Health News

Reduction in utilization of deep brain stimulation treatment for Parkinson's patients in certain demographic groups

Date: Jan-07-2014
Among Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, female, black, and Asian patients are substantially less likely to receive proven deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery to improve tremors and motor symptoms, according to a new report by a Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania researcher who identified considerable disparities among Medicare recipients receiving DBS for Parkinson's disease. The study, published in Neurology, found that patients from neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status were less likely to receive DBS, regardless of race or sex.

Odor receptors discovered in lungs

Date: Jan-07-2014
Your nose is not the only organ in your body that can sense cigarette smoke wafting through the air. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Iowa have shown that your lungs have odor receptors as well.Unlike the receptors in your nose, which are located in the membranes of nerve cells, the ones in your lungs are in the membranes of neuroendocrine cells.

UT Arlington research may unlock enzyme's role in disease

Date: Jan-07-2014
A UT Arlington chemist doing National Science Foundation-funded research on enzymes that regulate human biology has uncovered characteristics that could be used to identify predisposition to conditions such as heart disease, diabetic ulcers and some types of cancer.Brad Pierce, an assistant professor of chemistry/biochemistry at The University of Texas at Arlington, recently led a team that examined an oxygen utilizing iron enzyme called cysteine dioxygenase or CDO, which is found in high levels within heart, liver, and brain tissues.

Opioid tolerance and pain hypersensitivity associated with mTOR activation

Date: Jan-07-2014
Currently, opioids are the standard treatment for chronic pain. Patients on opioids for long periods of time become desensitized to these drugs or become paradoxically hypersensitive to pain (hyperalgesia); however, the adaptive mechanisms are not well understood. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yuan-Xiang Tao and colleagues from the New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers University report that the protein mTOR, which is a global regulator of translation, plays a major role in morphine tolerance.

How invariant natural killers keep tuberculosis in check

Date: Jan-07-2014
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a major cause of death worldwide, and a formidable foe. Most healthy people can defend themselves against tuberculosis, but they need all parts of their immune system to work together. A study published on January 2nd in PLOS Pathogens reveals how a special class of immune cells called "invariant natural killer T cells" make their contribution to this concerted effort.

Online colorectal cancer risk calculator created

Date: Jan-07-2014
Researchers at Cleveland Clinic have developed a new tool called CRC-PRO that allows physicians to quickly and accurately predict an individual's risk of colorectal cancer, as published in the current edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.CRC-PRO, or Colorectal Cancer Predicted Risk Online, is designed to help both patients and physicians determine when screening for colorectal cancer is appropriate. Current guidelines recommend patients are screened at the age of 50.

The importance of sex for microbes

Date: Jan-07-2014
Caught in the act! Researchers from the University of Bristol have observed mating for the first time in the microbes responsible for African sleeping sickness. This tropical disease is caused by trypanosomes, single-celled parasites that are found in the blood of those afflicted.The Bristol team were able to see what the trypanosomes were getting up to inside the tsetse flies that carry the disease by using fluorescent markers. The microscopic beasts were seen twirling and gyrating together before joining up into one hybrid cell.

Mutation discovered with a built-in dilemma for dairy cattle breeders

Date: Jan-07-2014
Scientists have found a genomic deletion that affects fertility and milk yield in dairy cattle at the same time. The discovery can help explain a dilemma in dairy cattle breeding: the negative correlation between fertility and milk production.For the past many years milk yield in Scandinavian dairy cattle has gone in one clear direction: up. This has been due to targeted breeding programmes and modern breeding methods. Despite putting large weight in the breeding goal in Nordic countries, almost no improvement is achieved for fertility.

Scientists make advance in cancer research

Date: Jan-07-2014
A protein that has been at the centre of cancer drug design for the last 20 years should not be given up on according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).The most advanced version of αvβ3-integrin antagonists failed clinical trials to treat aggressive forms of brain cancer.But research published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation Research shows that targeting the protein in question could still be vital in stopping the growth of tumours.

Nutrition recommendations not adhered to by majority of those with metabolic syndrome

Date: Jan-07-2014
Adherence to dietary recommendations is weak among people suffering from metabolic syndrome or having increased risk for metabolic syndrome, according to the Nordic SYSDIET study led by the University of Eastern Finland. In most cases, the diet is too high in salt and saturated fat, and too low in dietary fibre and unsaturated fat. Furthermore, many don't have a sufficient intake of vitamin D. Metabolic syndrome is becoming increasingly widespread, and it is associated with an elevated risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.