Health News

Gene Variants That Influence Immune Function May Contribute To The Heritable Risk For Schizophrenia

Date: Oct-12-2012
A new study reinforces the finding that a region of the genome involved in immune system function, called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), is involved in the genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is among the most disabling psychiatric disorders. Approximately 80% of the risk for developing schizophrenia is heritable, but there has been slow progress in identifying genetic variation that contributes to the risk for schizophrenia...

Nature Vs Nurture In Oral Health: Nurture Wins

Date: Oct-12-2012
Environment is shown to play a much more significant role in the mouth's microbial set up than genes.  The human mouth is a community bustling with microorganisms that live there. Little knowledge exists about what factors control which types that live there and which don't.  In a new study published in Genome Research, investigators have discovered environment has a more controlling stance on determining oral microbiota, an extremely important finding in the field of oral health. The oral microbiome starts forming as soon as a person is born...

How The Body Uses Vitamin B To Recognize Bacterial Infection

Date: Oct-12-2012
An Australian research team has discovered how specialised immune cells recognise products of vitamin B synthesis that are unique to bacteria and yeast, triggering the body to fight infection. The finding opens up potential targets to improve treatments or to develop a vaccine for tuberculosis...

Transplanted Neural Stem Cells Produced Myelin

Date: Oct-12-2012
A Phase I clinical trial led by investigators from the University of California, San Francisco and sponsored by Stem Cells Inc., showed that neural stem cells successfully engrafted into the brains of patients and appear to have produced myelin. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, also demonstrated that the neural stem cells were safe in the patients' brains one year post transplant. The results of the investigation, designed to test safety and preliminary efficacy, are encouraging, said principal investigator David H...

Superheroes Swing Into Action For Multiple Sclerosis

Date: Oct-12-2012
Make way Batman and Spiderman - five new comic book superheroes with the unlikely names of Axon, Gastro, Skinderella, Pump and Chi are helping children around the world understand the complexities of multiple sclerosis - a condition which can baffle leading medical specialists. The superhero characters are the brainchild of Dr Kate Hersov and Dr Kim Chilman-Blair - paediatric doctors who became increasingly frustrated at the lack of good educational resources for children suffering chronic illness, or for children whose parents were affected by such illness...

More Detailed Reporting In Preclinical Animal Studies Essential To Speed Therapy Development

Date: Oct-12-2012
A workshop sponsored by NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has produced a set of consensus recommendations to improve the design and reporting of animal studies. By making animal studies easier to replicate and interpret, the workshop recommendations are expected to help funnel promising therapies to patients...

Whole Genome Sequencing Of Multiple Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Date: Oct-12-2012
Whole genome sequencing - spelling out all 3 billion letters in the human genome - "is an obvious and powerful method for advancing our understanding of pancreatic cancer," according to a new study from TGen, Mayo Clinic and Scottsdale Healthcare. The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) demonstrated that the use of WGS "represents a compelling solution to obtaining detailed molecular information on tumor biopsies in order to provide guidance for therapeutic selection," concluded the study published by the journal PLOS ONE...

Detailed View Of Brain Protein Structure May Help Improve Drugs For Neurological Disorders

Date: Oct-12-2012
Researchers have published the first highly detailed description of how neurotensin, a neuropeptide hormone which modulates nerve cell activity in the brain, interacts with its receptor. Their results suggest that neuropeptide hormones use a novel binding mechanism to activate a class of receptors called G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). "The knowledge of how the peptide binds to its receptor should help scientists design better drugs," said Dr...

Researchers Develop Interference Therapies To Knock Down Gene That Drives Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Date: Oct-12-2012
Three thousand new cases of Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), a form of blood cancer, appear in the United States each year. With a median survival span of only five to seven years, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, this disease is devastating, and new therapies are sorely needed. One of the characteristics that defines MCL is heightened activity in the gene CCND1, which leads to the aggressive over-production of Cyclin D1, a protein that controls the proliferation of cells, explains Prof. Dan Peer of Tel Aviv University's Department of Cell Research and Immunology...

Cell Stiffness Of Ovarian Cancer Cells May Predict Metastatic Potential

Date: Oct-12-2012
New Georgia Tech research shows that cell stiffness could be a valuable clue for doctors as they search for and treat cancerous cells before they're able to spread. The findings, which are published in the journal PLoS One, found that highly metastatic ovarian cancer cells are several times softer than less metastatic ovarian cancer cells. Assistant Professor Todd Sulchek and Ph.D. student Wenwei Xu used a process called atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the mechanical properties of various ovarian cell lines...