Health News

Genetically Engineering Fruit Flies Flies Spill Secret Of Seizures

Date: Oct-15-2012
Scientists have observed the neurological mechanism behind temperature-dependent - febrile - seizures by genetically engineering fruit flies to harbor a mutation analogous to one that causes epileptic seizures in people. In addition to contributing the insight on epilepsy, their new study also highlights the first use of genetic engineering to swap a human genetic disease mutation into a directly analogous gene in a fly...

The Cognitive Processes Underlying Mind Wandering

Date: Oct-15-2012
It happens innocently enough: One minute you're sitting at your desk, working on a report, and the next minute you're thinking about how you probably need to do laundry and that you want to try the new restaurant down the street. Mind wandering is a frequent and common occurrence. And while mind wandering in certain situations - in class, for example - can be counterproductive, some research suggests that mind wandering isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Inhibiting CaMKII Enzyme Activity Could Lead To New Therapies For Heart Disease

Date: Oct-15-2012
University of Iowa researchers have previously shown that an enzyme called CaM kinase II plays a pivotal role in the death of heart cells following a heart attack or other conditions that damage or stress heart muscle. Loss of beating heart cells is generally permanent and leads to heart failure, a serious, debilitating condition that affects 5.8 million people in the United States. Now the UI team, led by Mark Anderson, M.D., Ph.D...

Studies Could Lead To New Treatments For Epilepsy, Behavioral Disorders

Date: Oct-15-2012
Three studies conducted as part of Wayne State University's Systems Biology of Epilepsy Project (SBEP) could result in new types of treatment for the disease and, as a bonus, for behavioral disorders as well. The SBEP started out with funds from the President's Research Enhancement Fund and spanned neurology, neuroscience, genetics and computational biology...

Study Uses New Stem Cell Therapy In Patients Up To 19 Days After Stroke

Date: Oct-15-2012
Early results of a Phase II intra-arterial stem cell trial for ischemic stroke showed no adverse events associated with the first 10 patients, allowing investigators to expand the study to a targeted total of 100 patients. The results were presented by Sean Savitz, M.D., professor of neurology and director of the Stroke Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), at the 8th World Stroke Congress in Brasilia, Brazil. The trial is the only randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intra-arterial clinical trial in the world for ischemic stroke...

Death Risk For Kidney Dialysis Patients Could Be Assessed By Quiz Already Used In Elderly

Date: Oct-15-2012
A simple six-question quiz, typically used to assess disabilities in the elderly, could help doctors determine which kidney dialysis patients of any age are at the greatest risk of death, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. Believing that kidney failure mimics an accelerated body-wide aging process transplant surgeon Dorry L. Segev, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues turned to geriatric experts to examine mortality risk in patients undergoing dialysis...

The Brain Benefits Of Motherhood Prevented By Chronic Stress During Pregnancy

Date: Oct-15-2012
A new study in animals shows that chronic stress during pregnancy prevents brain benefits of motherhood, a finding that researchers suggest could increase understanding of postpartum depression. Rat mothers showed an increase in brain cell connections in regions associated with learning, memory and mood. In contrast, the brains of mother rats that were stressed twice a day throughout pregnancy did not show this increase. The researchers were specifically interested in dendritic spines - hair-like growths on brain cells that are used to exchange information with other neurons...

Differences In Methylation Patterns May Offer Clues To Cancer Diagnosis

Date: Oct-15-2012
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Devin Koestler is a biostatistician in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He develops and applies statistical methods to large volumes of data, seeking new approaches for understanding disease, cancer in particular. Koestler and his colleagues are investigating the potential use of white blood cell variation as a diagnostic, predictive, and research tool in the study of non-blood cancers. "There is promise here for a new diagnostic tool," says Koestler. "What we show here is not ready for immediate clinical utility, but I think it is on the right path...

Potential Cell Therapies For Neurodegenerative Diseases Using Stem Cells From Muscle Tissue

Date: Oct-15-2012
Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have taken the first steps to create neural-like stem cells from muscle tissue in animals. Details of the work are published in two complementary studies published in online issues of the journals Experimental Cell Research and Stem Cell Research. "Reversing brain degeneration and trauma lesions will depend on cell therapy, but we can't harvest neural stem cells from the brain or spinal cord without harming the donor," said Osvaldo Delbono, M.D., Ph.D., professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the studies...

Novel Diabetes And Obesity Therapy Discovered, And Potential Cause Of Major Side Effects From Hedgehog Inhibitors Used As A Cancer Treatment

Date: Oct-15-2012
Cancer, diabetes, and excess body weight have one thing in common: they alter cellular metabolism. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and the Medical University of Vienna together with an international research team have jointly resolved a new molecular circuit controlling cellular metabolism. The previously unknown signalling pathway, acting downstream of the hedgehog protein enables muscle cells and brown fat cells to absorb sugars without relying on insulin...