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Hopes For New Class Of Antidepressant Following Study Of How Ketamine Defeats Chronic Depression
Date: Oct-08-2012Many chronically depressed and treatment-resistant patients experience immediate relief from symptoms after taking small amounts of the drug ketamine. For a decade, scientists have been trying to explain the observation first made at Yale University. Today, current evidence suggests that the pediatric anesthetic helps regenerate synaptic connections between brain cells damaged by stress and depression, according to a review of scientific research written by Yale School of Medicine researchers and published in the journal Science...
New Sensor Can Detect Four Different Molecules, Could Be Used To Program Cells To Precisely Monitor Their Environments
Date: Oct-08-2012Using genes as interchangeable parts, synthetic biologists design cellular circuits that can perform new functions, such as sensing environmental conditions. However, the complexity that can be achieved in such circuits has been limited by a critical bottleneck: the difficulty in assembling genetic components that don't interfere with each other. Unlike electronic circuits on a silicon chip, biological circuits inside a cell cannot be physically isolated from one another. "The cell is sort of a burrito...
Study Finds Combined Dopamine Dysfunction In Drug Addicted, Schizophrenic Patients
Date: Oct-08-2012Dopamine release in one area of the brain's striatum is increased in schizophrenia, whereas drug addiction is associated with decreased dopamine in a neighboring striatal region. Since substance use disorders often occur concurrently with other mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, a new NIDA-funded study examined amphetamine-induced dopamine release in patients with comorbid schizophrenia and substance dependence. In this study, dopamine release was reduced in the striatum of comorbid patients exposed to amphetamine, yet patients showed enhanced positive symptoms (i.e...
Identifying 14 New Biomarkers For Type 2 Diabetes Could Lead To New Methods For Treatment And Prevention
Date: Oct-08-2012A research team led by Anna Floegel of the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) and Tobias Pischon of the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) has identified 14 novel biomarkers for type 2 diabetes. They can serve as basis for developing new methods of treatment and prevention of this metabolic disease. The biomarkers can also be used to determine diabetes risk at a very early point in time. At the same time the markers enable insight into the complex mechanisms of this disease, which still have not been completely elucidated. (Diabetes, A. Floegel et al., 2012; DOI 10...
Chemical Found In Many Plastics Linked To Multiple Health Threats
Date: Oct-08-2012Bisphenol A or BPA is a synthetic chemical widely used in the making of plastic products ranging from bottles and food can linings to toys and water supply lines. When these plastics degrade, BPA is released into the environment and routinely ingested. New research, however, from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests it is the metabolic changes that take place once BPA is broken down inside the body that pose the greater health threat. More than 90 percent of all Americans are believed to carry varying levels of BPA exposure...
Genetic Risk Discovered For Uterine Fibroids
Date: Oct-08-2012Uterine fibroids are the most common type of pelvic tumors in women and are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to discover a genetic risk allele (an alternative form of a gene) for uterine fibroids in white women using an unbiased, genome-wide approach. This discovery will pave the way for new screening strategies and treatments for uterine fibroids. The study was published online in The American Journal of Human Genetics...
Biceps Tenodesis Hastens Recovery From Shoulder Injuries
Date: Oct-08-2012Athletics have always been a part of Jade Dismore's life. The 27-year-old native of South Africa grew up playing tennis and swimming; as an adult she became an avid runner and recreational volleyball player. For several years she felt soreness in her shoulder, but assumed it was nothing serious. As she began training for her first triathlon, the pain became increasingly severe. After trying to manage the pain on her own for years, Dismore decided it was time to seek medical attention...
Human-To-Pet Transmission A Concern At The Onset Of Flu Season
Date: Oct-08-2012As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets. This concept, called "reverse zoonosis," is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets. About 80-100 million households in the United States have a cat or dog...
A Faulty Embryonic Gene-Silencing Mechanism May Lead To Cancer
Date: Oct-08-2012Many types of cancer could originate from a mechanism that cells use to silence genes; this process, which is essential in embryonic development, might be accidentally reactivated in tumor cells, according to EPFL scientists There are some genes that are only activated in the very first days of an embryo's existence. Once they have accomplished their task, they are shut down forever, unlike most of our genes, which remain active throughout our lives. EPFL scientists have unveiled part of this strange mechanism...
New Research Presented By Army Surgeons On Cancer Vaccine, Colorectal Surgery
Date: Oct-08-2012U.S. Army surgeons exhibited new research findings in two poster presentations at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. The poster presentation titled, "Assessment of Disease Features and Immune Response in Breast Cancer Patients with Recurrence after Receiving AE37, a HER2 Peptide Vaccine," outlined outcomes of injecting AE37, a HER-2 derived vaccine, in breast cancer survivors following completion of standard therapy. Those who received injections of AE37 were more likely to survive disease-free than the control group...
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