Health News

Preventing The Spread Of Bacteria By Modifying Surfaces

Date: Jul-23-2012
Researchers at the Institute for Agrobiotechnology (a mixed research centre set up by the Public University of Navarre, the CSIC-National Scientific Research Council, and the Government of Navarre) are designing, by means of laser application, nanostructured reliefs on surfaces so that they acquire antibacterial properties and are more resistant to the formation of bacterial biofilms. The authors of the research say that in the preliminary tests carried out so far with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus a reduction in the region of 65-70% has been confirmed in the adhesion of bacteria...

Condom Decision-Making And Condom Use For Gay Couples Varies By Race

Date: Jul-23-2012
Black gay couples tend to practice safe sex but don't talk about it, while white gay couples discuss safety but are less likely to use condoms, according to new findings presented at the 19th International AIDS Conference. Gay men, particularly white and black men, account for the majority of new HIV cases in the United States. One source of HIV infection could be men's primary relationship partners. To explore this aspect of risk, San Francisco State University researchers studied how black, white and interracial male couples make decisions about using condoms...

Reverse Engineered Jellyfish May Lead To Heart Fixing Technology

Date: Jul-23-2012
Scientists have fashioned silicon and muscle cells into a freely swimming artificial "jellyfish", in a step towards eventually producing new tissue for patients with damaged hearts, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Harvard University reported in Nature Biotechnology. The team used a combination of silicone and rat-heart cells for their laboratory-made jellyfish - they called Medusoid - which then swam freely through water...

Study Suggests People With HIV/AIDS Would Take HIV Medicines At Early Stages Of HIV, Before They Were Sick

Date: Jul-23-2012
An ongoing clinical study in rural Uganda, begun in 2011, suggests that many people infected with HIV/AIDS would take antiretroviral drugs if they were available to them - even before they developed symptoms from the disease. Led by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) and Makerere University School of Medicine in Kampala, Uganda, the study is the first to address such attitudes among African patients who are in the early stages of the disease and not yet sick...

Risk Of Injury In Sport Unrelated To Pre-Season Fitness

Date: Jul-23-2012
But the type of sport played and gender did, according to a new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy, Rehabilitation, Therapy & Technology. This study into varsity athletics found that women had a shorter time to injury than men and that certain sports, such as volleyball, also had a significantly shorter time to injury than others, such as hockey or basketball. Fitness evaluation and pre-participation are standard practice in university sport...

Potent New Compound Virtually Eliminates HIV In Cell Culture

Date: Jul-23-2012
A new study by scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute shows, in cell culture, a natural compound can virtually eliminate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in infected cells. The compound defines a novel class of HIV anti-viral drugs endowed with the capacity to repress viral replication in acutely and chronically infected cells. The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to affect 34 million individuals worldwide, including more than 3 million children, according to the World Health Organization...

Testing IDO Inhibitors As A Treatment For Cancer: Preclinical Data Support Ongoing Clinical Trials

Date: Jul-23-2012
Inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) are being assessed in clinical trials as a potential treatment for recurrent or refractory solid tumors. Clear genetic rationale for these trials, together with evidence that primary and metastatic lung tumors might be particularly susceptible to the drugs, is now reported in a preclinical study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Our data provide preclinical genetic validation for the ongoing clinical trials testing IDO inhibitors in cancer patients," said Alexander Muller, Ph.D...

Researchers Studying Stem Cell Quiescence And Proliferation Hope Their Work Will Lead To New Therapies For Diseases Of The Blood

Date: Jul-23-2012
Not all adult stem cells are created equal. Some are busy regenerating worn out or damaged tissues, while their quieter brethren serve as a strategic back-up crew that only steps in when demand shoots up. Now, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified an important molecular cue that keeps quiescent mouse hematopoietic (or blood-forming) stem cells from proliferating when their services are not needed. Published in Cell, the team led by Stowers Investigator Linheng Li, Ph.D...

Stroke, Tinnitus, Autism And Other Disorders May In Future Be Treated With Nerve Stimulation

Date: Jul-23-2012
UT Dallas researchers recently demonstrated how nerve stimulation paired with specific experiences, such as movements or sounds, can reorganize the brain. This technology could lead to new treatments for stroke, tinnitus, autism and other disorders. In a related paper, UT Dallas neuroscientists showed that they could alter the speed at which the brain works in laboratory animals by pairing stimulation of the vagus nerve with fast or slow sounds. A team led by Dr. Robert Rennaker and Dr...

Lessons From The 2010 California Whooping Cough Epidemic

Date: Jul-23-2012
Because whooping cough (pertussis) is almost as contagious as measles (affecting -12-17 individuals with each case), clinicians are required to report cases of this bacterial respiratory tract infection to the state's department of public health. In 2010, California had the highest number of cases of whooping cough in 60 years. A new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics describes the 2010 whooping cough epidemic and details strategies to decrease the incidence of this infection...