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Risk factors for Parkinson's disease focus of new research

A new study demonstrates that high levels of MAO-B, an enzyme that regulates nerve activity in the brain, cause Parkinson's-like symptoms in mice genetically engineered to overexpress the protein.

20 Feb 2008

Discovery of a new anticoagulant

The discovery of a new anticoagulant with promising therapeutic value is reported on the 20th of February issue of the journal PLoS ONE1.

20 Feb 2008

Deadly E. coli bug now threatening communities outside of hospitals

Scientists are warning of the increasing threat from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria.

19 Feb 2008

Study offers insight into possible cause of lymphoma

The immune system's powerful cellular mutation and repair processes appear to offer important clues as to how lymphatic cancer develops, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this week in Nature.

18 Feb 2008

Tumor-targeting viral therapy slows neuroblastoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors

Researchers in a multi-institutional study led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center slowed the growth of two particularly stubborn solid tumor cancers - neuroblastoma and peripheral nerve sheath tumors - without harming healthy tissues by inserting instructions to inhibit tissue growth into an engineered virus, according to study results published in the February 15 Cancer Research.

18 Feb 2008

Fast food and no exercise damages the liver

Too much fast food and too little exercise can harm the liver, reveals a small study published ahead of print in the journal Gut.

18 Feb 2008

New blood test six times more effective for tuberculosis control

In a landmark study electronically published today in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a blood test for detecting TB infection, QuantiFERON(R)-TB Gold (QFT), has been shown to be six times more accurate than the conventional tuberculin skin test (TST) at predicting which tuberculosis (TB)-exposed individuals will go on to develop TB disease.

18 Feb 2008

Cholesterol-lowering drug used to block staph infections in mince

An international team of researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has blocked staph infections in mice using a drug previously tested in clinical trials as a cholesterol-lowering agent.

17 Feb 2008

New control mechanism for genetic code translation discovered in bacteria

Almost all organisms, from bacteria to human beings, share the same genetic code, a group of universal instructions used to convert DNA or RNA sequences into proteins, the "building blocks" of life.

17 Feb 2008

Scientists solve structure of gene regulator that plays key role in cancer

Scientists at The Wistar Institute have collaborated on a major advance in understanding a gene regulator that contributes to some of the deadliest cancers in humans.

14 Feb 2008

Bacterial toxin closes gate on immune response

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that a bacterial toxin from the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus shuts down the control mechanism of the tunnel, called an ion channel, in immune cell membranes.

14 Feb 2008

What do marathoners and heart failure patients have in common?

The new study shows that the fatigue that marathoners and other extreme athletes feel at the end of a race is caused by a tiny leak inside their muscles that probably also saps the energy from patients with heart failure.

12 Feb 2008

Prion infection of neurons increases the free cholesterol content in cell membranes

A new study published in the online open access journal BMC Biology suggests that disturbances in membrane cholesterol may be the mechanism by which prions cause neurodegeneration and could point to a role for cholesterol in other neurodegenerative diseases.

12 Feb 2008

Researchers find new U.S. trend in antibiotic resistance

A research team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, examining bacterial isolates obtained in hospital and non-hospital clinical settings between 2000 and 2006, has identified drug-resistant strains of E. coli and Klebsiella bacteria in more than 50 blood, urine and respiratory samples.

11 Feb 2008