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Genetic variations contribute to a person's risk for nicotine dependence

Americans are bombarded with antismoking messages, yet at least 65 million of us continue to light up. Genetic factors play an important role in this continuing addiction to cigarettes, suggest scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

18 Feb 2007

Where you live influences risk of heart attack or stroke

Sure you think about diet and exercise as key to heart disease prevention. But what about the neighborhood you live in?

18 Feb 2007

Enzyme important in fetal heart-cell failure - findings provide new targets for treatment

In almost all forms of heart failure, the heart begins to express genes that are normally only expressed in the fetal heart. Researchers have known for years that this fetal-gene reactivation happens, yet not what regulates it.

18 Feb 2007

The present and future for influenza vaccines

The near inevitability that influenza will explode into a pandemic in the coming few years has kept researchers searching for a way to prevent the worst effects of infection. The ultimate prize is a highly effective vaccine that could be produced and deployed rapidly.

18 Feb 2007

Researchers replace organ in mice using 'single-parent' stem cells

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have derived uniparental embryonic stem cells - created from a single donor's eggs or two sperm - and, for the first time, successfully used them to repopulate a damaged organ with healthy cells in adult mice.

18 Feb 2007

Novel spray method for delivering tuberculosis vaccine

Bioengineers and public health researchers at Harvard University have developed a novel spraying method for delivering the most common tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, providing a new low-cost and scaleable technique that offers needle-free delivery and greater stability at room temperature than existing methods.

18 Feb 2007

Problems of the U.S. healthcare system are growing

The United States is the only major industrialised nation without universal health insurance, writes Karen Davis, President of the Commonwealth Fund. Coverage varies widely between states and has deteriorated in recent years.

18 Feb 2007

New drugs trials could slash treatment times

The current incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis are severely straining the capacity of some National Tuberculosis Control Programmes to successfully administer the WHO recommended standard six-month regimen.

18 Feb 2007

Watercress shows anti-cancer potential

Eating watercress daily can significantly reduce DNA damage to blood cells, which is considered to be an important trigger in the development of cancer, University of Ulster scientists revealed.

18 Feb 2007

Nasal spray vaccine gives kids more protection from flu than shots

In a new study involving thousands of children across the world, a new version of the nasal spray vaccine FluMist has been found to be more effective at preventing influenza than traditional flu shots.

18 Feb 2007

HIV protein TAT used to pull protein Bim into cancer cells - helps kill cancer cells

Cancer cells are sick, but they keep growing because they don't react to internal signals urging them to die. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found an efficient way to get a messenger into cancer cells that forces them to respond to death signals. And they did it using one of the most sinister pathogens around - HIV.

15 Feb 2007

Drug montelukast reduces trips to doctor for childhood asthma attacks

Young children with attacks of sporadic, recurring asthma who were treated with the prescription drug montelukast by their parents had fewer unscheduled trips to the doctor, missed less days from school or childcare, and caused their parents to take fewer days off work for their care.

15 Feb 2007

Slow-release morphine helps chronic persistent cough

Slow-release morphine helped a group of patients with long-term, treatment-resistant chronic cough reduce their daily cough score levels by 40 percent.

15 Feb 2007

New Kaiser Permanente research aims to reveal genetic and environmental causes behind deadly and disabling diseases

The Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research is launching one of the largest research projects in the United States to examine the genetic and environmental factors that influence common diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, asthma and many others.

15 Feb 2007

Mechanism driving iron overload in thalassemia identified

Led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, an international group of scientists has pinpointed a specific genetic relationship as the cause of dangerous iron overload in persons with a form of the inherited blood disease, beta-thalassemia.

14 Feb 2007

Marijuana gives relief from chronic pain for AIDS sufferers

Researchers have found that people suffering from chronic foot pain as a result of the AIDS virus gained relief from smoking marijuana.

14 Feb 2007

New oral blood thinner

A new oral blood thinner is being compared to an old standby to see if it works as well and is easier to manage long term, researchers say.

13 Feb 2007

Dipeptidyl peptidase I critical for early growth of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Surgery is the only treatment for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weak spot in the body's main artery that dilates dangerously over time.

13 Feb 2007

People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds worse off following heart attack

People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who suffer a heart attack come to the emergency department more often, are less likely to be treated aggressively and have higher mortality rates a year after the attack, says new University of Alberta research that has important implications for access to cardiac care.

13 Feb 2007

New breast cancer drug Exemestane shows great potential to save lives

In what will be welcome news to millions of women suffering from breast cancer, trials of a new drug have found it lowers oestrogen levels in women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer and has the potential to save more than 1,000 lives a year in the UK alone.

13 Feb 2007