Health News

Glowing bunnies created to combat genetic diseases

Date: Aug-14-2013
Scientists have bred two rabbits that glow in the dark, potentially leading to new and efficient ways of producing treatments for genetic diseases, the researchers say. A research team from the University of Hawaii and the University of Istanbul used an "active transgenesis technique" to produce the glowing rabbits. The technique involved taking fluorescent protein from the DNA of glowing jellyfish, which the scientists injected into eight rabbit embryos. The embryos were then re-inserted into the mother rabbit. Dr...

Can dyslexia be diagnosed by MRI brain scan?

Date: Aug-14-2013
Researchers from MIT have discovered a link between the size of a language-processing area of the brain and poor pre-reading skills in kindergartners. This finding, coupled with an MRI technique, could lead the way for an earlier dyslexia diagnosis. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, relies on previous research showing that adults with poor reading skills have a smaller, less organized arcuate fasciculus...

Potential for new antibiotics following finding that protein delays cell division in bacteria

Date: Aug-14-2013
In 1958 a group of scientists working in Denmark made the striking observation that bacterial cells are about twice as large when they are cultured on a rich nutrient source than when they are cultured on a meager one. When they are shifted from a nutrient-poor environment to a nutrient-rich one, they bulk up until they have achieved a size more appropriate to their new growth conditions. It has taken 60 years to figure out how the bacteria are able to sample their surroundings and alter their cell cycles so that they grow to a size suited to the environment...

Near-death experiences are 'electrical brain surges'

Date: Aug-14-2013
Many people worldwide have reported 'near-death experiences' - particularly following a heart attack. But what causes the visions and perceptions that these survivors report after their brush with death? Scientists from the University of Michigan believe they have found the answer. A near-death experience (NDE) is defined as a psychological event that occurs when a person is close to death...

Researchers compute, then combine benign viruses to fight disease

Date: Aug-14-2013
Rice University researchers are making strides toward a set of rules to custom-design Lego-like viral capsid proteins for gene therapy. A new paper by Rice scientists Junghae Suh and Jonathan Silberg and their students details their use of computational and bioengineering methods to combine pieces of very different adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to create new, benign viruses that can deliver DNA payloads to specific cells. The research appears this month in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Synthetic Biology...

Scientists unravel cancers linked to herbal remedies containing Aristolochic Acid, a natural compound found in Aristolochia plants

Date: Aug-14-2013
A team of scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, and Taiwan's Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, LinKou, have made a breakthrough in understanding the cancer-promoting action of Aristolochic Acid (AA), a natural product of Aristolochia plants traditionally used in some Asian herbal remedies for weight loss and slimming...

Stroke declines dramatically, still higher in Mexican Americans

Date: Aug-14-2013
A new study reports that the incidence of ischemic stroke - the most common type of stroke, caused by a clot in the blood vessels of the brain - among non-Hispanic Whites and Mexican Americans over age 60 has declined over the past decade. Most concerning, however, is that the increased relative burden of stroke comparing Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Whites has not changed at all in the last decade. Overall, Mexican Americans suffer much more, 34%, from this disease than non-Hispanic Whites...

What are probiotics? What are the health benefits of probiotics?

Date: Aug-14-2013
Probiotics are microorganisms that offer some form of health benefit to the host - they can be found in various different foods. Probiotics are believed to play very important roles in regulating proper intestinal function and digestion by balancing intestinal microflora. These 'good bacteria' are considered to be "organisms and substances that have a beneficial effect on the host animal by contributing to its intestinal microbial balance", according to a report written by Parker, R. B. in the journal Animal Nutrition and Health.1...

The blood vessels of the retina can reveal stroke risk

Date: Aug-14-2013
Your eyes may be a window to your stroke risk. In a study reported in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, researchers said retinal imaging may someday help assess if you're more likely to develop a stroke - the nation's No. 4 killer and a leading cause of disability. "The retina provides information on the status of blood vessels in the brain," said Mohammad Kamran Ikram, M.D., Ph.D...

IBS patients benefit from eluxadoline

Date: Aug-14-2013
Patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS-D, treated with eluxadoline achieved better clinical response and experienced more symptom improvement than those using placebo, according to a recent study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Eluxadoline, which is currently in phase 3 trials, is under development as a potential treatment for IBS-D...