Health News

Driver Of Breast Cancer Stem Cell Metastasis Discovered

Date: Jul-26-2012
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that a cancer gene linked to aggressive spread of the disease promotes breast cancer stem cells. The finding implies a new way to target the behavior of these lethal cells. The finding involves the cancer gene RhoC, which has previously been shown to promote metastasis of many types of cancer. RhoC levels increase as breast cancer progresses and high levels of RhoC are associated with worse patient survival...

Potential To Improve Human Cancer Studies Using Novel Pig Model

Date: Jul-26-2012
A naturally occurring line of immunodeficient pigs can support the growth of human tumors injected under their skin, offering a promising new large animal model for studying human cancers and testing new drugs and treatment strategies. The ability of human melanoma cells and pancreatic carcinoma cells to grow in these pig models is described in an article in BioResearch Open Access, a new bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.. The article is available free online at the BioResearch Open Access website...

Findings About Innate Peptide May Offer New Avenue Of Research For Combating HIV, Other Viruses

Date: Jul-26-2012
Human defensins, aptly named antimicrobial peptides, are made in immune system cells and epithelial cells (such as skin cells and cells that line the gut). One of these peptides, human neutrophil peptide 1, under certain circumstances hinders HIV infection, but exactly how it works remains unclear. HIV entry into mature T-helper cells (cells essential to the immune system) proceeds by attachment of the virus to specific targets on T-helper cells, uptake of the virus, fusion of its envelope with the cell membranes, and release of the virus into the cells...

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease And Increased Risk Of Lung Cancer

Date: Jul-26-2012
In addition to the well-known risk factor of smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increases lung cancer risk. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research details one novel mechanism of this risk: long-term oxygen depletion stimulates signals that promote tumor growth...

New Probe Helps Find Cancerous Brain Tumors

Date: Jul-26-2012
Performing surgery to remove a brain tumor requires surgeons to walk a very fine line. If they leave tumor tissue behind, the tumor is likely to regrow; if they cut out too much normal tissue, they could cause permanent brain damage. "Primary brain tumors look just like brain tissue," says Keith Paulsen, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering at Thayer School of Engineering and a member of the Cancer Imaging and Radiobiology Research Program at Norris Cotton Cancer Center. "But if you look at them under a particular kind of light, they look much different...

Inactive, Fat Rats Used In Lab To Understand Childhood Obesity

Date: Jul-26-2012
Childhood obesity has nearly tripled in the past three decades, and by 2009, 17 percent of those 2-19 years of age were classified as obese. If actions against childhood obesity do not take place it is likely that today's children could be the first generation in over a century to experience a decline in life expectancy due to the epidemic of childhood obesity which leads to complications in later life...

Why Yoga Reduces Stress

Date: Jul-26-2012
Six months ago, researchers at UCLA published a study that showed using a specific type of yoga to engage in a brief, simple daily meditation reduced the stress levels of people who care for those stricken by Alzheimer's and dementia. Now they know why. As previously reported, practicing a certain form of chanting yogic meditation for just 12 minutes daily for eight weeks led to a reduction in the biological mechanisms responsible for an increase in the immune system's inflammation response. Inflammation, if constantly activated, can contribute to a multitude of chronic health problems...

Addressing The Challenges To Transform The HIV-TB Response

Date: Jul-26-2012
The dual HIV-TB epidemic has posed a challenge for both TB and HIV efforts at all levels. Although the number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) screened for TB increased almost 12-fold, (from nearly 200 000 to over 2.3 million people) and testing for HIV among TB patients increased 5-fold (from 470,000 to over 2.2 million) between 2005 and 2010, almost a quarter of all AIDS deaths every year are still caused by TB despite it being preventable...

Increase In Suicide Rates Attributable To 'The Troubles' Experienced By Children In Northern Ireland

Date: Jul-26-2012
People who grew up in the worst years of 'The Troubles ' are more prone to suicide in Northern Ireland, according to new research carried out at Queen's University Belfast. The research, which examined death registration data over the last 40 years, found that the highest suicide rate is for men aged 35-44 (41 per 100,000 by 2010) followed closely by the 25-34 and 45-54 age groups...

Common Fungus Senses Weakness, Then Attacks

Date: Jul-26-2012
The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans inconspicuously lives in our bodies until it senses that we are weak, when it quickly adapts to go on the offensive. The fungus, known for causing yeast and other minor infections, also causes a sometimes-fatal infection known as candidemia in immunocompromised patients. An in vivo study, published in mBio, demonstrates how C. albicans can distinguish between a healthy and an unhealthy host and alter its physiology to attack...