Health News

Ingredients In Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Ice Cream, Used To Create New Oil Spill Dispersant

Date: Aug-21-2012
With concerns about the possible health and environmental effects of oil dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon disaster still fresh in mind, scientists today described a new dispersant made from edible ingredients that both breaks up oil slicks and keeps oil from sticking to the feathers of birds. "Each of the ingredients in our dispersant is used in common food products like peanut butter, chocolate and whipped cream," said Lisa K. Kemp, Ph.D. She reported on the dispersant at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, being held here this week...

Potential New Avenues For Drug Treatments And Intervention For Bipolar Disorder

Date: Aug-21-2012
The more that we understand the brain, the more complex it becomes. The same can be said about the genetics and neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. For "Mendelian" disorders, like Huntington disease, mutation of a single gene predictably produces a single clinical disorder, following relatively simple genetic principals. Compared to Mendelian disorders, understanding bipolar disorder has been extremely challenging. Its biology is not well understood and its genetics are complex. In a new paper, Dr...

Common Antifungal Drug Shrinks Tumors

Date: Aug-21-2012
An approved generic drug that has been in use for decades is showing promise as a treatment for cancer: in trials on mice it shrank tumors by disrupting their blood supply. Thiabendazole is a generic, FDA-approved, inexpensive antifungal drug that can be taken orally and has been in clincal use for over 40 years. The drug is not currrently used to treat cancer. Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin discovered the drug's potential to treat cancer almost by accident while looking for evolutionary links in yeast, frogs, mice and humans...

Substance In Mammalian Semen May Have A Direct Effect On The Female Brain

Date: Aug-21-2012
An international team of scientists led by Gregg Adams at the University of Saskatchewan has discovered that a protein in semen acts on the female brain to prompt ovulation, and is the same molecule that regulates the growth, maintenance, and survival of nerve cells. Male mammals have accessory sex glands that contribute seminal fluid to semen, but the role of this fluid and the glands that produce it are not well understood...

Global Pandemic Of Drug Counterfeiting Addressed By New Technology

Date: Aug-21-2012
Drug counterfeiting is so common in some developing countries that patients with serious diseases in Southeast Asia and elsewhere are at risk of getting a poor-quality drug instead of one with ingredients that really treat their illness, a scientist involved in combating the problem said. Speaking at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, Facundo M. Fernández, Ph.D., described how his team has developed technology that reduces the time needed to check a sample for authenticity from a half hour to a few minutes...

Diagnosing Disease With The Help Of 'DNA Wires'

Date: Aug-21-2012
In a discovery that defies the popular meaning of the word "wire," scientists have found that Mother Nature uses DNA as a wire to detect the constantly occurring genetic damage and mistakes that - if left unrepaired - can result in diseases like cancer and underpin the physical and mental decline of aging. That topic - DNA wires and their potential use in identifying people at risk for certain diseases - was the focus of a plenary talk during the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society...

Targeting Male Malaria Mosquito 'Mating Plug' To Control An Epidemic

Date: Aug-21-2012
Using information about the unique mating practices of the male malaria mosquito - which, unlike any other insect, inserts a plug to seal its sperm inside the female - scientists are zeroing in on a birth-control drug for Anopheles mosquitoes, deadly carriers of the disease that threatens 3 billion people, has infected more than 215 million and kills 655,000 annually...

Describing For The First Time How PPR Proteins Recognise Their RNA Targets

Date: Aug-21-2012
Scientists have cracked a molecular code that may open the way to destroying or correcting defective gene products, such as those that cause genetic disorders in humans. The code determines the recognition of RNA molecules by a superfamily of RNA-binding proteins called pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins. When a gene is switched on, it is copied into RNA. This RNA is then used to make proteins that are required by the organism for all of its vital functions. If a gene is defective, its RNA copy and the proteins made from this will also be defective...

Bringing Better Sanitation And Clean Drinking Water To Developing Nations: Women Could Play Key Role In Correcting Crisis

Date: Aug-21-2012
People in ancient Rome 2,000 years ago had better access to clean water and sanitation that keeps disease-causing human excrement out of contact with people than many residents of the 21st century, a scientist said here today. Women in developing countries could play a major role in remedying the situation, if given the chance, she added. Jeanette A. Brown, Ph.D...

Restoring Vocal Cord Flexibility

Date: Aug-21-2012
A new made-in-the-lab material designed to rejuvenate the human voice, restoring the flexibility that vocal cords lose with age and disease, is emerging from a collaboration between scientists and physicians, a scientist heading the development team said. That's just one of several innovations that Robert Langer, Sc.D., discussed in delivering the latest Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS)...