Health News

New technology transforms research in viral biology

Date: Sep-16-2013
Researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center have developed an innovative system to test how a virus interacts with cells in the body - to see, for example, what happens in lung cells when a deadly respiratory virus attacks them. In the journal Cell Host & Microbe, investigators say such a technique will not only speed basic research into viral biology, it will also help scientists improve vaccine production, generate novel antiviral compounds, and advance the development of viruses that attack cancer cells...

Study reveals how schizophrenia affects the brain

Date: Sep-16-2013
Scientists have discovered how schizophrenia and the use of anti-psychotic drugs can impact brain tissue by reviewing progressive data from brain scans, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers from the University of Iowa, led by psychiatry professor Nancy Andreasen, analyzed 202 MRI scans of patients who suffer from the mental disorder. All patients had their scans reviewed from their first schizophrenic episode and at regular 6-month intervals up to a period of 15 years...

New antibiotic shows promise for treating MRSA pneumonia

Date: Sep-16-2013
A drug approved just two years ago for treating bacterial infections may hold promise for treating the potentially fatal MRSA pneumonia, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. Researchers found that patients treated with the antibiotic ceftaroline fosamil, or CPT-F, had a lower mortality rate after 28 days than the mortality rate seen in patients treated with vancomycin, the most common drug therapy for MRSA pneumonia. In the retrospective study, 33 of 38 patients responded well to treatments of CPT-F and were discharged from the hospital after the infection cleared...

Latest research on ingredients that make chocolate, olive oil, tea healthful foods

Date: Sep-16-2013
The scientific spotlight turns to focus on the healthful antioxidant substances in red wine, dark chocolate, olive oil, coffee, tea, and other foods and dietary supplements that are enticing millions of consumers with the promise of a healthier, longer life. The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is holding a symposium on those substances during its 246th National Meeting & Exposition. Reports in the symposium involve substances that consumers know best as "antioxidants," and that scientists term "phenolic derivatives...

'Love hormone' may play wider role in social interaction than previously thought

Date: Sep-16-2013
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that oxytocin - often referred to as "the love hormone" because of its importance in the formation and maintenance of strong mother-child and sexual attachments - is involved in a broader range of social interactions than previously understood. The discovery may have implications for neurological disorders such as autism, as well as for scientific conceptions of our evolutionary heritage. Scientists estimate that the advent of social living preceded the emergence of pair living by 35 million years...

Fat marker predicts cognitive decline in people with HIV

Date: Sep-16-2013
Johns Hopkins scientists have found that levels of certain fats found in cerebral spinal fluid can predict which patients with HIV are more likely to become intellectually impaired. The researchers believe that these fat markers reflect disease-associated changes in how the brain metabolizes these fat molecules. These changes disrupt the brain cells' ability to regulate the activity of cells' "garbage disposals" meant to degrade and flush the brain of molecular debris...

A CNIO team is the first to produce embryonic stem cells in living adult organisms

Date: Sep-16-2013
A team from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has become the first to make adult cells from a living organism retreat in their evolutionary development to recover the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. Researchers have also discovered that these embryonic stem cells, obtained directly from the inside of the organism, have a broader capacity for differentiation than those obtained via in vitro culture. Specifically, they have the characteristics of totipotent cells: a primitive state never before obtained in a laboratory...

'Desperation DNA' synthesis could explain genetic mutations

Date: Sep-16-2013
Researchers have discovered the details of how cells repair breaks in both strands of their DNA, a potentially devastating kind of DNA damage. When chromosomes experience double-strand breaks resulting from oxidation, ionizing radiation, replication errors and certain metabolic products in cells, they utilize their genetically similar chromosomes to patch the gaps via a mechanism that involves both ends of the broken molecules...

First randomized trial of targeted cancer medicine in all tumor types

Date: Sep-16-2013
A further step along the road to the personalisation of cancer medicine, where treatment is based on the individual molecular characteristics of tumours rather than their primary site, was presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013), which started on Friday 27 September in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

Autistic children with better motor skills more adept at socializing

Date: Sep-16-2013
In a new study looking at toddlers and preschoolers with autism, researchers found that children with better motor skills were more adept at socializing and communicating. Published online in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, this study adds to the growing evidence of the important link between autism and motor skill deficits. Lead author Megan MacDonald is an assistant professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University. She is an expert on the movement skills of children with autism spectrum disorder...