Toxins News and Research

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Nausea from chemotherapy explained

A new study from the Monell Center increases understanding of the biological mechanisms responsible for the nausea and vomiting that often afflict patients undergoing chemotherapy.

4 Feb 2008

Quality control mechanism tags defective sperm cells inside the body

Defective sperm cells do not pass through the body unnoticed. A new University of Missouri study provides evidence that the body recognizes and tags defective sperm cells while they undergo maturation in the epididymis, a sperm storage gland attached to the testis.

24 Jan 2008

Cigarettes leave deadly path by purging protective genes

A University of Rochester scientist discovered that the toxins in cigarette smoke wipe out a gene that plays a vital role in protecting the body from the effects of premature aging.

24 Jan 2008

Flame retardant chemicals found in body fat of Tasmanian Devil

A wild carnivorous marsupial which only exists on the Australian island state of Tasmania has been found to have high levels of flame retardant chemicals.

23 Jan 2008

Smoking wipes out protective genes

A University of Rochester scientist discovered that the toxins in cigarette smoke wipe out a gene that plays a vital role in protecting the body from the effects of premature aging.

21 Jan 2008

New approach to cadmium induced hepatoxicity

Cadmium comes from a wide variety of sources in the environment and from industry and is extremely toxic to humans.

17 Jan 2008

Viroporins, membrane-permeabilizing proteins of the poliomyelitis virus

A research team from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid directed by Professor Luís Carrasco has published new discoveries concerning the membrane permeabilizing proteins of the polio virus.

16 Jan 2008

Gender differences in liver cancer

A fundamental difference in the way males and females respond to chronic liver disease at the genetic level helps explain why men are more prone to liver cancer, according to MIT researchers.

16 Jan 2008

Stem cells make bone marrow cancer resistant to treatment

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.

15 Jan 2008

Three-drug cocktail improves outcomes in glioblastoma multiforme

New research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center suggests that a three-drug cocktail may one day improve outcomes in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain tumor with a dismal prognosis.

2 Jan 2008

The blood-brain barrier: A misunderstood key to finding life-saving cures to brain disease

An international team of scientists that includes a Saint Louis University researcher suggest several strategies to propel research for treatments of brain diseases that include multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and stroke in the January issue of the Lancet Neurology.

20 Dec 2007

Anthrax vaccine will add to America's arsenal against bioterrorism

A company, based in Rockville, Maryland in the USA, with the help of government funding, has used the human genome to develop a vaccine that may give protection from anthrax.

19 Dec 2007

Overexcited neurons not good for cell health

Neurotransmitters have consequences. They initiate events that are critical to a healthy life, giving us the ability to move, to talk, to breathe, to think. But that's if the neurotransmitters are getting it right and sending proper signals downstream to muscle cells, neurons or other cells.

18 Dec 2007

Scientists identify and repress breast cancer stem cells in mouse tissue

By manipulating highly specific gene-regulating molecules called microRNAs, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) report that they have succeeded in singling out and repressing stem-like cells in mouse breast tissue - cells that are widely thought to give rise to cancer.

18 Dec 2007

Bacteria that cause urinary tract infections invade bladder cells

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found definitive proof that some of the bacteria that plague women with urinary tract infections (UTIs) are entrenched inside human bladder cells.

18 Dec 2007

New understanding of biological effects of alcohol on genes within cells

Alcohol triggers the activation of a variety of genes that can influence the health and activity of brain cells, and new research from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City sheds light on how that process occurs.

10 Dec 2007

sLRP1-alpha provides relief from neuropathic pain

Injury to peripheral nerves (the causes of which include shingles, HIV-AIDS, toxins, alcoholism, repetitive motion disorders, surgery, and cancer) causes neuropathic pain, which differs from ordinary pain and is usually perceived as a steady burning, pins and needles, electric shock sensations, and/or tickling.

4 Dec 2007

Tainted spinach reveals treatment possibilities

A discovery by University at Buffalo biologists that may explain the evolution of a lethal toxin is providing new information that could lead to more effective treatments for humans who fall victim to it.

3 Dec 2007

Wireless nano device for cell biology

A wireless, nano-scale voltmeter developed at the University of Michigan is overturning conventional wisdom about the physical environment inside cells.

3 Dec 2007

MRSA in the community: A new threat to children's health?

Although hospital superbugs like MRSA - methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus - are now a widespread and recognised problem, new MRSA strains that have emerged and are spreading amongst the wider public in the USA may pose a bigger threat, according to Exeter researchers speaking (Wednesday 28 November 2007) at the Federation of Infection Societies Conference 2007 at the University of Cardiff, UK, which runs from 28-30 November 2007.

27 Nov 2007