Health News

New Parkinson's disease chemical messenger discovered

Date: Mar-28-2014
A new chemical messenger that is critical in protecting the brain against Parkinson's disease has been identified by scientists at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee. The research team led by Dr Miratul Muqit had previously discovered that mutations in two genes - called PINK1 and Parkin - lead to Parkinson's. Now they have made a completely unexpected discovery about the way the two genes interact, which they say could open up exciting new avenues for research around Parkinson's and offer new drug targets.

Eye movement when reading could be an early indicator of Alzheimer's disease

Date: Mar-28-2014
Researchers have suggested that alterations in eye movements when reading could be linked to impairments in working memory and an early indication of Alzheimer's disease according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology.The study focussed on a group of 18 patients with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease. Eye movements were recorded at the Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina. The visual stimulus were sentences in Spanish designed to represent a large variety of grammatical structures.

Stressful situations show the head and the heart don't always agree

Date: Mar-28-2014
The head and the heart of people who suffer from high levels of anxiety react to stressful situations differently, researchers at the University of Birmingham have found.The research, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, showed that the way people with high levels of anxiety feel that they are responding to a task and the way their body actually responds to the task are not related to each other.

Time, trust and transparency keys to minority biospecimen collection

Date: Mar-28-2014
Blood and tumor specimen collection from cancer patients is critical to research into new, more personally targeted therapies. But biospecimen collection among diverse populations lags far behind that of whites. In work aimed at boosting these collection rates, researchers at UC Davis and collaborators at three other institutions found that Asian, African and Hispanic Americans are open to donating specimens for research when clinicians and scientists adopt the right strategies.

Uneven progress in expanding state Medicaid coverage for smoking cessation

Date: Mar-28-2014
More smokers would quit if state Medicaid programs covered more cessation treatments and removed barriers to coverage, according to a CDC study published in today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. All 50 states and the District of Columbia cover cessation treatments for at least some Medicaid enrollees. Efforts to expand state Medicaid coverage for all smoking cessation treatments and the removal of coverage barriers have shown mixed progress over the past five years.

U.S. invasive cancer rates slightly down from 2009 to 2010

Date: Mar-28-2014
Rates of invasive cancer cases among U.S. men and women dropped slightly from 459 per 100,000 persons in 2009 to 446 per 100,000 persons in 2010, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The highest rates were for prostate, female breast, lung and bronchus, and colon and rectum cancers, which together accounted for half of all cancer cases in the United States. With the exception of urinary bladder cancer, invasive cancer is defined as cancer that has spread to surrounding normal tissue from where it began.

Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium expands into Brazil

Date: Mar-28-2014
Brazilian Farmanguinhos, part of Fiocruz, and UK-based Simcyp are reinforcing the international non-profit Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium. The aim of the Consortium is to develop and register a new pediatric formulation against schistosomiasis for preschool-age children, a group currently lacking a suitable treatment. If not treated properly, the parasitic disease results in high morbidity involving anemia, stunting and reduced learning ability. In some cases, it can also be fatal.

Call for more awareness of sexual dysfunction in lung cancer patients

Date: Mar-28-2014
Many lung cancer patients suffer difficulties with sexual expression and intimacy, yet for too long the topic has been ignored by doctors and researchers, experts have said at the 4th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC)."It's time that doctors and scientists paid more attention to this important issue," said Stéphane Droupy from the University Hospital of Nimes, France, speaking at a special session on sexual dysfunction after lung cancer treatment at ELCC.Researchers have estimated that sexual dysfunction affects between 40 and 100% of patients who undergo cancer treatment.

Scientists gain new insight into brain inflammation during neurodegenerative disease

Date: Mar-28-2014
Scientists at the University of Southampton have been able to provide new insights into the inflammatory reaction that occurs in the brain during neurodegenerative diseases, by studying the behaviour of the brain's immune cells.A new study by researchers at the University will help to focus future research and treatment into diseases like Alzheimer's, by establishing which cells do and do not contribute to inflammation in the brain.

Biologics do not increase cancer risk for rheumatoid arthritis patients

Date: Mar-28-2014
New research suggests that biological therapies (biologics) do not increase the risk of recurrent cancer compared to conventional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The study, which will be presented at Rheumatology 2014, analysed data from almost 19,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The research examined the relationship between treatment type and new cancer cases in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had previously had cancer. It compared patients taking biologics with those who had never taken these drugs.