Health News

'Major role' played by cohabitation in number of long-term relationships

Date: Jan-27-2014
A new national study provides surprising evidence of how cohabitation contributes to the number of long-term relationships lasting eight years or longer.It is well-known that couples who live together are much more likely to end their relationships within a short-term period than are married couples.But this new study takes a much longer view by considering relationships that last eight, 12 or even 24 years.

Gene regulation found to be dependent on protein ANP32E

Date: Jan-27-2014
A team of scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), the Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire (Strassbourg France), and the Institut Albert Bonniot (Grenoble, France) have made an important finding on how genes are regulated. This study will be released in the January 30th, 2014 print issue of the journal Nature.

Hypothesis of microtubule steering shown to be accurate

Date: Jan-26-2014
Tiny protein motors in cells can steer microtubules in the right direction through branching nerve cell structures, according to Penn State researchers who used laboratory experiments to test a model of how these cellular information highways stay organized in living cells."We proposed a model of how it works in vivo, in the living cell," said Melissa Rolls, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "But because of the complexity of the living cells, we couldn't tell if the model was possible."Rolls then collaborated with William O.

Observing the evolution of drug resistance in HIV patients

Date: Jan-26-2014
Drug resistance mutations in HIV reduce the genetic diversity in the rest of the virus genome when they spread within an infected patient, but they do so to a different extent in different patients. A new study published in PLOS Genetics, by Dr Pleuni Pennings and colleagues, found that in some patients a resistance mutation to a particular drug appeared in a single virus particle, which then rapidly proliferated until the entire viral population within the patient consisted of its progeny and was also resistant to the drug.

African-American dialysis patients with sickle cell trait require more anemia drugs

Date: Jan-26-2014
The presence of sickle cell trait among African Americans may help explain why those on dialysis require higher doses of an anemia medication than patients of other ethnicities, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Additional studies are needed to determine the long-term health consequences of this increased dosing.Sickle cell trait represents the carrier state of sickle cell disease and is present in roughly 6% to 8% of African Americans.

Greater experience causes older brains to slow down, study shows

Date: Jan-26-2014
We are all familiar with the saying "older but wiser." And new research may prove this to be true. A new study published in the journal Topics in Cognitive Science suggests that as we age, our brain functions slow down as a result of greater experience, not because of cognitive decline.According to the research team, led by Dr. Michael Ramscar of the University of Tuebingen in Germany, the reason why brains of older adults slow down is because they take longer to process constantly increasing amounts of knowledge.

Men are more forgetful than women, study shows

Date: Jan-26-2014
Men are frequently accused of forgetting birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and even something as simple as taking the trash out. But they have developed this stigma for a reason, a new study suggest - it found that men are more forgetful than women, regardless of their age.The research team, led by Prof. Jostein Holmen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, published the study findings in the journal BMC Psychology.

Finding that brain uses serotonin to perpetuate chronic pain signals in local nerves may aid development of less addictive medications

Date: Jan-26-2014
Setting the stage for possible advances in pain treatment, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland report they have pinpointed two molecules involved in perpetuating chronic pain in mice. The molecules, they say, also appear to have a role in the phenomenon that causes uninjured areas of the body to be more sensitive to pain when an area nearby has been hurt. A summary of the research was published in the journal Neuron.

Breakthrough allows scientists to probe how memories form in nerve cells

Date: Jan-26-2014
In two studies in the recent issue of Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University used advanced imaging techniques to provide a window into how the brain makes memories. These insights into the molecular basis of memory were made possible by a technological tour de force never before achieved in animals: a mouse model developed at Einstein in which molecules crucial to making memories were given fluorescent "tags" so they could be observed traveling in real time in living brain cells.

Maternal high-fat diet alters metabolism in offspring, leading to greater risk of obesity

Date: Jan-26-2014
The offspring of obese mothers consuming a high-fat diet during pregnancy are at a higher risk than the children of thin mothers for lifelong obesity, and related metabolic disorders. The molecular and cellular basis for these differences are clarified in a new study published in the recent issue of Cell by researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the University of Cologne.Conducted in mice, the study showed that the offspring of mothers who consumed a high-fat diet during lactation had abnormal neuronal circuits in the hypothalamus - a key brain region that regulates metabolism.