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Slices of living human brain tissue are helping scientists identify new stroke therapies

Slices of living human brain tissue are helping scientists learn which drugs can block the waves of death that engulf and engorge brain cells following a stroke.

21 Jan 2009

First genetic map of obesity

The first genetic map of obesity has been constructed using DNA microarray technology.

21 Jan 2009

Body weight shown to affect a child's self-esteem

It's well known that within the adult population body weight and self esteem are very much inter related.

21 Jan 2009

Lou Gehrig's disease in humans has genetic links to degenerative myelopathy in dogs

An incurable, paralyzing disease in humans is now genetically linked to a similar disease in dogs.

21 Jan 2009

Protease inhibitor found to aid diabetic retinopathy treatment

Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, and ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Francisco, announced today that they have demonstrated that a specific inhibitor of the protease plasma kallikrein, ASP-440, developed by ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, may provide a new therapeutic approach for treatment of diabetic retinopathy, the most common eye-related complication of diabetes.

21 Jan 2009

Loss of sex drive after menopause affects health, quality of life

Women with low levels of sexual desire, often as a result of menopause, are more likely to be depressed and to suffer physical symptoms such as back pain and memory problems than women who report higher levels of desire, according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.

21 Jan 2009

Physicians counsel their overweight type 2 diabetes patients to lose weight - many not listening

Physicians say they are counseling their overweight type 2 diabetes patients to lose weight, but patients say that the message is not getting through, according to a new survey announced today by the Behavioral Diabetes Institute.

21 Jan 2009

Socially excluded people may act aggresively toward others

People who feel socially rejected are more likely to see others' actions as hostile and are more likely to behave in hurtful ways toward people they have never even met, according to a new study.

21 Jan 2009

New and simple urine test detects common cause of kidney transplant failure

A new and simple urine test can detect polyomavirus nephropathy, a relatively new and serious complication that affects up to 9% of kidney transplant recipients, according to a study appearing in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).

21 Jan 2009

Oral steroids ineffective treatment for wheezing in children

A new study from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry has found that a common treatment for wheezing in preschool children is no more effective than a placebo.

21 Jan 2009

New formula accurately measures kidney function in children

Measuring a child's kidney function has traditionally been time-consuming, costly, and difficult to perform, but a new equation that uses parameters collected at routine office visits can effectively accomplish this, according to a study appearing in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology ( JASN ).

21 Jan 2009

Migraines linked to mental disorders

Migraine headaches can precede the onset of mental disorders, according to a growing body of knowledge that includes a new study in the January-February 2009 issue of General Hospital Psychiatry.

21 Jan 2009

Mice and men express the same olfactory preferences

Humans and mice are attracted by the same odors. This has been revealed for the first time by a team of French researchers in the "Neurosciences sensorielles, comportement, cognition" Unit (CNRS / Université Lyon 1).

21 Jan 2009

Magnesium sulphate protects babies against cerebral palsy

Giving pregnant mothers magnesium sulphate when they are at risk of very preterm birth can help protect their babies from cerebral palsy, according to an international review of research involving the University of Adelaide, Australia.

21 Jan 2009

Virotherapy treatment kills prostate cancer cells

A new study appearing in The Prostate has found that certain measles virus vaccine strain derivatives, including a strain known as MV-CEA, may prove to be an effective treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer.

21 Jan 2009

Inflammation contributes to colon cancer

Researchers led by Drs. Lillian Maggio-Price and Brian Iritani at The University of Washington found that mice that lack the immune inhibitory molecule Smad3 are acutely sensitive to both bacterially-induced inflammation and cancer.

21 Jan 2009

Potential new target in the war on HIV/AIDS

The study revealed that a variant of a protein involved in HIV pathogenesis can suppress production of an HIV protein, known as Nef. Nef is required for the human immunodeficiency virus to develop into AIDS through a series of complex events involving viral elements and cellular proteins. Nef has never been a target for drug treatment in HIV patients.

21 Jan 2009

Impaired kidney function raises risk of heart problems in the elderly

A study published next week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine suggests that elderly people with damaged kidneys are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure and stroke, and other causes of mortality.

21 Jan 2009

Researchers show how anthracycline class of chemotherapeutics block blood vessel growth, slow cancer spread

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered how a whole class of commonly used chemotherapy drugs can block cancer growth.

21 Jan 2009

Topical microbicide protects against genital herpes

A topical microbicide that silences two genes can safely protect against genital herpes infection for as long as one week, according to a joint study by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Harvard Medical School.

21 Jan 2009