Health News

Early Alzheimer's Disease Study Uncovers High Prevalence Of Undiagnosed Pre-Diabetes

Date: Jul-16-2013
When Georgetown University neurologist R. Scott Turner, MD, PhD, began enrolling people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease into a nationwide study last year, he expected to find only a handful of participants with undiagnosed glucose intolerance, as all the patients were already under a doctor's care and those with known diabetes were excluded. But Turner says he was "shocked" by how many study participants were found to have pre-diabetes - a finding that is triggering important questions...

After Elbow Surgery, Successful Long-Term Results Enjoyed By Baseball Players

Date: Jul-16-2013
Baseball players undergoing ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) surgery are able to return to the same or higher level of competition for an extended period of time, according to research presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. "Previous studies showed successful return to play after UCL surgery, but we were also able to evaluate each athlete's career longevity and reason for retirement," commented lead author, Daryl C. Osbahr, MD of MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore...

Scientists Discover That Proteins Involved In Immunity Potentially Cause Cancer

Date: Jul-16-2013
A set of proteins involved in the body's natural defenses produces a large number of mutations in human DNA, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that these naturally produced mutations are just as powerful as known cancer-causing agents in producing tumors. The proteins are part of a group called apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC) cytidine deaminases...

Having Type 2 Diabetes Increases Risk For Some Cancers

Date: Jul-16-2013
A type of genetic abnormality linked to cancer is more common in people with type 2 diabetes than the rest of the population, a new study has found. People with type 2 diabetes are already known to have a higher risk of cancers, especially blood cancers like lymphoma and leukaemia. The new study, led by scientists at Imperial College London and CNRS in France, suggests that mutations called clonal mosaic events (CMEs) may partly explain why this is. CMEs are defects that result in some cells having extra copies or missing copies of large chunks of DNA...

Study Looks At High Folate Gestational And Post-Weaning Diets

Date: Jul-16-2013
During pregnancy, women are normally advised to take high amounts of multivitamin supplements. In particular, folate is recommended to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in newborns. The problem is that, although vitamins are critical in fetal development, high vitamin doses during pregnancy may cause undesired effects on the offspring later in life (in rats, an obesogenic phenotype is typically observed)...

Successful First Step In Interspecies Transplant For Type 1 Diabetes Therapy

Date: Jul-16-2013
In the first step toward animal-to-human transplants of insulin-producing cells for people with type 1 diabetes, Northwestern Medicine® scientists have successfully transplanted islets, the cells that produce insulin, from one species to another. And the islets survived without immunosuppressive drugs. Northwestern scientists developed a new method that prevented rejection of the islets, a huge problem in transplants between species, called xenotransplantation...

Stem Cell Clues To Degeneration In Tissues

Date: Jul-16-2013
Proper tissue function and regeneration is supported by stem cells, which reside in so-called niches. New work from Carnegie's Yixian Zheng and Haiyang Chen identifies an important component for regulating stem cell niches, with impacts on tissue building and function. The results could have implications for disease research. It is published by Cell Stem Cell. Lamins are proteins that the major structural component of the material that lines the inside of a cell's nucleus. Lamins have diverse functions, including suppressing gene expression...

Extend HPV Jab To Young Gay Men, Say Sexual Health Experts

Date: Jul-16-2013
Young gay men should be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, because their risk of developing anal cancer is more than 15 times higher than it is in straight men, and it would be cost effective for the NHS, say sexual health experts writing in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The vaccination programme against HPV infection began in 2008 in the UK, but only among girls, on the grounds that this would curb the spread of the infection to boys as well...

HIV Virus Used As Vector To Get Gene Therapy Into Six Children

Date: Jul-16-2013
The HIV Virus can be used to treat two severe genetic diseases, according to two studies published in the journal Science. Researchers from the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (TIGET) in Milan, Italy, have revealed that the HIV virus can be used to treat metachromatic leukodystrophy, a disease impairing the fatty covering that acts as an insulator around nerve fibers and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, an immune system deficiency reducing the ability to form blood clots...

Nanoengineered Capsules As Drug Carriers

Date: Jul-16-2013
University of Melbourne researchers have developed an efficient system to coat tiny objects, such as bacterial cells, with thin films that assemble themselves which could have important implications for drug delivery as well as biomedical and environmental applications. Published in the journal Science, Professor Frank Caruso from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Melbourne and his team have developed a new strategy to coat microscopic materials, leading to a new-generation particle system with engineered properties...