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Immune cells from healthy individuals effectively kill cancer cells

Immune cells from healthy individuals can be the new immune cure for cancer. This treatment can kill cancer cells without destroying neighbouring cells. The hope is to eradicate cancer for ever.

3 Feb 2012

Breastfeeding may improve lung function in school age children of asthmatic mothers

Breastfeeding is associated with improved lung function at school age, particularly in children of asthmatic mothers, according to a new study from researchers in Switzerland and the UK.

3 Feb 2012

Researchers reveal how antipsychotics affect metabolism by SMAD3 activation

In a paper published January 31 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) reveal how antipsychotic drugs interfere with normal metabolism by activating a protein called SMAD3, an important part of the transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) pathway.

2 Feb 2012

Sugar should be controlled to protect public health: UCSF

Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers, who maintain in a new report that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

2 Feb 2012

Multiple exposures to anesthesia associated with higher rates of ADHD in children

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that multiple exposures to anesthesia at a young age are associated with higher rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

2 Feb 2012

Poor quality vaccination campaigns, lack of government commitment helping polio spread in Chad

"Poor-quality emergency immunization campaigns and low routine polio immunization coverage are helping the polio virus to spread in Chad, with 132 cases reported in 2011 -- five times the number in 2010," IRIN reports.

2 Feb 2012

First large study to establish link between infection and stroke in children

Common infections in children pose a high risk of ischemic stroke, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012.

1 Feb 2012

Cystic fibrosis drug gets FDA approval

A drug – the first of its kind - that treats the root cause of cystic fibrosis won approval Tuesday. This could be a ray of hope for patients with the deadly illness and broader hope for thousands more patients with the inherited disease.

1 Feb 2012

First signs of atherosclerotic heart disease may appear in early childhood

When we think about people with heart disease we usually think about middle-aged men. In reality, atherosclerotic heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in North America, but its impact starts much earlier than adulthood. Though children will rarely, if ever, have overt symptoms of atherosclerosis, the first signs of this disease appear in early childhood and perhaps even before birth.

1 Feb 2012

Coroners more likely to hold inquests for childhood deaths from complications of medical care

Coroners are more likely to hold inquests for deaths involving younger people or people who died of fatal complications from medical care, according to a study published in CMAJ.

1 Feb 2012

Fish intake can help pregnant women improve their progeny's intelligence

Can pregnant women improve their progeny's intelligence by eating fish? A study recently submitted to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and coordinated by the University of Granada professor Cristina Campoy Folgoso revealed that infants born to mothers who consumed more fish during pregnancy score higher in verbal intelligence and fine motor skill tests, and present an increased prosocial behavior.

1 Feb 2012

Opinion pieces, blog react to new public-private NTD initiative

Pharmaceutical company heads and global health leaders gathered at a conference on Monday in London to announce the formation of a large public-private partnership to fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and endorse the "London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases", in which they pledged to work together and track progress.

1 Feb 2012

ASM to publish special commentaries on NSABB and H5N1 research

In response to recent actions of the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which recommended that two scientific journals withhold crucial details in upcoming reports about experiments with a novel strain of the bird flu virus, H5N1, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) will publish a special series of commentaries by prominent scientists, including the acting chair of the NSABB, weighing in on whether the recommendations were necessary and what role biosecurity considerations should play in the dissemination of research findings.

1 Feb 2012

Majority of children can safely quit anti-rejection drugs after liver transplant from parents

Physicians at three transplant centers have found in a pilot study that a majority of children who receive liver tissue from a parent can eventually stop using immunosuppression (anti-rejection) medications safely. These drugs, which tamp down natural immune function, have been linked to a bevy of complications, including cancer, diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure.

1 Feb 2012

Study demonstrates safety of weight reduction surgery in morbidly obese adolescents

Today, about one in five children in the United States are obese. That means that in just one generation alone the number of obese kids in this country has quadrupled.

1 Feb 2012

Medicaid: Judge halts Calif. cuts

Cuts to state Medicaid programs are in the news: A federal judge on Monday stopped cuts to California's Medicaid program, and state lawmakers in Nebraska are offering a bill to stop Medicaid cuts in their state.

1 Feb 2012

Specific gene mutation triggers development of NAFLD

A team of scientists from the University of Utah and the University of California at San Francisco has discovered that the mutation of a gene encoding a ketone body transporter triggers accumulation of fat and other lipids in the livers of zebrafish.

1 Feb 2012

Most young people do not receive emergency mental health assessment after deliberate self-harm

A national study of Medicaid data shows most young people who present to emergency departments with deliberate self-harm are discharged to the community, without receiving an emergency mental health assessment.

1 Feb 2012

Link between maternal nurturing and size of hippocampus in healthy children

School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress. The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children's brain anatomy are linked to a mother's nurturing.

31 Jan 2012

Oral HPV infection more common in men than women: Study

According to a new US study, oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is more common among men than women, leading to an increased risk for men of head and neck cancers. HPV causes the majority of cervical cancers, as well as genital and anal - and head and neck cancers.

31 Jan 2012