VIDEO: Researchers show that obesity-induced heart disease can be prevented by reducing the activity of TOR, a nutrient-sensing protein that regulates molecular circuits involved in growth, metabolism and lifespan. Click here for more information. LA JOLLA, Calif., November 2, 2010 – It's no secret that obesity is hard on the heart. More than 30 percent of Americans are obese, and many of them are also at increased risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. However, there ...

Survival for colorectal cancer patients with MUTYH-associated polyposis was statistically significantly better than for patients with colorectal cancer from the general population, according to a recent study published online November 2 in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. People who inherit a mutation in the MUTYH gene have nearly a 100% risk for developing colon cancer at some point in their lifetimes. But it is unknown whether specific histological and molecular genetic features of cancer associated with this genotype influence tumor behavior and survival. ...

A team led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has captured the most comprehensive snapshot to date of DNA regions that regulate genes in human pancreatic islet cells, a subset of which produces insulin. The study highlights the importance of genome regulatory sequences in human health and disease, particularly type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 20 million people in the United States and 200 million people worldwide. The findings appear Nov. 3 in Cell Metabolism. "This study applies ...

The nature-nurture debate is a "giant step" closer to being resolved after scientists studying bees documented how environmental inputs can modify our genetic hardware. The researchers uncovered extensive molecular differences in the brains of worker bees and queen bees which develop along very different paths when put on different diets The research was led by Professor Ryszard Maleszka of The Australian National University's College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, working with colleagues from the German Cancer Institute in Heidelberg, Germany and will be published ...

Immune cells known as microglia, long thought to be activated in the brain only when fighting infection or injury, are constantly active and likely play a central role in one of the most basic, central phenomena in the brain – the creation and elimination of synapses. The findings, publishing next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology, catapult the humble microglia cell from its well-recognized duty of protecting the brain to direct involvement in creating the cellular networks at the core of brain behavior. Its apparent role as an architect of synapses – ...

Scientists, in collaboration with researchers at the universities of Southampton and Calgary, used finger ratios from fossilised skeletal remains of early apes and extinct hominins, as indicators of the levels of exposure species had to prenatal androgens – a group of hormones that is important in the development of masculine characteristics such as aggression and promiscuity. It is thought that androgens, such as testosterone, affect finger length during development in the womb. High levels of the hormones increase the length of the fourth finger in comparison to the ...

Doctors have known for some time that children born after fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) are at increased risk of cerebral palsy. However, it was not known whether this risk was due to the treatment itself, the higher frequency of preterm or multiple births, or a mechanism associated with couples' underlying infertility. Now, new research published online in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1] today (Wednesday 3 November) indicates that underlying infertility is not ...

At a global scale, the sickle cell gene is most commonly found in areas with historically high levels of malaria, adding geographical support to the hypothesis that the gene, whilst potentially deadly, avoids disappearing through natural selection by providing protection against malaria. In a study funded by the Wellcome Trust, geographers, biologists and statisticians at the University of Oxford, together with colleagues from the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme in Kenya, have produced the first detailed global map showing the distribution of the sickle cell gene. The ...

INDIANAPOLIS – A model program developed at Indiana University to provide care to low-income older adults in their homes has earned recognition for its effective approach and cost-saving benefits in a leading national medical journal. A paper published in the Nov. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association praises a team approach developed by researchers from Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute as one of three models with the greatest potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the complex primary health care of older adults. "Health-care ...

Black raspberries are highly effective in preventing colorectal tumors in two mouse models of the disease, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study. The findings are published in the November issue of Cancer Prevention Research. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. Building on previous research that found black raspberries have antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-neurodegenerative and anti-inflammatory properties, ...

A new study analysing how complex, highly-evolved societies are organised in nature has found that it is workers that play a pivotal role in creating well-ordered societies where conflict is minimised. For when it comes to determining who reproduces in ants, University of Leicester biologists have found the humble worker is queenmaker – it is they who choose their queen. This information is key to understanding the evolution of complex interdependent societies - over 100 millions years old - that have evolved mechanisms ensuring stable cohabitation and conflict resolution. What ...

A study by Yale School of Medicine researchers reveals that the illnesses and injuries that can restrict the activity of older adults or land them in the hospital are linked to worsening functional ability, especially among those who are physically frail. The report appears in JAMA's November 3 theme issue on aging. Thomas M. Gill, M.D., the Humana Foundation Professor of internal medicine (geriatrics), investigative medicine and epidemiology and public health at Yale, will present the findings at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club November 2 at 10 a.m. ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that a multi-tasking protein called FoxO1 has another important but previously unknown function: It directly interacts with macrophages, promoting an inflammatory response that can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. Contrarily, it also generates a negative feedback loop that can limit damage from excessive inflammation. The findings by Jerrold M. Olefsky, MD, Associate Dean for Scientific Affairs and professor of Medicine, and colleagues are published in the November 2 issue ...

Brain damage continues to develop and evolve for months after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), revealing a potential target for treatments to improve brain trauma, new research led by the University of Melbourne, Australia has found. The study funded by the Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative is published in the latest issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM). Around 400,000 Australians have a disability related to traumatic brain injury with cognitive, psychiatric and epileptic problems the most common symptoms. The major cause of TBI is motor vehicle accidents. ...

While the risk remains low the authors are surprised at the results and say "a critical evaluation of the obstetrical care system in the Netherlands is urgently required." Despite the high level of medical care in the Netherlands, the perinatal mortality rate (death of fetus or new born baby) is one of the highest in Europe, says the study. The management of childbirth delivery in the Netherlands is divided into two independent systems – midwife-led care for low risk pregnancies and obstetrician-led care for high-risk pregnancies. This differs to all other obstetric ...

The mysterious origins of Australia's bizarre and secretive marsupial moles have been cast in a whole new and unexpected light with the first discovery in the fossil record of one of their ancestors. The find reveals a remarkable journey through time, place and lifestyle: living marsupial moles are blind, earless and live underground in the deserts of the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, yet their ancestors lived in lush rainforest far away in north Queensland. In the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team led by Professor Mike ...

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown that they may be able to monitor the aging process in the brain, by using MRI technique to measure the brain lactic acid levels. Their findings suggest that the lactate levels increase in advance of other aging symptoms, and therefore could be used as an indicator of aging and age-related diseases of the CNS. "It's exciting to think that we are one step closer to understanding what happens as the brain ages, and how a change of brain metabolism may be important during the onset of age-related ...

A new breakthrough by scientists at the University of Sheffield has shed light on how the Earth's first plants began to colonise the land over 470 million years ago by forming a partnership with soil fungi. The research, which was published today (2 November 2010) in Nature Communications, has provided essential missing evidence showing that an ancient plant group worked together with soil-dwelling fungi to 'green' the Earth in the early Palaeozoic era, nearly half a billion years ago. The research, which also involved experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Imperial ...

A new study from North Carolina State University finds that anti-immigrant practices – such as anti-immigrant legislation or protests – are likely to backfire, and spur increased political action from immigrant communities. The study examined political activity in 52 metropolitan areas across the United States. "U.S. Census data indicate that 60 percent of the foreign-born in the U.S. are not citizens," says Dr. Kim Ebert, an assistant professor of sociology and co-author of a paper describing the research. "Non-citizens can't vote, so we wanted to determine how they ...

SAN DIEGO -- A third of breast cancer survivors who received the breast-conserving treatments lumpectomy and radiation rate the appearance of their post-treatment breast as only "fair" or "poor" in comparison to their untreated breast, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study that will be presented today at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego. In addition, one fifth of patients report complications including chronic pain in their breast or arm and loss of arm or shoulder flexibility following ...

A pre-school language intervention programme can significantly improve the educational lives of children with poorly developed speech and language skills, according to new research by psychologists at the University of York. In the Language 4 Reading project, a team from the University's Department of Psychology at the University of York have evaluated the benefits of a pre-school language intervention programme for children who enter school with poorly developed speech and language skills. The project, which involved 15 schools and feeder-nurseries across Yorkshire, ...

The report by Jeanne Lenzer, a medical investigative journalist in New York, and Shannon Brownlee from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in New Hampshire, looks at the FDA's approval of a device to prevent or reduce seizures in patients with epilepsy who do not respond to drug treatment. The device, manufactured by Cyberonics, is implanted under the skin and sends electrical impulses to stimulate the vagus nerve in the neck. It was approved by the FDA in 1997 on the condition that Cyberonics carried out a post-approval study to examine the ...

In the UK, medical students are 4.5 to 7.2 times more likely to come from the wealthier socio-economic groups 1-3 than 4-7, write Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and Lucy Stephenson, a medical student. Selection to a medical course should not depend on the applicants' financial status. However, with "grade inflation" at A level, choosing between applicants can involve other criteria that may depend on ability to pay, they say. They calculate that the activities required as part of the selection process ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — Value-Based Insurance Design — a concept created at the University of Michigan and incorporated in the nation's new health care reform law — is the focus of an upcoming national policy journal. Health Affairs, the nation's premier health policy journal, is featuring a cluster of papers in its November issue about growing interest in and adoption of Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID). The concept was first developed and named by U-M faculty A. Mark Fendrick, M.D., and Dean Smith, Ph.D., along with Michael Chernew, Ph.D., formerly of U-M and now at ...

Strengthening routine influenza vaccination and health programs may help states improve their vaccination coverage against future pandemics or other health emergencies, a new study suggests. The study -- conducted by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- examined factors that may have contributed to the striking state-by-state variation in U.S. H1N1 flu vaccination rates. The results of the study were revealed on Oct. 26 at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision ...