Health News

Yeast Study Yields Potential For New Cholesterol, Anti-Fungal Drugs

Date: Mar-01-2013
While studying a mutant strain of yeast, Purdue University researchers may have found a new target for drugs to combat cholesterol and fungal diseases. Scott Briggs, an associate professor of biochemistry, and Paul South, a postdoctoral researcher, were looking at how histones, the proteins that DNA wraps itself around, are affected by environmental factors, a field called epigenetics. When histones are modified, they change how genes are expressed and how cells behave. One of the research team's yeast mutants lacks a methyltransferase called Set1, which is a protein that modifies histones...

Pesticides Linked To Type 2 Diabetes

Date: Mar-01-2013
In a groundbreaking study, environmental-health scientists have discovered a link between type 2 diabetes and pesticides - a result that could explain the significant increase in the health condition in the last few years. The study was conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Granada in Spain and is published in the journal Environmental Research. The investigators found people with higher concentrations of DDE (from the pesticide DDT), are four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes...

Leukemia Survival Improved By Infusion Of Stem Cells And Specially Generated T-Cells From Same Donor

Date: Mar-01-2013
In a significant advance for harnessing the immune system to treat leukemias, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the first time have successfully infused large numbers of donor T-cells specific for a key anti-leukemic antigen to prolong survival in high-risk and relapsed leukemia patients after stem cell transplantation. Both the stem cells for transplant and the T-cells came from the same matched donors...

Fukushima Residents Have Slightly Higher Cancer Risk

Date: Mar-01-2013
There is a lightly higher risk of developing some types of cancers for people living near the site of the Fukushima nuclear power disaster, says a group of international experts who carried out an analysis. They added that the predicted risks for developing cancer for the general population living inside and outside Japan are relatively low. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake was followed by a tsunami that struck the Fukushima I Power Plant, resulting in a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and the release of radioactive materials...

The Future Of Syphilis Diagnosis: Rapid, Point-Of-Care Tests

Date: Mar-01-2013
Syphilis is on the rise worldwide and there is an urgent need for reliable and rapid screening, particularly for people who live in areas where access to healthcare is limited. An international research team, led by scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, has demonstrated that rapid and point-of-care tests (POC) for syphilis are as accurate as conventional laboratory tests...

British Children More Exposed To Alcohol Promotion Than Adults

Date: Mar-01-2013
Experts call for urgent changes to "flawed" regulatory system to protect children Children in Britain are more exposed to alcohol promotion than adults and need much stronger protection, warn experts on bmj.com today. In an editorial to coincide with publication of the UK's first independent alcohol strategy, Professor Gerard Hastings at the University of Stirling and Dr Nick Sheron at the University of Southampton argue that urgent changes to Britain's "flawed" regulatory system are needed to provide much stronger protection for children...

Probiotics Largely Eliminated Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci From The Intestinal Tracts Of Mice

Date: Mar-01-2013
Too much antibiotic can decimate the normal intestinal microbiota, which may never recover its former diversity. That, in turn, renders the GI tract vulnerable to being colonized by pathogens. Now researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, and Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública, Valencia, Spain, show that reintroducing normal microbial diversity largely eliminated vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from the intestinal tracts of mice. The investigators showed further that the findings may apply to humans...

Safety Of IV Fluids Containing Hydroxyethyl Starch, Used By NHS, Questioned

Date: Mar-01-2013
Starch-based intravenous (IV) fluids used by the NHS to treat seriously ill patients are causing unnecessary deaths, according to a new Cochrane systematic review by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Based on data from 25 randomised control trials, the researchers concluded that starch-based colloid fluids, used to stabilise patients with low blood pressure, are not only more expensive than saline-based crystalloid fluids, but may also be causing around 250 unnecessary deaths in the UK every year...

Correlation Between Childhood Conditions And Pain And Depression In Adulthood

Date: Mar-01-2013
It's common knowledge that a child who misses a meal can't concentrate in school. But what happens years down the road? Does that missed meal have any bearing on health in adulthood? A new University of Nebraska-Lincoln study shows that missed meals in childhood can be linked to experiencing pain and depression in adulthood. Depression and chronic pain are experienced by 44 percent of working-aged adults and the study shows a correlation between childhood conditions and pain and depression in adulthood...

Potential Cancer Drugs From Naturally Occurring Compounds

Date: Mar-01-2013
Inspired by a chemical that fungi secrete to defend their territory, MIT chemists have synthesized and tested several dozen compounds that may hold promise as potential cancer drugs. A few years ago, MIT researchers led by associate professor of chemistry Mohammad Movassaghi became the first to chemically synthesize 11,11'-dideoxyverticillin, a highly complex fungal compound that has shown anti-cancer activity in previous studies...