Health News

New strategies for the treatment of psoriasis

Date: Mar-03-2014
Drugs against newly identified targets might be developed with potentially fewer side effectsAlmost ten years ago, the group led by Erwin Wagner, currently at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), developed genetically modified mice showing symptoms very reminiscent to psoriasis. After publishing this discovery in Nature, the researchers decided to use this mouse model to study the underlying molecular pathways involved in disease development, and to look for innovative and efficient therapies.

Getting to the root of pulmonary hypertension by zooming in on arteries

Date: Mar-03-2014
You might think building muscle is a good thing, but that's often not so in the case of blood vessels in adults. In fact, excess smooth muscle is a root problem in many vascular diseases, as it causes arteries to constrict and blood pressure to rise. Now, an in-depth analysis of arterioles in mice with pulmonary hypertension explains how those misplaced smooth muscle cells develop.

The journey of Native Americans and how they survived the last Ice Age: new clues offered by fossils

Date: Mar-03-2014
Researchers have discovered how Native Americans may have survived the last Ice Age after splitting from their Asian relatives 25,000 years ago.Academics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Universities of Colorado and Utah have analysed fossils which revealed that the ancestors of Native Americans may have set up home in a region between Siberia and Alaska which contained woody plants that they could use to make fires.

What are the health benefits of milk?

Date: Mar-03-2014
Milk has long been associated with good health and is one of the most consumed beverages throughout the US and Europe. It is thought that the ability to digest the milk sugar lactose beyond infancy first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe around 7500 years ago. Popular sayings and slogans such as "Milk: it does a body good" and "Got Milk?" have brought milk into the mainstream media and further propelled the notion of milk being a healthful choice.

Cancer vaccine could use immune system to fight tumors

Date: Mar-03-2014
Cincinnati Cancer Center (CCC) and UC Cancer Institute researchers have found that a vaccine, targeting tumors that produce a certain protein and receptor responsible for communication between cells and the body's immune system, could initiate the immune response to fight cancer.These findings, published in the online edition of the journal Gene Therapy, build on previously reported research and could lead to new treatments for cancer.

New method identifies working copies of genes in human cells; could improve early diagnosis of sick tissues

Date: Mar-03-2014
In biology, as in real estate, location matters. Working copies of active genes -- called messenger RNAs or mRNAs -- are positioned strategically throughout living tissues, and their location often helps regulate how cells and tissues grow and develop. But to analyze many mRNAs simultaneously, scientists have had to grind cells to a pulp, which left them no good way to pinpoint where those mRNAs sat within the cell.

Dietary supplement improves health and prolongs life in mice

Date: Mar-03-2014
Activating a protein called sirtuin 1 extends lifespan, delays the onset of age-related metabolic diseases, and improves general health in mice. The findings, which appear online in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports, point to a potentially promising strategy for improving health and longevity.Sirtuin 1, or SIRT1, is known to play an important role in maintaining metabolic balance in multiple tissues, and studies in various organisms have shown that activating the protein can lead to many health benefits.

Anti-retroviral therapy: why and how it works even against HIV cell-to-cell transmission

Date: Mar-03-2014
The discovery of direct cell-to-cell transmission of HIV, and the finding that some anti-HIV drugs don't seem active against virus that spreads that way, have caused questions and concern. A study published in PLOS Pathogens tested a panel of anti-HIV drugs for their ability to suppress cell-to-cell transmission of the virus. The results reveal differences between different drugs, explain why and how anti-retroviral therapy (ART) does work, and have implications for the prevention of drug resistance as well as the development of new effective anti-HIV drugs.

Why autism is more common in males

Date: Mar-03-2014
Males are at greater risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), than females, but the underlying reasons have been unclear. A large cohort study published by Cell Press on in the American Journal of Human Genetics provides compelling evidence in support of the "female protective model," which proposes that females require more extreme genetic mutations than do males to push them over the diagnostic threshold for neurodevelopmental disorders.

First comprehensive mapping of the most developed region of the mammalian brain: the cerebral cortex

Date: Mar-03-2014
Different brain regions must communicate with each other to control complex thoughts and behaviors, but relatively little is known about how these areas organize into broad neuronal networks. In a study published by Cell Press in the journal Cell, researchers developed a mouse whole-brain atlas that reveals hundreds of neuronal pathways in a brain structure called the cerebral cortex.