New research has linked psychosis with an abnormal relationship between two signalling chemicals in the brain. The findings, published in tomorrow's edition of the journal Biological Psychiatry, suggest a new approach to preventing psychotic symptoms, which could lead to better drugs for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is one of the most common severe mental health conditions. Sufferers experience symptoms of psychosis – an inability to distinguish between reality and imagination – such as hallucinations and delusions. The condition tends to begin in the late teens or twenties, ...

If you are one of the millions of Americans with high blood pressure, more help is on the way. That's because a new research study published in the October 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) shows that a protein, called P450, metabolizes arachidonic acid in our blood vessel walls to create a tiny molecule with a big name—epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET)—which in mice, turns off genes responsible for vascular inflammation and ultimately relaxes blood vessels to lower blood pressure. This protein and genes are also present in humans. "We hope these ...

A new report published in the October 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) offers a ray of hope in the search for new cancer drugs. By examining the seemingly conflicting roles of how oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes handle cellular stress, scientists from the Institute for Advanced Studies in New Jersey argue that each of these opposing systems could be potent drug targets in the effort to stop cancer. In addition, their hypothesis provides new insights into what contributes to immunological disorders such as chronic inflammation and autoimmune ...

A new research report in the October 2010 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) sheds important light on how our immune systems detect invading organisms to be destroyed and removed from our bodies. The information from this research should ultimately help lead to the development of new drugs and treatments that allow health care providers to prevent runaway immune reactions that can have devastating consequences for people. "Our study helps us to understand exactly how the immune system is activated when it comes across infection ...

An experimental vaccine intended to prevent genital herpes disease in women, although generally safe and well-tolerated, proved ineffective when tested in the recently concluded clinical study known as the Herpevac Trial for Women. The Phase 3 trial, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals, based in Belgium, with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, began in 2002. A total of 8,323 women aged 18-30 years participated in the trial at 50 sites in the United States and Canada. At ...

The landmark breast cancer screening study of women 40-49, published online in Cancer, has proven that annual mammography screening of women in their 40s reduces the breast cancer death rate in these women by nearly 30 percent. The results of this largest study ever conducted on women in this age group confirm that the use of the age of 50 as a threshold for breast cancer screening is scientifically unfounded. Women should begin getting annual mammograms at age 40. "This study, which looked at the performance of screening mammography as it is actually used, rather than ...

Characteristics such as patient engagement, physician communication, and staff coordination may help to explain why some dialysis centers achieve higher patient survival rates than others, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). "The purpose of this study was simple: to figure out what top-performing dialysis units might be doing differently from bottom-performing units, and to translate those findings into a blueprint for action," comments Brennan M.R. Spiegel, MD, MSHS (VA Greater Los ...

BOSTON –By creating a "map" of histone modifications in fat cells, investigators have discovered two new factors that regulate fat formation, a key step on the road to better understanding obesity, diabetes and other metabolic disorders. Led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Broad Institute, the study appears in the October 1 issue of the journal Cell. "These findings help to demonstrate the power of epigenomic mapping when it comes to gleaning key insights into fat cell formation," explains senior author Evan Rosen, MD, PhD, an ...

People with impaired kidney function are at a higher risk of future stroke than people with normal kidney function, concludes a study published on bmj.com today. A second study, also published today, finds that even the earliest stages of chronic kidney disease are linked to a higher risk of coronary heart disease. This study suggests that considering signs of early kidney disease, in addition to routinely measured risk factors such as blood pressure and blood cholesterol, modestly improves the identification of people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. It provides ...

A strategy to encourage single embryo transfer after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) could be an important tool to prevent multiple pregnancies and their associated complications, finds a study published on bmj.com today. Deciding how many embryos should be transferred after IVF is a complex problem. The transfer of only one embryo will prevent a multiple pregnancy and the risk of complications for mother and baby, but could require more cycles to achieve pregnancy. Although professionals and policy makers have launched initiatives to encourage the use of single embryo ...

Drug companies have not only sponsored the science of a new condition known as female sexual dysfunction, they have helped to construct it, in order to build global markets for new drugs, reveals an article in this week's BMJ. Researching his new book 'Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals' Ray Moynihan, journalist and lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Australia, discovered that drug industry employees have worked with paid key opinion leaders to help develop the disease entity; they have run surveys to portray it as widespread; and they helped design diagnostic tools ...

Should athletes have to undergo mandatory electrocardiographic screening (also known as ECG or heart trace) before competing? Doctors debate the issue in this week's BMJ. Antonio Pelliccia and Domenico Corrado argue that screening athletes for "silent" heart problems would save lives. They say the best evidence of the efficacy of ECG screening on mortality in athletes comes from Italy, the only country where it is required by law, and where a mass screening programme has been in place for almost 30 years. The incidence of sudden deaths before and after implementation ...

Kathleen Alexander, associate professor of wildlife in Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment, has discovered a novel tuberculosis (TB) species in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, a group of pathogens that have adapted by using mammals as hosts. It has been nearly two decades since a new organism was identified in this group; the majority were discovered in the early and mid 20th century. Tuberculosis is presently the leading cause of death from infectious disease, infecting more than a third of the world's population. Alexander discovered ...

Therapeutic lentiviral vectors are emerging as vital tools for molecular medicine as evidenced by the growing number of clinical trials using these vector systems. From a basic research standpoint, lentiviral vectors are very intriguing substrates. On the one hand, the HIV-1 genome offers expanded cloning capacity and the capability to transduce nondividing cells such as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and neurons. However, concerns associated with the potential risk of generating replication competent lentiviral particles require the removal of significant portions ...

The unusual "knot" in the bright, narrow ribbon of neutral atoms emanating in from the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space appears to have "untied," according to a paper published online in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Researchers believe the ribbon, first revealed in maps produced by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, forms in response to interactions between interstellar space and the heliosphere, the protective bubble in which the Earth and other planets reside. Sensitive neutral atom detectors aboard IBEX produce ...

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in Athens, Georgia, have reported for the first time that several species of Aspergillus niger, or black aspergilli, are capable of infecting corn and peanuts as endophytes. The researchers also showed that, under laboratory conditions, these species produced mycotoxins. Using a molecular procedure they developed, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research leader Charles Bacon, microbiologist Dorothy Hinton, and Edwin Palencia, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology of the University of Georgia in ...

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- Less academically promising students should not be discouraged from setting high educational goals, according to one Kansas State University professor's research. Chardie Baird, K-State assistant professor of sociology, and John Reynolds, Florida State University professor of sociology, looked at the mental health consequences of shooting for the stars versus planning for the probable in their publication "Is There a Downside to Shooting for the Stars? Unrealized Educational Expectations and Symptoms of Depression." Their research, published earlier ...

(Garrison, NY) Research ethics review committees often require all women of childbearing age who enroll in clinical trials to use contraceptives to protect against a developing fetus being exposed to potentially harmful drugs. A mandatory contraceptive policy is often imposed even when there is no evidence that a trial drug could harm a fetus or when women have no chance of becoming pregnancy. This requirement is excessive and can safely be relaxed in many cases, according to a report in IRB: Ethics & Human Research. Policies on contraceptive use in research should reflect ...

Researchers of the University of Granada, in collaboration with the Centre for Sensory-Motor Interaction of the University of Aalborg, Denmark, and the University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, conducted a research on chronic impingement syndrome. The study revealed that excessive activation of specific neck and shoulder muscles during daily life or while playing sports –as swimming– is the cause of a high number of injury and shoulder A Common Pain The pattern of the pain originated in these muscles –sometimes in regions far from the shoulder– coincides with most of the symptoms ...

New research by Rice University scientists suggests that a class of material known as metallacarborane could store hydrogen at or better than benchmarks set by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program for 2015. The work could receive wide attention as hydrogen comes into play as a fuel of the future for cars, in fuel cells and by industry. The new study by Rice theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues, which appears in the online Journal of the American Chemical Society, taps the power of transition metals scandium and titanium to ...

KINGSTON, R.I.-– September 30, 2010 –Watching television and its heavy dose of medical content in news and drama can lead to more concern about personal health and reduce a person's satisfaction with life according to a new study out of the University of Rhode Island. The study, authored by Yinjiao Ye, assistant professor of communications studies found that TV viewing affects people's awareness of health-risks and whether they believe they can protect their own health. People develop these perceptions because TV viewing leads them to believe they have a greater likelihood ...

A team of chemists from the University of Seville (US) has managed to distinguish between different kinds of tea leaves on the basis of their mineral content and by using artificial neural networks. This technique makes it possible to differentiate between the five main varieties of tea – white, green black, Oolong and red tea. "This method makes it possible to clearly differentiate between the five types of tea – something that is often not easy to do by eye alone – by using analysis of the leaves' mineral content and then mathematically processing these data", José ...

Northwestern University researchers have taken another step towards realizing a new class of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enzyme mimics, opening the door for the development of highly sensitive chemical detection systems that go beyond nucleic acid targets. The blueprint for building synthetic structures to detect and signal the presence of targets such as small molecule medical analytes (signalers of disease or bodily malfunction, such as neurotransmitters) and environmental hazards, such as TNT, to name just a few, is inspired by biology and its allosteric enzymes. ...

As researchers and policymakers work toward an effective HIV vaccine in a constrained global economy, cost-effective prevention strategies such as Couples Voluntary Counseling and Testing (CVCT) must take a larger role in efforts to decrease the rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa, says Emory University HIV/AIDS vaccine researcher Susan Allen, MD, MPH. Allen, who has worked to combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa for more than 25 years, highlighted the value of CVCT and other cost-effective HIV prevention strategies today at the AIDS Vaccine 2010 Conference in Atlanta. "The ...

A break in the two chromosomes has given scientists a break in finding a new gene involved in puberty, Medical College of Georgia researchers report. It's also helped clear up why some patients with delayed puberty have no sense of smell, said Dr. Lawrence C. Layman, chief of the MCG Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics. The WRD11 gene interacts with a transcription factor that appears to be involved in development of gonadotropin releasing hormones that enable sexual maturation as well as olfactory neurons in the brain, according to a study ...