Health News

Arsenic Contamination In Food And Water Supplies

Date: Apr-12-2013
After virtually eliminating arsenic as a useful tool for homicide, science now faces challenges in doing the same for natural sources of this fabled old "inheritance powder" that contaminates water supplies and food, threatening more than 35 million people worldwide. "Because of its sinister, homicidal uses, arsenic - a naturally occurring element found in the Earth's crust - became world-renowned as the 'inheritance powder,'" explained Deborah Blum, the plenary speaker for the symposium...

Scientists Develop An Antibiotic With Reduced Resistance

Date: Apr-12-2013
A new broad range antibiotic, developed jointly by scientists at The Rockefeller University and Astex Pharmaceuticals, has been found to kill a wide range of bacteria, including drug-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) bacteria that do not respond to traditional drugs, in mice. The antibiotic, Epimerox, targets weaknesses in bacteria that have long been exploited by viruses that attack them, known as phage, and has even been shown to protect animals from fatal infection by Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax...

Overwhelming Evidence Adds A Major New Target In Breast Cancer: Androgens Including Testosterone

Date: Apr-12-2013
Estrogen and progesterone receptors, and the gene HER2 - these are the big three markers and/or targets in breast cancer. Evidence presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 adds a fourth: androgen receptors. "This is a continuing line of work with all evidence pointing toward the addition of the androgen receptor as potential target and useful marker in all of the major subtypes of breast cancer," says Jennifer Richer, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and co-director of the CU Cancer Center Tissue Processing and Procurement Core...

Nearly 6 Percent Of Lung Cancer Tissue Samples From Non-Smokers Show Signs That HPV May Have Triggered The Tumors

Date: Apr-12-2013
A common virus known to cause cervical and head and neck cancers may also trigger some cases of lung cancer, according to new research presented by Fox Chase Cancer Center at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013. Examining tissue samples from lung cancer patients, the researchers found that nearly 6% showed signs they may have been driven by a strain of human papillomavirus (HPV) known to cause cancer. If HPV indeed plays a role in lung cancer in some patients, the next step is to better understand those tumors so they can be treated more effectively...

Transgastric Appendicectomy Offers Scarless Surgery Through The Navel

Date: Apr-12-2013
A new study suggests that surgery for appendicitis that uses a pinhole incision through the navel may be a feasible alternative to traditional appendectomies. Published early online in the British Journal of Surgery, the findings indicate that larger studies to test the potential of the procedure are warranted. An experimental, minimally invasive, and scarless surgical procedure for appendicitis called transgastric appendicectomy avoids the use of external incisions and causes less pain than traditional appendectomies...

In Bladder Cancer Metastasis, A Little Molecule Makes A Big Difference

Date: Apr-12-2013
In order to kill, bladder cancer must metastasize, most commonly to the lung - what are the differences between bladder cancers that do and do not make this deadly transition? Research presented by the Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 shows that one big difference is a little molecule known as hsa-miR-146a. Messenger RNA or mRNA carries gene blueprints to sites where the plans are read and made into proteins, and to a large degree microRNA or miRNA tells mRNA what to do...

Reactivation Of Six2 Homeoprotein Allows Breast Cancer Cells To Detach And Metastasize

Date: Apr-12-2013
In results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center show that the Six2 homeoprotein, while not involved in primary tumor growth, allows cells to detach from substrate and survive their transition through the bloodstream to faraway sites of metastasis. "Here we show for the first time that Six2 causes breast cancer progression...

Seasonal Patterns Evident In Google Searches About Mental Illness

Date: Apr-12-2013
A new study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that Google searches for information across all major mental illnesses and problems followed seasonal patterns, suggesting mental illness may be more strongly linked with seasonal patterns than previously thought. Monitoring population mental illness trends has been an historic challenge for scientists and clinicians alike...

Prolonging Survival Of Human Stem Cells Grown In Vitro

Date: Apr-12-2013
One of the main obstacles that stands in the way of using human hematopoietic stem cells (hHSCs) to treat a variety of diseases is the difficulty growing them in culture - they quickly die or differentiate into other cell types. A series of experiments that demonstrate the successful use of fat cells as part of a feeder layer to support prolonged growth of hHSCs in culture is reported in an article in BioResearch Open Access, a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the BioResearch Open Access website...

Academics Question The Reliability Of Neuroscience Research

Date: Apr-12-2013
New research has questioned the reliability of neuroscience studies, saying that conclusions could be misleading due to small sample sizes. A team led by academics from the University of Bristol reviewed 48 articles on neuroscience meta-analysis which were published in 2011 and concluded that most had an average power of around 20 per cent - a finding which means the chance of the average study discovering the effect being investigated is only one in five...