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Researchers describe new function of HCN channels in the heart

The heartbeat is the result of rhythmic contractions of the heart muscle, which are in turn regulated by electrical signals called action potentials. Action potentials result from the controlled flow of ions into heart muscle cells (depolarization) through channels in their membranes, and are followed by a compensating reverse ion current (repolarization), which restores the original state. If the duration of the repolarization phase is not just right, the risk of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death increases significantly.

12 Sep 2011

Common genetic variant may predispose people to acute dissections

Richard Holbrooke, John Ritter, Lucille Ball, Jonathan Larson and Great Britain's King George II were all taken by the same silent killer: an acute aortic dissection. Now, scientists led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine have found an association with a common genetic variant in the population that predisposes people to acute dissections and can approximately double a person's chances of having the disease.

12 Sep 2011

Scientists identify 28 blood pressure-associated genetic variants

A new report from scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and their colleagues in centers around the world finds that common variants in 28 regions of DNA are associated with blood pressure in human patients.

12 Sep 2011

Researchers identify 29 DNA sequence variations linked with blood pressure

A study involving more than 200,000 people worldwide has identified 29 DNA sequence variations in locations across the human genome that influence blood pressure.

12 Sep 2011

Researchers discover 16 new gene regions that influence blood pressure

Findings, published today in Nature and Nature Genetics by the International Consortium for Blood Pressure Genome-Wide Association Studies represent a major advance in our understanding of the inherited influences on blood pressure and offer new potential therapeutic targets for prevention of heart disease and stroke - the biggest cause of death worldwide.

12 Sep 2011

NASA selects nine projects to investigate space radiation's effect on human explorers

NASA is funding nine proposals from eight states to investigate space radiation's effect on human explorers. The proposals from researchers in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Texas have a total value of approximately $12 million.

12 Sep 2011

Non-communicable disease epidemic a global problem

Later this month the United Nations will convene a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases. The world's global health news has been so dominated by infectious culprits - HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza - that it's easy to forget just how big a toll conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart and lung disease take say experts.

9 Sep 2011

‘Weight Watchers’ twice as effective in weight loss as standard care: Study

A new study published this Thursday shows that overweight patients told by their doctors to go to Weight Watchers lose around twice as much weight as people receiving standard weight loss care over 12 months.

9 Sep 2011

FDA panel votes 9-2 in favor of new blood thinner drug

A new stroke preventer from Bayer and Johnson & Johnson – Xarelto moved one step closer to U.S. approval, but questions remained about restrictions on labeling and the need for more studies.

9 Sep 2011

NIH awards $12.8 million renewal grant for Louisville adult stem cell research project

At the time when Dr. Roberto Bolli received word that he was awarded a $12.8 million grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health for one research project, five patients in another of his clinical trials at the University of Louisville have reached the successful endpoint of their participation.

9 Sep 2011

Researchers create powerful anti-diabetic prototype drugs with lesser side effects

Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla., report they have created prototype drugs having powerful anti-diabetic effects, yet apparently free - at least in mice - of dangerous side effects plaguing some current diabetes medications.

9 Sep 2011

Autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells

Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have discovered that an ancient pathway called autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells.

9 Sep 2011

U.N. member states reach tentative agreement on NCD declaration

U.N. member state representatives recently reached an agreement "on a political declaration document for the 19 September U.N. high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)," although the document is "somewhat watered down from an original version," ScienceInsider reports (Reardon, 9/7).

9 Sep 2011

Longer looks: Unknowns in sports medicine; shackling pregnant prisoners

Medical experts say that multiple futile treatments is all too familiar and points to growing problems in sports medicine, a medical subspecialty that has been experiencing explosive growth. now researchers are questioning many of the procedures, including new ones that often have no rigorous studies to back them up. "Patients come in and say, 'I want the same thing that Tiger Woods had,' " said Dr. McDevitt, the sports medicine orthopedist in Maryland.

9 Sep 2011

InnoCentive, JDRF announce $100,000 Challenge to uncover solutions for insulin-dependent diabetes

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the worldwide leader for research to cure, treat, and prevent type 1 diabetes, and InnoCentive, Inc., the pioneer in open innovation and crowdsourcing, today announced a $100,000 Challenge calling for innovative ways to approach the discovery and development of a glucose-responsive insulin drug as a means to treat insulin-dependent diabetes.

9 Sep 2011

Blood levels of FGF-23 can help predict CKD patients at risk of heart problems

The blood levels of a particular hormone can help predict which kidney disease patients will develop heart problems, need dialysis, and die prematurely, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

9 Sep 2011

Mary Ann Liebert launches Games for Health Industry Insider

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers announces the launch of Games for Health Industry Insider , a new bi-weekly electronic newsletter offering up-to-the-minute industry news on health games-an emerging and increasingly adopted resource for healthcare.

9 Sep 2011

Weight Watchers more effective alternative to primary care for obese adults

A new, one-year global study published today in The Lancet indicates that overweight and obese adults referred to Weight Watchers, a community based provider of weight-loss services, lost more than twice as much weight when compared with those who received standard care.

9 Sep 2011

UOHI team identifies that autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells

Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have discovered that an ancient pathway called autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells.

9 Sep 2011

HJF selects three promising USU doctoral students to receive 2011-12 fellowships

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. has selected three promising Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) doctoral students to receive fellowships for the 2011-12 academic year.

9 Sep 2011