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Physiologists use new method to identify two odorant receptors in live mice

A group of physiologists led by University of Kentucky's Tim McClintock have identified the receptors activated by two odors using a new method that tracks responses to smells in live mice.

2 Dec 2014

Co-enzyme Q supplement lowers age-associated damage that leads to heart disease

New research involving rats, and published in the December 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, suggests that if you were born at a low birth weight, supplemental co-enzyme Q (CoQ) may lower your risk for heart disease.

2 Dec 2014

New blood test could help detect cold-related asthma risk

People who have asthma generally suffer worse with colds caused by rhinoviruses than other people do. There are also asthmatics and patients with the severe lung condition COPD in whom the cold virus can trigger serious flare-ups of their condition. A team of researchers from the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research at the MedUni Vienna has now discovered how this risk group can be filtered out using a blood test.

2 Dec 2014

SPLUNC1 protein binds to pulmonary lipids to fight lung infection

Scientists have taken an important step toward a new class of antibiotics aimed at stopping lung infections. They found that a protein found in large airways, called "SPLUNC1," binds to lipids critical to defending against bacterial and viral infections, as well as keeping lung tissue flexible and hydrated.

2 Dec 2014

Commonly used osteoporosis medications may also prevent lung, breast and colon cancers

The most commonly used medications for osteoporosis worldwide, bisphosphonates, may also prevent certain kinds of lung, breast and colon cancers, according to two studies led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

2 Dec 2014

Kansas State University awarded patent for a series of synthetic compounds

A patent has been issued for a series of synthetic compounds developed at Kansas State University that have applications for treating cancer and other diseases that affect cell communication.

2 Dec 2014

Component of Glycyrrhiza uralensis plant may thwart development of metabolic disorders

New research published in the December 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, shows that a component found in in the plant, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, may inhibit the development of metabolic disorders by stopping the activation of NLRP3, a protein involved in the disease process.

2 Dec 2014

Variants of ASIC1a gene appear to be associated with panic disorder

Panic disorder is a severe form of anxiety in which the affected individual feels an abrupt onset of fear, often accompanied by profound physical symptoms of discomfort. Scientists have known from studying twins that genes contribute to the risk of panic disorder, but very little is known about which specific genes are involved.

2 Dec 2014

Alport syndrome: an interview with Dr Paul Grint, CMO, Regulus

Alport Syndrome was first described by a physician called Cecil Alport, back in the late 1920s. It's a genetic disease that affects a certain type of collagen involved in the functioning of the kidney, the ear, and the eye.

1 Dec 2014

VE-PTP potential treatment target for retinal and choroidal vascular diseases

Targeting vascular endothelial-protein tyrosine phosphatase, which negatively regulates TIE2 activation, could help to stabilise retinal and choroidal blood vessels, researchers report.

1 Dec 2014

Exome sequencing refines 46,XY DSD diagnosis

Exome sequencing can identify a likely genetic cause of 46,XY disorders of sex development in about a third of cases, report researchers.

1 Dec 2014

Different forms of ASIC1a gene associated with panic disorder

Panic disorder is a severe form of anxiety in which the affected individual feels an abrupt onset of fear, often accompanied by profound physical symptoms of discomfort.

1 Dec 2014

DTI may play role in assessing brain damage in early Alzheimer's disease

Changes in brain connections visible on MRI could represent an imaging biomarker of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

1 Dec 2014

New vaccine shows promise in patients with metastatic breast cancer

A breast cancer vaccine developed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is safe in patients with metastatic breast cancer, results of an early clinical trial indicate. Preliminary evidence also suggests that the vaccine primed the patients' immune systems to attack tumor cells and helped slow the cancer's progression.

1 Dec 2014

Experimental drug works best when patients' immune cells surrounding tumors express PD-L1

A promising experimental immunotherapy drug works best in patients whose immune defenses initially rally to attack the cancer but then are stymied by a molecular brake that shuts down the response, according to a new study led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Yale University School of Medicine.

28 Nov 2014

UCL research opens up new way to treat neurological disorders

The way that tetanus neurotoxin enters nerve cells has been discovered by UCL scientists, who showed that this process can be blocked, offering a potential therapeutic intervention for tetanus. This newly-discovered pathway could be exploited to deliver therapies to the nervous system, opening up a whole new way to treat neurological disorders such as motor neuron disease and peripheral neuropathies.

28 Nov 2014

Researchers discover molecular switch that triggers stress processes in the brain

At the Center for Brain Research at the MedUni Vienna an important factor for stress has been identified in collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (Sweden). This is the protein secretagogin that plays an important role in the release of the stress hormone CRH and which only then enables stress processes in the brain to be transmitted to the pituitary gland and then onwards to the organs.

28 Nov 2014

Researchers identify key molecule that drives excess protein production in Fragile X patients' brain

People affected by a common inherited form of autism could be helped by a drug that is being tested as a treatment for cancer.

27 Nov 2014

Immune-suppressing protein may predict how patients respond to treatment

The presence of an immune-suppressing protein in non-cancerous immune cells may predict how patients with different types of cancer respond to treatment, a multi-center phase I study using an investigational immune therapy drug has found.

27 Nov 2014

Plymouth professor awarded grant to find effective treatment for patients with mantle cell lymphoma

Professor Simon Rule, Professor in Haematology at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and Consultant Haematologist at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, has been awarded a significant grant by Cancer Research UK to carry out a research study into the treatment of older patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

27 Nov 2014