Health News

How online ratings affect your judgment

Date: Aug-12-2013
Are you influenced by the opinions of other people - say, in the comments sections of websites? If your answer is no, here's another question: Are you sure? A new study co-authored by an MIT professor suggests that many people are, in fact, heavily influenced by the positive opinions other people express online - but are much less swayed by negative opinions posted in the same venues. Certain topics, including politics, see much more of this "herding" effect than others...

20 million missing base pairs of DNA mapped to previously uncharted regions of the human genome

Date: Aug-12-2013
Hidden in the tangled, repetitious folds of DNA structures called centromeres, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute have discovered the hiding place of 20 million base pairs of genetic sequence, finding a home for 10 percent of the DNA that is thought to be missing from the standard reference map of the human genome...

Blocking DNA repair may fight therapy resistant leukemia

Date: Aug-12-2013
New research posted online by the Nature journal Leukemia suggests blocking part of a DNA repair complex that helps some types of leukemia resist treatment can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and enhance survival. Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report that their experimental combination treatment strategy - using a small molecular inhibitor along with chemotherapy - was particularly effective at stopping a stubborn leukemia called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or T-ALL...

Children born by Caesarean section at greater risk for allergies

Date: Aug-12-2013
Children who came into the world by Caesarean section are more often affected by allergies than those born in the natural way. The reason for this may be that they have a less diverse gut microbiota, according to a study by universities in Sweden and Scotland. The researchers have followed gut macrobiota development in 24 children up to the age of two in the Swedish provinces of Ostergötland and Småland, nine delivered through Caesarean and 15 delivered naturally, through vaginal birth...

Typical protein profile of tumor cells decoded; 59 tumor cell lines investigated

Date: Aug-12-2013
In what is the biggest study of its kind to date, researchers from Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) have identified over 10,000 different proteins in cancer cells. "Nearly all anti-tumor drugs are targeted against cellular proteins," says Prof. Bernhard Kuster, Head of the TUM Chair of Proteomics and Bioanalytics. "Identifying the proteome the protein portfolio of tumor cells increases our chances of finding new targets for drugs." The scientists investigated 59 tumor cell lines from the US National Cancer Institute...

Improved survival for some Burkitt lymphoma patients

Date: Aug-12-2013
Treatment advances have helped improve patient survival of Burkitt lymphoma, a highly aggressive cancer, but not among the elderly, patients at a late stage, or blacks. A new study, reported in the journal Cancer, uses those findings to develop a risk score that will help doctors, patients, families, and researchers better understand prognosis...

Sexting and cyberpsychology

Date: Aug-12-2013
As many as 20% of adolescents and 44% of young adults have shared nude or semi-nude photos of themselves via cell phone or social networking sites, a behavior known as sexting. Some people do it in the hopes it will lead to a "hook-up" or sexual activity. Sexting behavior and what results people expect may differ depending on a person's gender, relationship status, and sexual identity, are explored in a study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers...

UNC-Malawi cancer pathology laboratory is a model for Sub-Saharan Africa

Date: Aug-12-2013
Since 2011, the University of North Carolina has partnered with the government of Malawi to establish a pathology laboratory in the nation's capital, building on an existing decades-long collaboration. The laboratory has provided an invaluable service to patients and has also built capacity at a national teaching hospital, according to an analysis of the first 20 months of operation published (date) online by PLOS ONE...

Spinal tumors: carbon ion radiotherapy 'safe and effective'

Date: Aug-12-2013
Researchers have revealed that a specific radiation therapy is "safe and effective" in controlling cancer growth in patients with spinal tumors, as well as prolonging survival, according to the journal Cancer. Researchers from the Research Center Hospital for Charged Particle Therapy at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in Japan have hailed the therapy, carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT), as a promising alternative for patients whose spinal tumors are unable to be surgically removed...

Gut microbiota protect us from many pathogens; Study reveals the role of a key player in this balancing act

Date: Aug-12-2013
Creating an environment that nurtures the trillions of beneficial microbes in our gut and, at the same time, protects us against invasion by food-borne pathogens is a challenge. A study published in PLOS Pathogens reveals the role of a key player in this balancing act. SIGIRR is a protein present at the surface of the cells that line the gut that dampens the innate (non-specific) immune response of these cells to bacteria...