Health News

Researchers identify novel marker and possible therapeutic target for cardiovascular calcification

Date: Mar-17-2014
Cardiovascular calcification (deposits of minerals in heart valves and blood vessels) is a primary contributor to heart disease, the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Surprising role played by 'velcro protein' in cell migration

Date: Mar-17-2014
Studying epithelial cells, the cell type that most commonly turns cancerous, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a protein that causes cells to release from their neighbors and migrate away from healthy mammary, or breast, tissue in mice. They also found that deletion of a cellular "Velcro protein" does not cause the single-celled migration expected. Their results, they say, help clarify the molecular changes required for cancer cells to metastasize.Because epithelial cells give rise to 85 percent of all cancers, the work may have implications outside of breast cancer.

Effective therapeutics for inflammatory bowel diseases may hinge on targeting GM-CSF axis

Date: Mar-17-2014
The protein GM-CSF plays a critical role in maintaining immune tolerance in the gut, with defects in the protein increasing the susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), according to a new mouse study by a team of researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. IBD is a severe intestinal disease characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation that results from a dysregulated immune response to microbes and food antigens.

Technique able to analyze conformations of complex molecular machines

Date: Mar-17-2014
Open, feed, cut. Such is the humdrum life of a motor molecule, the subject of new research at Rice University, that eats and excretes damaged proteins and turns them into harmless peptides for disposal.The why is obvious: Without these trash bins, the Escherichia coli bacteria they serve would die. And thanks to Rice, the how is becoming clearer.Biophysicists at Rice used the miniscule machine - a protease called an FtsH-AAA hexameric peptidase - as a model to test calculations that combine genetic and structural data.

Brain damage caught in the act

Date: Mar-17-2014
Scientists have uncovered how inflammation and lack of oxygen conspire to cause brain damage in conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease.The discovery, published in Neuron, brings researchers a step closer to finding potential targets to treat neurodegenerative disorders.Chronic inflammation and hypoxia, or oxygen deficiency, are hallmarks of several brain diseases, but little was known about how they contribute to symptoms such as memory loss.The study used state-of-the-art techniques that reveal the movements of microglia, the brain's resident immune cells.

Select rheumatoid arthritis patients can safely undergo same-day double knee replacement

Date: Mar-17-2014
Same-day bilateral knee replacement surgery is safe for select patients with rheumatoid arthritis, researchers from Hospital for Special Surgery in New York have found.Generally, patients with an inflammatory systemic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are sicker than patients with the degenerative condition osteoarthritis (OA), says senior study author Mark Figgie, M.D., chief of the Surgical Arthritis Service at Hospital for Special Surgery, and the hospital's first Allan E. Inglis, MD, Chair in Surgical Arthritis.

Nerve transfer surgery improved by simple electromyography testing

Date: Mar-17-2014
A study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) finds that electromyography (EMG) testing to determine the quality of donor nerves can improve the outcome of nerve transfer surgery to restore function in patients with a brachial plexus injury. EMG is a sophisticated test used to objectively measure muscle and nerve function.The paper, "Does Pre-operative Donor Nerve Electromyography Predict Nerve Transfer Outcomes?" was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in New Orleans.

Surgery outcomes for pancreatic cancer presented at Society of Surgical Oncology Cancer Symposium

Date: Mar-17-2014
Despite the benefits of surgery for early stage pancreatic cancer, it remains under-utilized for patients with this deadly disease, according to a new national analysis of trends and outcomes. Physician-scientists at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine presented their findings and strategies to increase rates at the Society of Surgical Oncology Cancer Symposium in Phoenix.

Molecular mechanism discovered that actively regulates the process of forgetting

Date: Mar-17-2014
In order to function properly, the human brain requires the ability not only to store but also to forget: Through memory loss, unnecessary information is deleted and the nervous system retains its plasticity. A disruption of this process can lead to serious mental disorders. Basel scientists have now discovered a molecular mechanism that actively regulates the process of forgetting. The renowned scientific journal "Cell" has published their results.The human brain is build in such a way, that only necessary information is stored permanently - the rest is forgotten over time.

Forecasting psychosis risk

Date: Mar-17-2014
Only one third of individuals identified as being at clinical high risk for psychosis actually convert to a psychotic disorder within a 3 year follow-up period. This risk assessment is based on the presence of sub-threshold psychotic-like symptoms.Thus, clinical symptom criteria alone do not predict future psychosis risk with sufficient accuracy to justify aggressive early intervention, especially with medications such as antipsychotics that produce significant side effects.