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Painkiller in saliva stronger than morphine

A team of French researchers say they have found that the human body produces a natural painkiller several times more potent than morphine.

15 Nov 2006

Stem cell therapy promises hope for muscular dystrophy victims

Italian scientists, by using new stem cell therapy on dogs with muscular dystrophy, have improved the dogs condition to such an extent that the dogs were able to walk and even jump again.

15 Nov 2006

Gender differences in heart failure

Women tend to live longer with heart failure than do men, and they also tend to have a less severe form of the disease, which is characterized by reduced performance of the heart muscle, according to a study by Duke University Medical Center cardiologists.

14 Nov 2006

Proteins may behave differently in natural environments

When in an environment similar to that in which they exist naturally, proteins and multiprotein assemblies may demonstrate actions or dynamics different than those they exhibit when in the static form in which they are most often studied, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the current issue of the journal Structure.

14 Nov 2006

Food can have an impact in preventing cancer

With cancer, researchers don't believe "you are what you eat"; that disease is always a direct result of what is, or what isn't, on your dinner plate.

14 Nov 2006

Brookhaven target new anti-SARS virus drugs

Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have set the stage for the rapid identification of compounds to fight against severe acquired respiratory syndrome (SARS), the atypical pneumonia responsible for about 800 deaths worldwide since first recognized in late 2002.

14 Nov 2006

DNA analysis could boost accuracy of thyroid tests

By fine-tuning "fine-needle aspiration" biopsies with a super-fast genetic microarray technology, a team of surgeons from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City says they can greatly enhance the accuracy of these tests.

14 Nov 2006

Scientists shed light on the roll of junk DNA

University of Iowa scientists have made a discovery that broadens understanding of a rapidly developing area of biology known as functional genomics and sheds more light on the mysterious, so-called "junk DNA" that makes up the majority of the human genome.

13 Nov 2006

New cancer treatments use body's own immune system to kill melanoma tumours

Scientists are claiming that the body's own immune system could be used to fight the most serious form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma.

13 Nov 2006

Muscle protein myosin VI involved in the development of prostate cancer

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have for the first time implicated the muscle protein myosin VI in the development of prostate cancer and its spread.

8 Nov 2006

Researchers use gene therapy to reduce the development of epileptic seizures

For the first time, researchers have inhibited the development of epilepsy after a brain insult in animals. By using gene therapy to modify signaling pathways in the brain, neurology researchers found that they could significantly reduce the development of epileptic seizures in rats.

8 Nov 2006

Inhibiting a particular cancer-causing gene improves radiation effectiveness

Inhibiting a particular cancer-causing gene can enhance the cell-killing effects of radiation, a team of radiation oncologists and cancer biologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia has found.

8 Nov 2006

Stunning breakthrough makes blind mice see again

In what is being viewed as a major breakthrough scientists are facing the very real possibility of a cure for blindness.

8 Nov 2006

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus tricks cells to become tumors

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) subverts a normal cell process in order to promote tumor growth.

8 Nov 2006

Research sheds light on episodic memory

Memories of events comprise many components--including sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. Somehow the many features of an episodic memory are woven together into a coherent whole, and researchers have had little understanding of how this binding takes place as the memories are processed by the brain's memory center, the hippocampus.

8 Nov 2006

Scientists discover how androgen plays a role in the development of prostate cancer

Scientists have discovered for the first time a specific biochemical pathway by which the sex hormone, androgen, increases levels of harmful chemicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the prostate gland that play a role in the development of prostate cancer.

8 Nov 2006

Cardiologists say a dramatic change is needed in treating some heart patients

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. a dramatic change is needed in the way hundreds of thousands of Americans with a form of heart failure should be treated.

8 Nov 2006

Researchers show brain injury may occur within one millisecond after head hits windshield

Research by a Sandia National Laboratories engineer and a University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center neurologist shows that brain injury may occur within one millisecond after a human head is thrust into a windshield as a result of a car accident.

7 Nov 2006

Survey reveals Americans disagree with Bush's abstinence-only sex education programs

A new survey in the United States has revealed that the majority of American adults, regardless of their political affiliation, support a more balanced approach to sex education in schools.

7 Nov 2006