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Blackcurrants the best fruit of all

Researchers in the UK say when it comes to health giving properties the blackcurrant is more nutritious than any other fruit.

20 Jun 2007

Foie gras can speed amyloid development

University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine professor and researcher Alan Solomon, M.D., director of the Human Immunology and Cancer/Alzheimer's Disease and Amyloid-Related Disorders Research Program, led a team that discovered a link between foie gras prepared from goose or duck liver and the type of amyloid found in rheumatoid arthritis or tuberculosis.

19 Jun 2007

New target for therapies for retinopathy

A protein long thought to be one of the body's supporting players has quietly been taking a lead role in healthy eyesight, a discovery that could rapidly lead to treatments for babies born before their eyes are finished growing, University of Florida and Harvard Medical School researchers have found.

19 Jun 2007

How 'memory' T cells protect the body from viral diseases

A scientific discovery by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers helps explain how 'memory' T cells protect the body from viral diseases.

19 Jun 2007

New Yorkers exposed to hepatitis C during surgery

Health authorities in New York are warning 4,500 people that they may have been exposed to hepatitis C.

18 Jun 2007

Starving Listeria bug of oxygen makes it turn nasty

If the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria behind food poisoning are starved of oxygen, they are liable to turn really nasty according to research published in the online journal BMC Microbiology.

17 Jun 2007

Gastric bypass surgery gets people 'drunk' faster

An Oprah Winfrey-inspired study done by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has found that patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery to lose weight will get drunk faster and take longer to get sober.

17 Jun 2007

New research in animals uncovers another mechanism of cholesterol lowering drug ezetimibe

It had previously been thought that the drug works by preventing cells in the intestine from absorbing cholesterol. The new research suggests that Zetia also works in the liver.

17 Jun 2007

New era of treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

Three new drugs for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have ushered in a new era of treatment for this difficult and debilitating condition.

16 Jun 2007

The big donor shortage

Associate Professor Catherine Waldby of the University of Sydney looks at the fraught and often frightening world of organ donation in an opinion piece.

16 Jun 2007

Nanosized bioceramic particles could function as efficient gene delivery vehicles with target specificity for the spleen

A detailed comparison of different types of ceramic nanoparticles has found that those made of silica can efficiently transport therapeutic genes to the spleen and trigger a potent immune response capable of attacking tumors.

14 Jun 2007

Quantum dots outline brain tumors for surgical removal

Although surgical removal of a tumor can be the most effective way of treating brain cancer, neurosurgeons are often faced with the dilemma of determining the exact border between a tumor and the healthy tissue that surrounds it.

14 Jun 2007

New target for Type 2 diabetes

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a potential new target for treating type 2 diabetes, according to a new study that appeared online this week in Nature.

14 Jun 2007

Cancer death rates remain high decades after exposure to arsenic

Death rates from lung and bladder cancer remained high decades after residents in northern Chile were exposed to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water, according to a new study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Pontificia Universidad Cat'lica de Chile in Santiago.

14 Jun 2007

New contributor to aggressive cancers

Mutations in the cell adhesion molecule known as integrin alpha 7 (integrin 7) lead to unchecked tumor cell proliferation and a significantly higher incidence in cancer spread, or metastasis, in several cancer cell lines, report researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

8 Jun 2007

New regulator of fat metabolism identified

Over the past several years, animal studies have shown that high-fat, low-carbohydrate “ketogenic” diets cause demonstrable changes in metabolism and subsequent weight loss.

8 Jun 2007

New understanding of anti-malarial drug resistance

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say they are moving closer to understanding why the most lethal form of human malaria has become resistant to drug treatment in the past three decades.

8 Jun 2007

Lack of sun, low vitamin D and the elderly

It's not yet clear why overweight elderly adults have low levels of vitamin D in their blood.

8 Jun 2007

In mice, drug protects against diabetes and atherosclerosis

Blocking a single protein with an experimental drug prevented and treated both type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis in laboratory mice that had been fed unhealthy diets and were genetically predisposed to these common killers, according to an article published online in Nature.

8 Jun 2007

Singapore too finds poison Chinese toothpaste

Singapore is the latest country to question China's food safety standards after Chinese-made toothpaste was found to contain diethylene glycol, or DEG, a poisonous chemical used in solvents and anti-freeze.

7 Jun 2007