Two separate discoveries by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) offer potential for development of a first-ever pharmacological treatment for cocaine addiction. In one study, a common beta blocker, propranolol, currently used to treat hypertension and anxiety, has shown to be effective in preventing the brain from retrieving memories associated with cocaine use in animal-addiction models, according to Devin Mueller, UWM assistant professor of psychology and a co-author with James Otis of the research. The work was presented today at the annual ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Exposure to even dim light at night is enough to cause physical changes in the brains of hamsters that may be associated with depression, a new study shows. Researchers found that female Siberian hamsters exposed to dim light every night for eight weeks showed significant changes in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. This is the first time researchers have found that light at night, by itself, may be linked to changes in the hippocampus. These alterations may be a key reason why the researchers also found that the hamsters exposed to dim ...

Widely prescribed for their cholesterol-lowering properties, recent clinical research indicates that statins can produce a second, significant health benefit: lowering the risk of severe bacterial infections such as pneumonia and sepsis. A new explanation for these findings has been discovered by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, who describe for the first time how statins activate the bacterial killing properties of white blood cells. The research is published in the November ...

Being able to read and understand words like anemia, hormones and seizure means a patient with heart failure may be less likely to be hospitalized, according to a new study from Emory University School of Medicine. Findings will be presented Nov. 17 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions conference in Chicago. The research, led by Emory cardiologist Javed Butler, MD, MPH, professor of medicine, Emory School of Medicine and director of Heart Failure Research at Emory Healthcare, involved the use of a simple test called the Rapid Estimates of Adults Literacy ...

When cardiac or skeletal muscle is not receiving enough oxygen to meet metabolic demands, a person will experience pain, such as angina, chest pain during a heart attack, or leg pain during a vigorous sprint. This type of pain is called "ischemic" pain and is sensed in the body by receptors on sensory neurons. It has been suggested that lactic acid, which increases during muscle exertion under conditions where oxygen is low, is a potential mediator of ischemic pain via action at acid sensing channel #3 (ASIC3). However, the acid signal it generates is quite subtle and is ...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Embargoed for 2 p.m. EST, November 17, 2010 – Global ophthalmic device company OptiMedica Corp. has announced that results from a clinical study of its Catalys Precision Laser System were published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine ("Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery with Integrated Optical Coherence Tomography," Volume 2, Issue 58, November 17, 2010). The data showed that, when compared to manual techniques, the Catalys Precision Laser System helped surgeons achieve significant improvement in precision during several ...

They are often accused of being distracting, but recent research has found that action packed video games like Halo and Call of Duty can enhance visual attention, the ability that allows us to focus on relevant visual information. This growing body of research, reviewed in WIREs Cognitive Science, suggests that action based games could be used to improve military training, educational approaches, and certain visual deficits. The review, authored by a group led by Dr Daphne Bavelier from the University of Rochester, focused on the impact video games have on visual attention, ...

WHAT: Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have determined a key mechanism by which Bacillus anthracis bacteria initiate anthrax infection despite being greatly outnumbered by immune system scavenger cells. The finding, made by studying genetically modified mice, adds new detail to the picture of early-stage anthrax infection and supports efforts to develop vaccines and drugs that would block this part of the cycle. To start an infection, anthrax bacteria release a toxin that binds ...

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) refers to a group of disorders associated with degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Symptoms include dementia, aphasia, and semantic disorders. Mutation of the gene for PGRN is associated with the most common form of FTLD, which is also characterized by inclusions of TDP-43 protein in the brain. Abnormal accumulation of TDP-43 has also been linked with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). While it is clear that a reduction in PGRN is causative for FTLD-TDP, the underlying mechanism is unknown. "Elucidation ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Imagine trying to cut by hand a perfect circle roughly one-third the size of a penny. Then consider that instead of a sheet of paper, you're working with a scalpel and a thin, elastic, transparent layer of tissue, which both offers resistance and tears easily. And, by the way, you're doing it inside someone's eye, and a slip could result in a serious impairment to vision. This standard step in cataract surgery — the removal of a disc from the capsule surrounding the eye's lens, a procedure known as capsulorhexis — is one of the few aspects of the operation ...

The most widely adopted measure for assessing the state of the world's oceans and fisheries led to inaccurate conclusions in nearly half the ecosystems where it was applied according to new analysis by an international team led by a University of Washington fisheries scientist. "Applied to individual ecosystems it's like flipping a coin, half the time you get the right answer and half the time you get the wrong answer," said Trevor Branch, a UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. In 1998, the journal Science published a groundbreaking paper that was ...

LA JOLLA, CA-With few exceptions, jumping genes-restless bits of DNA that can move freely about the genome-are forced to stay put. In patients with Rett syndrome, however, a mutation in the MeCP2 gene mobilizes so-called L1 retrotransposons in brain cells, reshuffling their genomes and possibly contributing to the symptoms of the disease when they find their way into active genes, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their findings, published in the November 18, 2010 issue of the journal Nature, could not only explain how a single mutation ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, applying a state-of-the-art imaging system to brain-tissue samples from mice, have been able to quickly and accurately locate and count the myriad connections between nerve cells in unprecedented detail, as well as to capture and catalog those connections' surprising variety. A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny contacts called synapses. It is at these synapses that an electrical impulse traveling ...

Physicists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, have succeeded in trapping antihydrogen – the antimatter equivalent of the hydrogen atom – a milestone that could soon lead to experiments on a form of matter that disappeared mysteriously shortly after the birth of the universe 14 billion years ago. The first artificially produced low energy antihydrogen atoms – consisting of a positron, or antimatter electron, orbiting an antiproton nucleus – were created at CERN in 2002, but until now the atoms have struck normal matter ...

LA JOLLA, CA – November 15, 2010 –– A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a powerful new method for detecting functional sites on proteins. The technique may have broad applications in basic research and drug development. Described in an advance, online publication of Nature on November 17, 2010, the method enables scientists to take a sample of cells, locate the sites on their proteins that have a certain kind of biochemical reactivity, and measure the degree of that reactivity. "It lets us find functional sites on proteins more ...

CHICAGO --- Estrogen is an elixir for the brain, sharpening mental performance in humans and animals and showing promise as a treatment for disorders of the brain such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. But long-term estrogen therapy, once prescribed routinely for menopausal women, now is quite controversial because of research showing it increases the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. Northwestern Medicine researchers have discovered how to reap the benefits of estrogen without the risk. Using a special compound, they flipped a switch that mimics the effect ...

Viruses have led scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to the discovery of a security system in host cells. Viruses that cause disease in animals beat the security system millennia ago. But now that researchers are aware of it, they can explore the possibility of bringing the system back into play in the fight against diseases such as sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus, dengue and yellow fever. The findings, published in Nature, solve a 35-year-old mystery that began when National Institutes of Health researcher Bernard ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Like all organisms, bacteria must compete for resources to survive, even if it means a fight to the death. New research led by scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the University of California, Santa Barbara, describes new complexities in the close chemical combat waged among bacteria. And the findings from this microscopic war zone may have implications for human health and survival. "It has been known for a long time that bacteria can produce toxins that they release into their surroundings ...

NEW YORK, November, 17, 2010 — An international, multi-center study has revealed the discovery of a novel oncogene that is associated with uveal melanoma, the most common form of eye cancer. Researchers have isolated an oncogene called GNA11 and have found that it is present in more than 40 percent of tumor samples taken from patients with uveal melanoma. The findings are being published early online November 17, 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine and will appear in the December 2, 2010, print issue. "These findings are significant because we now have a much ...

Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC), a cardiomyopathy about which little is fully understood, is associated with heart failure (HF), stroke and ventricular arrhythmias, according to a study to be presented Nov. 17 at the 2010 American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions in Chicago. The researchers also will report that advanced imaging technologies reveal that developing these cardiac risks appear to progress over time in patients with LVNC. LVNC is an inherited heart muscle condition in which the muscular wall of the left ventricle appears to be spongy and ...

Stop using racial profiling, says Professor William Press from the University of Texas at Austin. He claims that as well as being politically and ethically questionable, racial profiling does no better in helping law enforcement officials in their task of catching terrorists than standard uniform random sampling techniques. This is the topic of a paper publishing today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Racial profiling rests on the idea that people from particular racial or ethnic groups are more ...

Northwestern Medicine physician researchers are revolutionizing treatment of cardiovascular disease by utilizing patients' own stem cells to regenerate heart and vascular tissue. Northwestern Medicine is the lead site for a study examining stem cell transplantation as treatment for critical limb ischemia. Chief investigator Douglas Losordo, MD, director of the Program in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Heart Research of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, will present the findings ...

PASADENA, Calif. — Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have demonstrated quantum entanglement for a quantum state stored in four spatially distinct atomic memories. Their work, described in the November 18 issue of the journal Nature, also demonstrated a quantum interface between the atomic memories—which represent something akin to a computer "hard drive" for entanglement—and four beams of light, thereby enabling the four-fold entanglement to be distributed by photons across quantum networks. The research represents an important achievement ...

A new anti-cancer drug aimed at vitamin D receptors on cancer cells has prompted encouraging responses in the levels of PSA (prostate specific antigen) in men with prostate cancer that has become resistant to hormonal therapies. Results of the phase II(a) clinical trial will be presented at the 22nd EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin today (Thursday). The trial found that when the new drug, inecalcitol, was combined with the existing, current therapy (docetaxel and prednisone) 83% of patients responded to the treatment ...

Scientists in Germany have developed a way of smuggling an anti-cancer drug past the protective blood-brain barrier and into brain tumours and metastases using a nanocarrier – a tiny capsule specially designed to pass through cell membranes and deliver its anti-cancer drug to the cancer cell. The blood-brain barrier is formed by a network of closely sealed endothelial cells in the brain's capillaries, and it expresses a high level of proteins that pump foreign molecules away from the brain, while allowing others (such as glucose and insulin) that are necessary to the ...