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'Junk DNA' Plays Crucial Role In Human Diseases
Date: Sep-06-2012A lot more of our genome is biologically active than previously thought - about 80% - an international team involving over 400 scientists revealed yesterday. The researchers explained that only approximately 1% of our genome has gene regions that code for proteins, which has made them wonder what is going on with the rest of the DNA. Now that we know that four-fifths of the genome is biochemically active, in a way that regulates the expression of nearby genes, geneticists realize that much less of our genome consists of junk DNA as once believed...
Popular Kids Smoke More
Date: Sep-06-2012A new study shows heart disease, lung cancer, and emphysema may be more prevalent in popular youths. The University of California and the University of Texas collaborated on a study which found that popular students in seven different California high schools were more likely to smoke cigarettes than unpopular students. This research, published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, supports previous USC-led studies of pupils in the sixth through twelfth grades throughout Mexico and the United States...
PTSD Common In Children With Cancer
Date: Sep-06-2012Infants and toddlers can develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) upon receiving a cancer diagnosis or when they undergo taxing treatment with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy, scientists from the University of Zurich and the University Children's Hospital Zurich reported in Psycho-Oncology. PTSD is a type of anxiety disorder which often occurs after a person has been through a frightening experience which may have been perceived as life-threatening or potentially harmful. Symptoms include reliving the event in the form of flashbacks, nightmares, or upsetting memories...
Married Lung Cancer Patients Have A Better Chance Of Survival
Date: Sep-06-2012According to a study carried out by experts at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center in Baltimore, which will be presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology, locally advanced lung cancer patients who are married are more likely to survive than those who are single. The researchers examined 168 Stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients, which is the most common form of lung cancer. These individuals were treated by radiation and chemotherapy over a decade - between January 2000 and December 2010...
Professional Football Players Have Higher ALS And Alzheimer's Death Risks
Date: Sep-06-2012Professional football players are much more likely to die from Alzheimer's disease, ALS (Lou Gerhig's disease) and other conditions cause by brain-cell damage, researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati wrote in the journal Neurology. The scientists gathered data on 3,439 ex-professional football players, average age 57 years, who had played during at least five seasons from 1959 to 1988 for the National Football League...
Ovarian Cancer Cells Hijack Surrounding Tissues To Enhance Tumor Growth
Date: Sep-06-2012Tumor growth is dependent on interactions between cancer cells and adjacent normal tissue, or stroma. Stromal cells can stimulate the growth of tumor cells; however it is unclear if tumor cells can influence the stroma. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center report that ovarian cancer cells activate the HOXA9 gene to compel stromal cells to create an environment that supports tumor growth. Honami Naora and colleagues found that expression of HOXA9 was correlated with poor outcomes in cancer patients and in mice with ovarian tumors...
Anchoring Proteins Influence Glucose Metabolism And Insulin Release
Date: Sep-06-2012Scientists from the United States and Sweden have discovered a new control point that could be important as a drug target for the treatment of diabetes and other metabolic diseases. A-kinase anchoring proteins or AKAPs are known to influence the spatial distribution of kinases within the cell, crucial enzymes that control important molecular events related to the regulation of glucose levels in the blood...
PharmaNet System Dramatically Reduced Inappropriate Prescriptions Of Potentially Addictive Drugs
Date: Sep-06-2012A centralized prescription network providing real-time information to pharmacists in British Columbia, Canada, resulted in dramatic reductions in inappropriate prescriptions for opioid analgesics and benzodiazepines, widely used and potentially addictive drugs. The findings are reported in a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)...
A One-Two Punch By The Immune System Knocks Out Cancer Cells
Date: Sep-06-2012An emerging class of therapies called "checkpoint blockade" enhance the immune system's ability to attack cancer cells by interfering with the immunological checkpoints that slow or stop immune cell activation and proliferation in the presence of tumors. Cytotoxic T lymophocyte antigen-A (CTLA) receptor is a protein that acts like an "off switch" on certain immune cells. Antibodies targeting CTLA can keep the protein from turning the immune cells off and allow them to attach tumor cells...
Blocking Inflammation Reverses Early-Stage Alcoholic Liver Disease In Mice
Date: Sep-06-2012More than 12000 deaths per year are attributed to alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Early stages of ALD are believed to be reversible, but there is no definitive treatment available. The early stages of ALD are associated with increased activation of inflammatory pathways. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center blocked inflammatory molecules to treat an ALD-like disease in mice. By feeding mice a diet that included alcohol, Gyongyi Szabo and colleagues were able to mimic ALD progression in humans...
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