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Discovery opens door to preventing diet-induced heart disease

Four years ago, Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, Chair of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and colleagues made a landmark discovery linking intestinal bacteria to heart disease. His team found that when our digestive systems digest the nutrients carnitine and choline (abundant in red meat and eggs, respectively), a bacterial waste product called TMAO is formed. They showed that high levels of TMAO are associated with higher rates of heart attack, stroke and cardiac death.

14 Feb 2016

NTU Singapore scientists develop small smart chip to improve wireless transmission of brain signals

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore have developed a small smart chip that can be paired with neural implants for efficient wireless transmission of brain signals.

14 Feb 2016

Multimodal MRI recommended to prevent brain mass misdiagnosis

T2*-weighted gradient recalled echo or susceptibility-weighted imaging sequences should be performed during the diagnosis of brain masses to rule out pseudotumoural presentation of cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation, say researchers.

12 Feb 2016

Left ventricular tissue phase mapping predicts PAH outcomes

A tissue phase mapping study shows that left ventricular function is abnormal in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and is linked to clinical outcomes.

12 Feb 2016

Worsening migraine no reason to halt dihydroergotamine infusion

Worsening of headache during intravenous dihydroergotamine treatment for chronic migraine does not mean that the therapy will be unsuccessful, say researchers.

12 Feb 2016

Astrocytes implicated in preclinical AD

Astrocytes are activated in the brains of people with autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease long before symptoms appear and even before amyloidosis begins, a study shows.

12 Feb 2016

Trial adds piece to stroke rehabilitation puzzle

High-intensity, repetitive, task-focused upper extremity training does not offer benefits beyond standard rehabilitation for patients within the first few months after a stroke, shows a trial in JAMA.

12 Feb 2016

Dementia decline heralds hope of reduced burden

Analysis of participants in the Framingham Heart Study has shown a decline in dementia over a period of 3 decades.

12 Feb 2016

Anti-TNF therapy linked to ‘modest’ extra SCC risk

A Swedish population-based study shows that treatment with tumour necrosis factor inhibitors significantly increases the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma, but not basal cell carcinoma, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

12 Feb 2016

People with sleep apnea have low levels of GABA and high levels of glutamate

One in 15 adults has moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which a person's breathing is frequently interrupted during sleep -- as many as 30 times per hour.

12 Feb 2016

TSRI scientists receive $1.7 million NIH grant to find new target for treating Huntington's disease

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have won nearly $1.7 million from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to investigate the mechanisms that contribute to Huntington's disease, a fatal inherited disease that some have described as having ALS, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's--at the same time.

12 Feb 2016

MGH study reveals effects of obesity on pancreatic and breast cancer

Massachusetts General Hospital investigators may have uncovered a novel mechanism behind the ability of obesity to promote cancer progression. In their report published online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, the research team describes finding an association between obesity and an overabundance of a factor called PlGF (placental growth factor) and that PlGF's binding to its receptor VEGFR-1, which is expressed on immune cells within tumors, promotes tumor progression.

12 Feb 2016

Silicon Biosystems Menarini, Macrogen to jointly develop genomic cancer tests

Silicon Biosystems Menarini and Macrogen, Inc. today announced they will form a partnership to provide clinical assays and innovative procedures for precision medicine in cancer.

12 Feb 2016

Distinctive gene 'signature' may lead to new way to diagnose Lyme disease

Researchers at UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins may have found a new way to diagnose Lyme disease, based on a distinctive gene "signature" they discovered in white blood cells of patients infected with the tick-borne bacteria.

12 Feb 2016

Transition from milk-based diet to family food impacts Infants’ gut bacteria

It is the transition to eating the family's food and not the weight of the mother that has the greatest impact on the composition of gut bacteria in nine-month-old children.

12 Feb 2016

Atypical heart attack symptoms lead to delayed treatment, increased injury in women

When having a heart attack, most people will experience some kind of chest pain or pressure that worsens. Pain and pressure, along with sweating, shortness of breath and pain that migrates into the arms or neck are the typical heart attack symptoms.

12 Feb 2016

Mechanistic understanding of sneezing can help map spread of infections

Here's some incentive to cover your mouth the next time you sneeze: New high-speed videos captured by MIT researchers show that as a person sneezes, they launch a sheet of fluid that balloons, then breaks apart in long filaments that destabilize, and finally disperses as a spray of droplets, similar to paint that is flung through the air.

12 Feb 2016