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Erection problems may signal serious heart disease

Erectile dysfunction is always a matter of the heart, but new research shows that more than romance is at stake. Two new studies of men with type 2 diabetes found that erectile dysfunction (ED) was a powerful early warning sign for serious heart disease, including heart attack and death.

19 May 2008

Rochester vaccine triggers immune response, prevents Alzheimer's

A vaccine created by University of Rochester Medical Center scientists prevents the development of Alzheimer's disease-like pathology in mice without causing inflammation or significant side effects.

19 May 2008

deCODE discovers novel genetic links between pigmentation traits and risk of skin cancer

In two papers published today, deCODE scientists and academic colleagues from Europe and the U.S. expand upon the company's recent findings in the genetics of pigmentation traits in people of European descent, and demonstrate that certain of these common variants also confer risk of two types of skin cancer.

19 May 2008

Nurse-administered prevention and management strategies can decrease incidence of lymphedema and improve quality of life in patients

A poster session presented by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at the Oncology Nurses Society 33rd Annual Congress, found that early nursing intervention and implementation of effective strategies can lead to a decrease in the incidence of lymphedema, better management of chronic lymphedema and improved quality of life in breast cancer patients.

19 May 2008

New dimension discovered in body clock rhythm

Research on what makes the body clock tick has led Dr Michael Hastings of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge to discover a new and unanticipated cog in the human body clock. A patent for the compound involved has been filed by MRC Technology. The results, published in Science, could lead to therapies for people whose sleep is disrupted by shift work or old age.

18 May 2008

Bird flu pandemic would require multi-drug approach

Scientists have uncovered a change in the H5N1 bird flu virus which makes it resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. The mutation in the N1 component was found in human cases of the disease and suggests that a single drug approach is likely to be ineffective in case of a bird flu pandemic in humans. The findings by a team at the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research are published in Nature.

15 May 2008

Scientists unravel how smoking causes cancer

Scientists have for the first time pinpointed a protein that explains how smoking can directly lead to genetic changes that cause cancer - research published in the British Journal of Cancer reveals.

15 May 2008

First evidence of native dendritic cells in brain

In a finding that has the potential to change the way researchers think about the brain, scientists at Rockefeller University have found dendritic cells where they've never been seen before: among this organ's neurons and connective cells.

15 May 2008

Arsenic-based agent shown to help eradicate leukemia-initiating cells

In both leukemia and solid tumors, there exists among the multitude of warrior cancer cells a small subgroup that work undercover, patiently lying in wait to launch their attacks. Known as either cancer initiating cells (CICs) or leukemia initiating cells (LICs), these stealth populations are impervious to conventional chemotherapy and undaunted by targeted cancer therapies. When a leukemia patient relapses following a period of remission, it is the LICs that bear responsibility for the disease's reemergence.

12 May 2008

Scientists identify heat sensing regulator - better understanding pain sensitivity

Neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins are a step closer to understanding pain sensitivity - specifically why it's variable instead of constant - having identified a gene that regulates a heat-activated molecular sensor.

12 May 2008

Molecular pathway in muscle helps explain effectiveness of diabetes interventions

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), demonstrate for the first time in a mouse model that skeletal muscle cells cultured in a low-calorie environment refrain from differentiating, an energy-demanding process by which cells mature and specialize.

12 May 2008

Ancient protein myosin 2 offers clues to killer condition

More than 600 million years of evolution has taken two unlikely distant cousins - turkeys and scallops - down very different physical paths from a common ancestor. But University of Leeds researchers have found that a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both creatures.

12 May 2008

Model shows how mutation tips biochemistry to cause Alzheimer's

Your fate can be determined by tiny events. Imagine you live in the city and you walk everywhere to get exercise - you are healthy and not afraid of getting mugged. You almost never eat breakfast so you don't stop at the donut shop on the way to work, until one day the manager replaces the girl at the counter with her pretty red-haired younger sister. This seemingly unimportant change in your world is just enough to overcome your ability to resist high-fat temptation. A million donuts later, your cholesterol level surges and then your heart gives out. Curse you, little red-haired girl!

12 May 2008

New clues into how preeclampsia may surface in some pregnancies

The COMT gene - known already for its role in schizophrenia - has been found to play a role in preeclampsia, according to a report in the advance on-line issue of Nature.

11 May 2008

Fruit fly avoidance mechanism could lead to new ways to control pain in humans

At first, fruit flies eat like horses. Hatching inside over-ripe fruit where they were laid, they feed wildly in the sugar-rich environment until nature sends them an offer they can't refuse. To survive, they must leave the fruit, wander off and burrow into the earth where they avoid food as if it were poison. Only then can the larvae grow and hatch into flies that will take wing to lay their own eggs.

11 May 2008

New theory suggests how hepatitis C may cause rare immune disease

Of the hepatitis alphabet, the C variant may be the nastiest. In 1990, researchers observed that most patients with hepatitis C also develop a rare autoimmune disease called mixed cryoglobulinemia, a condition that frequently leads to cancer, arthritis or both.

10 May 2008

Researchers step closer to finding ways to treat type 1 diabetes

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis working with diabetic mice have examined in unprecedented detail the immune cells long thought to be responsible for type 1 diabetes.

9 May 2008

FDA approves new formulation of genetically engineered version of Factor VIIa plasma protein

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new formulation of the genetically engineered version of Factor VIIa, a plasma protein essential for the clotting of blood. The new formulation allows the product to be stored at room temperature (up to 81 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to two years.

9 May 2008

Study affirms effectiveness of medication for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that strikes children between the ages of newborn to 16 years. All children with JRA have joint pain, stiffness, and swelling and some also have fever and skin rashes.

9 May 2008

Human cytomegalovirus mimics human protein to hijack cell division machinery

Viruses are masters of deception, duping their host's cells into helping them grow and spread. A new study has found that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can mimic a common regulatory protein to hijack normal cell growth machinery, disrupting a cell's primary anti-cancer mechanism.

8 May 2008