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Cleft Lip/Palate Cause Much More Than Cosmetic Problems
Date: May-26-2012Children born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other craniofacial disorders face numerous medical challenges beyond appearance. Patients can face serious airway, feeding, speech and hearing problems, as well as social and psychological challenges, Laura Swibel Rosenthal, MD, of Loyola University Medical Center and colleagues write in the June 2012 issue of Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America. "The management of patients with craniofacial syndromes is complex," Rosenthal and colleagues write. "Otolaryngologic [ear-nose-throat] evaluation is of paramount importance in providing adequate...
New Drug For Destroying Human Cancer Stem Cells
Date: May-25-2012Conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation can cause toxic side-effects. Now, researchers have discovered that a drug called thioridazine can successfully destroy cancer stem cells in humans without these effects. Mick Bhatia, lead researcher of the study and scientific director of McMaster's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, said: "The unusual aspect of our finding is the way this human-ready drug actually kills cancer stem cells; by changing them into cells that are non-cancerous." Findings from the study could pave...
Emotions In Humans May Be Associated With Brain Cells Found In Monkeys
Date: May-25-2012A human's self-awareness is controlled by a small region in the brain called the anterior insular cortex (insula). Within the insula lies a unique cell type - the von Economo neuron (VEN) - believed to be unique to humans, elephants, whales and great apes. Now, German researchers have found that the VEN also occurs in the insula of macaque monkeys. The very anterior part of the insula in particular is where humans consciously sense emotions, such as love, hate, resentment, self-confidence or embarrassment. According to Henry Evrard, a neuroanatomist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological...
Researchers Regenerate Optic Nerve In Mice
Date: May-25-2012Individuals blinded by optic nerve damage from glaucoma or trauma might be able to regain at least some visual function in the future after researchers have successfully regenerated the optic nerve in mice. Using a combination of three methods, Larry Benowitz, Ph.D., and his team at the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children's Hospital, were able to restore some depth perception in mice with severe optic nerve damage. In addition, they found that the mice regained the ability to detect overall movement of the visual field, and perceive light. The study is published online by the...
Rheumatoid Arthritis Battle - New Target Identified
Date: May-25-2012Over one million adults in the U.S. suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease that can be incapacitating. Researchers have now discovered the mechanism by which a cell signaling pathway contributes to the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study, published ahead of the print version of Nature Immunology shows evidence that drugs that are being developed for diseases like cancer, could potentially be used to treat RA. Study leader, Xiaoyu Hu, M.D., Ph.D., a research scientist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City declared: "We uncovered a...
4 Mushroom Poisonings In 2 Weeks - Doctors Test Milk Thistle As Treatment
Date: May-25-2012Over the course of two weeks, four people visited the MGUH for medical treatment due to mushroom (amantin) poisoning. One Virginia man arrived at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) in the early stages of liver failure after having mistakenly eaten poisonous mushrooms he handpicked from his yard. All four cases, including their clinical course, management and outcomes were presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in San Diego, the largest international gathering of physicians and researchers in the field of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery....
Jet Device Injects Drugs Without Needles
Date: May-25-2012The prospect of less painful medicine shots without needles came a step closer this month, as US researchers revealed how they have developed a device that delivers a controlled, tiny, high-pressure jet into the skin without using a hypodermic needle. While there are already several jet-devices on the market, they tend to be of an "all or nothing" design that delivers the same amount of drug to the same depth each time. However the new jet-injection device that researchers at MIT have engineered can be programmed to deliver medicine into the skin in a range of doses to variable depths in a...
New Treatment For Tinnitus In The Making
Date: May-25-2012An article published in this weeks Lancet provides a multidisciplinary approach to treating tinnitus. The specialised care program appears to be affective for both mild and severe tinitius and researchers hope their strategies will be implemented widely and be of great help to suffers. The Canadian folk rock singer Neil Young famously suffered from tinnitus and had to stop recording for some years, but the problem is very common and said to affect nearly a quarter of all people during their lives. We have all been to nightclubs or concerts and woken up the next day with that irritating dull or...
Sperm Gene Discovery May Lead To Non-Hormonal Male Contraceptive
Date: May-25-2012The discovery of a gene that enables sperm to mature may lead to the development of a non-hormonal male contraceptive, according to new research in mice, led by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, that was published in the journal PLoS Genetics on 24 May. Currently, the only male contraceptives available rely on disrupting the production of hormones like testosterone, which can cause unpleasant side effects such as acne, irritability and mood swings. First author Dr Lee Smith is Reader in Genetic Endocrinology at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Reproductive Health. He told the...
Toddlers' Exposure To Flame Retardants May Be Impacted By Socioeconomics
Date: May-25-2012A Duke University-led study of North Carolina toddlers suggests that exposure to potentially toxic flame-retardant chemicals may be higher in nonwhite toddlers than in white toddlers. The study also suggests that exposure to the chemicals is higher among toddlers whose fathers do not have a college degree, a proxy measure of lower socioeconomic background. Hand-to-mouth activity may account for a significant amount of the children's exposure to the contaminants, according to the study, which appears Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Age and duration of breastfeeding...
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