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A genetic glitch discovered at the root of allergies
Date: Jul-26-2013Newly published research by investigators at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine reveals that a faulty genetic pathway already known for its role in some connective tissue disorders is also a potent player in many types of allergies. Scientists have long understood that allergies are the result of a complex interplay between environment and genes, but now, in what investigators believe is a scientific first, a single genetic pathway has been implicated in an array of allergic disorders...
Virus discovery: 'blast' mechanism used to infect host
Date: Jul-26-2013Researchers have discovered the first "pressure-driven infection mechanism" in a human virus, which blasts infectious DNA into cells with pressure eight times higher than that of a typical car tire. The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, suggests that this discovery could open the door to new treatments for viral infections. Researchers from the US and Sweden analyzed the pressure inside the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), the infection that causes cold sores...
Record incidence of hantavirus disease in Germany
Date: Jul-26-20132824 new cases of hantavirus disease were reported in Germany in 2012, the highest number ever in a single year. In the current issue of Deutsches �rzteblatt International, Detlev Krüger and coauthors present the main facts about this disease. Every two to three years, large outbreaks of hantavirus disease are caused by Puumala virus, which is transmitted by bank voles and is endemic to southwestern and western Germany. In the north and east of the country, hantavirus infections are caused by the Dobrava-Belgrad virus, which is transmitted by striped field mice...
Evidence of 'embryonic-like' cells in marrow of adult mice not found by stanford scientists
Date: Jul-26-2013Research on human embryonic stem cells has been a political and religious lightning rod for more than a decade. The cells long have been believed to be the only naturally occurring pluripotent cells. (Under the right conditions, pluripotent cells can become any other cell in the body.) But some people object to the fact that the embryo is destroyed during their isolation. Induced pluripotent stem cells, created by experimentally manipulating an adult cell such as a skin or nerve cell, are much more ethically palatable...
Researchers manage to reactivate head regeneration in a regeneration-deficient species of planarians
Date: Jul-26-2013The rabbit can't do it, neither can a frog, but zebrafish and axolotls can and flatworms are true masters of the craft: Regeneration. Why some animals can re-grow lost body parts or organs while others cannot remains a big mystery. And even more intriguing to us regeneration-challenged humans is the question whether one might be able to activate regenerative abilities in species that don't usually regenerate. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden are now one step further in understanding the factors that regulate regeneration...
Potential for new therapeutic options for a diverse array of challenging medical disorders
Date: Jul-26-2013Researchers have identified a master network of signaling molecules that acts like a "fuse box" to regulate the cellular effects of defective energy flow in mitochondrial respiratory chain diseases - a diverse set of difficult-to-treat genetic-based energy disorders. Using that knowledge, they showed that nicotinic acid, a form of vitamin B3, partially restores normal functioning in cells taken from patients with mitochondrial disease...
Preventing hepatitis C in young drug injectors
Date: Jul-26-2013UC San Francisco researchers are recommending a combination of six comprehensive measures to prevent the spread of hepatitis C, in an effort to address the more than 31,000 young people they estimate may be newly infected with the virus each year in the United States due to injection-drug use...
Research approach highlights potential therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease
Date: Jul-26-2013Key molecular pathways that ultimately lead to late-onset Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of the disorder, have been identified by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). The study, which used a combination of systems biology and cell biology tools, presents a new approach to Alzheimer's disease research and highlights several new potential drug targets. The paper was published in the journal Nature. Much of what is known about Alzheimer's comes from laboratory studies of rare, early-onset, familial (inherited) forms of the disease...
Removing a temptation is more effective than relying on willpower alone
Date: Jul-26-2013Want to stick with your diet? Better have someone hide the chocolate If you are trying to lose weight or save for the future, new research suggests avoiding temptation may increase your chances of success compared to relying on willpower alone. The study on self-control by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Dusseldorf was published in the journal Neuron. The researchers compared the effectiveness of willpower versus voluntarily restricting access to temptations, called 'precommitment'...
Device measures changes in breath acetone concentrations as fat is burned during weight loss
Date: Jul-26-2013Fitness fanatics may soon be able to gauge if their hard work is paying off without the need for weighing scales thanks to a new device that can instantly tell if your body is burning fat. The portable, pocket-sized sensor, produced by a group of researchers in Japan, works by measuring increased levels of acetone on the breath - a good indicator of when the body has begun to break down fat. The device has been presented in IOP Publishing's Journal of Breath Research...
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