Health News

Rapid Detection Of Foodborne Pathogens Following Recent Progress In Gene-Sensing Strategies

Date: Jun-24-2013
Food is the basis of human survival and development, and its safety is an important issue for people's livelihood, and also an important indicator to measure the quality of people's lives in a country. The statistics showed that the main factor of Chinese food poisoning remained to be microbial pathogens, ranking before the chemical toxin. In food contamination, some common and highly pathogenic pathogens include Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Norwalk and Rotavirus, which are the culprit cause of food poisoning...

Exercise Can Turn Bad Fat Into Good Fat

Date: Jun-23-2013
Researchers have found that exercise helps "bad" fat transform into a form of "good" fat that is more metabolically active. The findings were presented at the American Diabetes Association's 73rd Scientific Sessions. Humans have two types of fat: Brown fat (the good fat) - this type of fat burns through calories to generate body heat. White fat (the bad fat) - this fat develops as a result of storing excess calories, it is just an energy reserve...

Researchers Create Complete Map Of The Human Brain

Date: Jun-23-2013
A group of researchers has managed to create the most detailed and complete map of the human brain to date. BigBrain, the 3D digital reconstruction of the brain of a 65-year-old woman, reveals its details with microscopic precision. The brain is made up of numerous networks of neurons that vary enormously in size, shape, and layers. Scientists can now see cerebral neuronal distribution with greater detail using this new model. The finding, published in the journal Science, could drive further research into a wide range of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's...

Research Breakthrough Of Essential Molecule Reveals Important Targets In Diabetes And Obesity

Date: Jun-23-2013
Insulin is the most potent physiological anabolic agent for tissue-building and energy storage, promoting the storage and synthesis of lipids, protein and carbohydrates, and inhibiting their breakdown and release into the circulatory system. It also plays a major role in stimulating glucose entry into muscle tissue, where the glucose is metabolized and removed from the blood following meals. But gaps exist in understanding the precise molecular mechanisms by which insulin regulates glucose uptake in fat and muscle cells. A research team led by Assia Shisheva, Ph.D...

Reducing Emergency Department Use By Children By Extending Primary Care Office Hours

Date: Jun-23-2013
Children had half as many emergency department visits if their primary care office had evening office hours on five or more days a week, according to new research from child health experts at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins University. The new study was published online this month in The Journal of Pediatrics and will be presented at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting...

Once-Abandoned Cancer Drug Class Offers Renewed Hope For Breast And Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Date: Jun-23-2013
Could drugs that block the body's system for repairing damage to the genetic material DNA become a boon to health? As unlikely as it may seem, those compounds are sparking optimism as potential treatments for ovarian and breast cancers driven by a mutation in BRCA, a gene that made headlines when actress Angelina Jolie revealed she carries the mutation. The compounds, termed PARP inhibitors, are the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society...

Special New Canary Seed Ideal For Gluten-Free Diets

Date: Jun-23-2013
A new variety of canary seeds bred specifically for human consumption qualifies as a gluten-free cereal that would be ideal for people with celiac disease (CD), scientists have confirmed in a study published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Joyce Irene Boye and colleagues point out that at least 3 million people in the United States alone have CD. They develop gastrointestinal and other symptoms from eating wheat, barley, rye and other grains that contain gluten-related proteins...

Ibrutinib Shows Surprising Efficacy As Treatment For Chronic Leukemia, Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Date: Jun-23-2013
Two clinical studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine with an accompanying editorial suggest that the novel agent ibrutinib shows real potential as a safe, effective, targeted treatment for adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Both studies, co-led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) and at MD Anderson Cancer Center, were published in the Journal's June 19, 2013 online edition...

Low Doses Of Silver Make Bacteria More Susceptible To Antibiotic Attack

Date: Jun-23-2013
Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported in Science Translational Medicine. Treating bacteria with a silver-containing compound boosted the efficacy of a broad range of widely used antibiotics and helped them stop otherwise lethal infections in mice. It helped make an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again...

No Danger Of Cancer Through Gene Therapy Virus

Date: Jun-23-2013
In fall 2012, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the modified adeno-associated virus AAV-LPL S447X as the first ever gene therapy for clinical use in the Western world. uniQure, a Dutch biotech company, had developed AAV-LPL S447X for the treatment of a rare inherited metabolic disease called lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD) which affects approximately one or two out of one million people. The disease causes severe, life-threatening inflammations of the pancreas...