpot. This game captures the classic feel of traditional casino slots but adds a modern twist with high-quality graphics and new bonus features. This, along with many other slot games, is available to play at Casino UK. The casino boasts an impressive ...

CHICAGO – Although botulinum toxin A ("Botox") injections are U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for preventive treatment for chronic migraines, a review and analysis of previous studies finds a small to modest benefit for patients with chronic migraine headaches and chronic daily headaches, although botox injections were not associated with greater benefit than placebo for preventing episodic migraine or chronic tension-type headaches, according to an article in the April 25 issue of JAMA. "Migraine and tension-type headaches are common. Although up to 42 percent ...

Richard P Brown, MD, and Patricia Gerbarg, MD, Integrative Psychiatry experts, are authors of a new book with the latest complementary treatments for ADD/ADHD entitled Non-Drug Treatments for ADHD: New Options for Kids, Adults, & Clinicians (WW Norton, 2012, hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN 978-0-393-70622-2), now in release on Internet bookseller web sites, and in US and UK bookstores. "This book is a winner! (It is) a lively, well-researched, hugely needed book on treatments for ADHD that do not involve the use of medication. In no way anti-medication, it addresses ...

CHICAGO – Patients with infective endocarditis involving implanted cardiac devices experience a high rate of complications such as valve infections, heart failure, and persistent bacteremia, and high in-hospital and 1-year mortality rates, particularly if there is valve involvement, according to a study in the April 25 issue of JAMA. "Cardiac electronic devices, including permanent pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), are increasingly implanted worldwide, with estimates of more than 4.2 million patients with a permanent pacemaker or ICD implanted ...

CHICAGO – In a study that included more than 72,000 very low-birth-weight infants, among those born in hospitals with recognition for nursing excellence (RNE), compared with non-RNE hospitals, there was a significantly lower rate of hospital infection, death at 7-days and severe intraventricular hemorrhage but not lower rates of death at 28-days or hospital stay mortality, according to a study in the April 25 issue of JAMA. "One in 4 very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants (less than 1,500 grams [3.3 lbs.]) dies in the first year of life; nearly all deaths (87 percent) occur ...

Pregnant women whose waters break late in preterm pregnancy but before they are in labor—the medical term for this situation is preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes—are best managed by monitoring and waiting until they deliver spontaneously rather than by inducing labor according to a study by Dutch researchers published in this week's PLoS Medicine. In their study, David van der Ham, from the Maastricht University Medical Center, Netherlands, and colleagues randomized over 500 pregnant women with preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes between 34-37 weeks gestation ...

Although there has been a steady increase in medical research from low- and middle- income countries in recent decades, there are still many countries that lack anything resembling a health research strategy, according to international experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine. In anticipation of the upcoming World Health Report on the need for health research, Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK and colleagues make the case for the importance of establishing national health research strategies so that public health systems can function ...

"Journals, professional associations, clinical guideline developers, and others need to worry not just that disclosure provides a band-aid to the real problem of the [conflict of interest] itself, but that any attempt to stem the trouble through disclosure policies may actually be worsening the problem," say the editors of PLoS Medicine writing in an editorial that discusses the response to a paper published in the Journal last month, which examined the financial conflicts of interest of members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) responsible for updating the ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A single gene that promotes initial development of the most common form of lung cancer and its lethal metastases has been identified by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Their study suggests other forms of cancer may also be driven by this gene, matrix metalloproteinase-10 (MMP-10). The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE on April 24, shows that MMP-10 is a growth factor secreted and then used by cancer stem-like cells to keep themselves vital. These cells then drive lung cancer and its spread, and are notoriously immune to conventional ...

New research confirms that the controversial decision by Warren Buffet – the 81-year-old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway – to undergo a blood test screening for prostate cancer despite his age is hardly unusual. Despite recommendations in 2008 from the United States Preventive Services Task Force against testing for prostate cancer in men aged 75 years or older, almost half of men in that age group continue to get screening tests. In 2005, before the recommendations were released, 43 percent of men age 75 and above elected to take the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. In ...

Primary cilia are hair-like structures which protrude from almost all mammalian cells. They are thought to be sensory and involved in sampling the cell's environment. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cilia, launched today, shows that cilia on cells in the retina and liver are able to make stable connections with each other - indicating that cilia not only are able to sense their environment but are also involved in cell communication. Primary cilia are structurally and functionally very similar to eukaryotic flagella (motile tails used to ...

Discerning males remain faithful ...if you are a spider. Sex for male orb web spiders (Argiope bruennichi) is a two shot affair since the act of mating destroys their genitalia. If they survive being eaten during their first encounter with a female, they have two choices – to mate again with the same female (monogynous) or try to find a new partner (bigynous). New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology shows that choice of mating behavior for A. bruennichi depends on the size and age of the first female they mate with. Monogamous ...

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered that maize crops emit chemical signals which attract growth-promoting microbes to live amongst their roots. This is the first chemical signal that has been shown to attract beneficial bacteria to the maize root environment. The study was led by Dr Andy Neal of Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire and Dr Jurriaan Ton of the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences. By deepening our understanding of how cereals interact with microorganisms in ...

Women who go through the menopause early are nearly twice as likely to suffer from osteoporosis in later life, suggests new research published today (25 April) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The Swedish study looked at the long-term effects of early menopause on mortality, risk of fragility fracture and osteoporosis. In 1977, 390 white north European women aged 48 were recruited in the Malmo Perimenopausal Study, an observational study where women were followed from age 48 onwards. The women were divided into two categories; women ...