Health News

Mental Health Concerns Should Be Integrated With Development In LMICs

Date: Jul-11-2012
In a new article published this week that forms part of the PLoS Medicine series on Global Mental Health Practice, Shoba Raja and colleagues report their case study of implementing the "BasicNeeds" model of mental health and development in Nepal, which emphasizes user empowerment, community development, strengthening of health systems, and policy influencing. The authors say their model works in partnership with governments to provide the "great push" that is required to set up services where mental health and development have not yet been a priority...

To Maintain Malaria Control, More Sustainable Integrated Vector Management Strategies Are Needed

Date: Jul-11-2012
Insecticide resistance is threatening the effectiveness of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor insecticide sprays to control adult mosquito vectors, and so more sustainable integrated management strategies that use optimal suites of control tactics are needed. These are the arguments of Willem Takken from the Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands and colleagues in this week's PLoS Medicine...

First Evidence For Targeting Of Pol I As New Approach To Cancer Therapy

Date: Jul-11-2012
Cylene Pharmaceuticals has announced that research collaborators at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) in Melbourne, Australia have established, for the first time, that RNA Polymerase I (Pol I) activity is essential for cancer cell survival and that its inhibition selectively activates p53 to kill tumors. Published in Cancer Cell, the findings show that Cylene's Pol I inhibitor, CX-5461, selectively destroys cancer by activating p53 in malignant but not in normal cells...

The Brains Of Deaf People Process Touch Differently

Date: Jul-11-2012
People who are born deaf process the sense of touch differently than people who are born with normal hearing, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. The finding reveals how the early loss of a sense - in this case hearing - affects brain development. It adds to a growing list of discoveries that confirm the impact of experiences and outside influences in molding the developing brain. The study is published in the July 11 online issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers, Christina M. Karns, Ph.D...

In Mouse Model, TLR1 Protein Drives Immune Response To Certain Food-Borne Illnesses

Date: Jul-11-2012
A naturally occurring protein called TLR1 plays a critical role in protecting the body from illnesses caused by eating undercooked pork or drinking contaminated water, according to new research from the University of Southern California (USC). The discovery may help create more effective oral vaccines for infections of the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems and already has launched an examination of how TLR1 is linked to inflammatory bowel disease, says R...

Discovery Of Melanoma-Promoting Gene

Date: Jul-11-2012
Black skin cancer, also known as melanoma, is particularly aggressive and becoming increasingly common in Switzerland. Despite intensive research, however, there is still no treatment. Researchers from the University of Zurich have now discovered a gene that plays a central role in black skin cancer. Suppressing this gene in mice inhibits the development of melanoma and its proliferation - a discovery that could pave the way for new forms of therapy...

Improved Control Of Blood Sugar From Newer Technology

Date: Jul-11-2012
Newer technologies designed to help people with type 1 diabetes monitor their blood sugar levels daily work better than traditional methods and require fewer painful needle sticks, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. The research findings, published online in the July 10 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, suggest that even though these diabetic control technologies are more costly, people with diabetes who use an insulin pump are more satisfied with their treatment and quality of life than those who give themselves insulin shots many times a day...

Tumor Cells In Mice Destroyed By Drug From Mediterranean Weed

Date: Jul-11-2012
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, working with Danish researchers, have developed a novel anticancer drug designed to travel - undetected by normal cells - through the bloodstream until activated by specific cancer proteins. The drug, made from a weedlike plant, has been shown to destroy cancers and their direct blood supplies, acting like a "molecular grenade," and sparing healthy blood vessels and tissues...

Small Molecule May Play Big Role In Alzheimer's Disease

Date: Jul-11-2012
Alzheimer's disease is one of the most dreaded and debilitating illnesses one can develop. Currently, the disease afflicts 6.5 million Americans and the Alzheimer's Association projects it to increase to between 11 and 16 million, or 1 in 85 people, by 2050. Cell death in the brain causes one to grow forgetful, confused and, eventually, catatonic. Recently approved drugs provide mild relief for symptoms but there is no consensus on the underlying mechanism of the disease...

Comparison Of Cancer Screening Rates Between Those With And Without Rheumatoid Arthritis

Date: Jul-11-2012
New research reveals that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than the general population. Results of the study, funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), found that RA and non-RA patients receive routine screening for breast, cervical, and colon cancer at similar rates. The ACR estimates that 1...