Health News

Mouse Model Used To Study Aging At The Molecular Level

Date: Apr-09-2013
High fidelity DNA replication during each cycle of cell division is required to maintain genomic stability and prevent chromosomal mutations and rearrangements that can cause disease and aging. Mutations in ATRX, a gene that encodes a protein that participates in DNA replication, are associated with X-linked mental retardation, various cancers, and developmental disorders, but the cellular functions of ATRX are still unclear...

Testing The Environmental And Health Effects Of Nanoparticles

Date: Apr-09-2013
Earlier efforts to determine the health and environmental effects of the nanoparticles that are finding use in hundreds of consumer products may have produced misleading results by embracing traditional toxicology tests that do not take into account the unique properties of bits of material so small that 100,000 could fit in the period at the end of this sentence. That was among the observations presented at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, by one of the emerging leaders in nanoscience research...

Study Evaluates The Effectiveness Of Drugs For Colorectal Cancer In Animal Models More Relevant To Humans

Date: Apr-09-2013
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Once colorectal cancer has spread to other parts of the body, only 11 percent of patients will survive five years from the date of their diagnosis. Most colorectal cancers are adenocarcinomas - cancers that begin in cells that make and release mucus and other fluids. Adenocarcinomas begin as benign tumors called adenomas, which become malignant over time. By treating adenomas before they become cancerous, it could be possible to prevent colorectal cancer...

Gene Underlies Vel Blood Group And Influences Red Blood Cell Traits, Will Lead To Safer Blood Transfusions

Date: Apr-09-2013
Researchers have uncovered the gene at the root of a human blood group that has remained a mystery for the past 60 years. They showed that a genetic deletion on this gene is responsible for the lack of this blood group in some people. With the discovery of the gene behind the Vel blood group, medical scientists can now develop a more reliable DNA test to identify people who lack this group. This will reduce the risk of severe, and sometimes life threatening, destruction of the Vel-positive donor red blood cells in patients with antibodies against Vel...

InVivo Therapeutics Receives Approval From FDA For First Human Trial Using Biomaterials For Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Date: Apr-09-2013
InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NVIV), a developer of groundbreaking technologies for the treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCI) and other neurotrauma conditions, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Company's Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to begin human studies to test its biopolymer scaffold product, a technology developed to treat patients with acute, traumatic SCI...

WHO Raises Alarm About High Blood Pressure

Date: Apr-09-2013
The World Health Organizations is raising the alarm about high blood pressure on World Health Day 2013. High blood pressure or hypertension kills nearly 1.5 million people every year in South-East Asia making it the single-most important risk factor for non communicable diseases like heart attack and stroke. Between 2011-2015, the cumulative loss in productivity associated with noncommunicable diseases in low and middle income countries is projected to be US$ 7.3 trillion. Most of these deaths can be prevented through healthy lifestyles, early detection and treatment...

Edema Inhibitor Identified By MDC And FMP Researchers

Date: Apr-09-2013
Researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and the Leibniz Institute of Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) in Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now detected a substance that can prevent the accumulation of fluid in body tissue and thus edema formation. The results of Dr. Jana Bogum (MDC/FMP) from the MDC research group led by Professor Walter Rosenthal and PD Dr. Enno Klussmann could be important in the future for the treatment of excessive fluid retention in patients with chronic heart failure...

Mitochondrial Metabolic Regulator SIRT4 Guards Against DNA Damage

Date: Apr-09-2013
Healthy cells don't just happen. As they grow and divide, they need checks and balances to ensure they function properly while adapting to changing conditions around them. Researchers studying a set of proteins that regulate physiology, caloric restriction and aging have discovered another important role that one of them plays. SIRT4, one of seven sirtuin proteins, is known for controlling fuel usage from its post in the mitochondria, the cell's energy source. It responds to stressful changes in the availability of nutrients for the cell...

Virtual Colonoscopy Used Appropriately May Expand Screening To More Patients

Date: Apr-09-2013
In 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) halted reimbursement for so-called "virtual colonoscopy" for routine colon-cancer screening in asymptomatic patients, in part due to concerns over how this procedure, computed tomography colonography (CTC), was being used in the elderly population...

Soldiers Fighting In Unpopular Wars May Have Higher Risk Of Developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder When They Come Home

Date: Apr-09-2013
Can events like Red Fridays, Tickets for Troops and the yellow ribbon campaign reduce the chances of Canadian soldiers experiencing combat-related stress disorders? The authors of a new study from the University of Alberta think so...