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Neurological and neuromuscular diseases raise risk of complications from flu

As another flu season approaches, patients with neurological and neuromuscular disease are especially vulnerable to respiratory failure caused by influenza.

3 Nov 2005

Neuron finding could advance understanding of epilepsy and age-related memory loss

Neurons experience large-scale changes across their dendrites during learning, say neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin in a new study that highlights the important role that these cell regions may play in the processes of learning and memory.

3 Nov 2005

Rapid screen-and-treat methods significantly reduce cervical cancer precursor lesions

A new study led by Columbia University Medical Center researchers demonstrates the safety and efficacy of two low-tech diagnostic tools to significantly reduce the prevalence of cervical cancer precursor lesions.

3 Nov 2005

New therapies for prostate cancer

A Dutch study suggested treating prostate cancer patients with higher doses of radiotherapy significantly improved patient outcome and treatment over a five-year period.

3 Nov 2005

Substance found in evening primrose oil inhibits breast cancer gene

Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost 30 percent of all breast cancers, Northwestern University researchers report.

3 Nov 2005

Fundamental insight about protein evolution

While searching for new targets for malaria drugs and vaccines, a team including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) medical student fellow reached a fundamental insight about evolution: different species make use of similar sets of proteins in different ways.

3 Nov 2005

New targeted cancer drug delivery system

Prostate, breast and other cancer patients may be offered a new, stauncher targeted drug delivery system to treat their diseases in the next decade.

3 Nov 2005

New method to find deadly malaria parasite

Researchers at UCSD have discovered that the single-cell parasite responsible for an estimated 1 million deaths per year worldwide from malaria has protein "wiring" that differs markedly from the cellular circuitry of other higher organisms

3 Nov 2005

Shortness of breath can be a serious cardiac symptom

Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have found that patients with shortness of breath can have a higher risk of dying from cardiac disease than patients without symptoms, and even than patients with typical cardiac pain.

3 Nov 2005

DN-101 may protect against major side effects of chemotherapy

Men with advanced prostate cancer who take an experimental, high-dose vitamin D pill with chemotherapy live about eight months longer than those receiving chemotherapy and placebo, according to a new study.

3 Nov 2005

Calcitriol - promising chemopreventive agent that may prevent prostate cancer

The active metabolite of vitamin D, calcitriol, and other vitamin D analogs are promising chemopreventive agents that may prevent prostate cancer, according to a study presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research's 4th annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting in Baltimore.

3 Nov 2005

Simple, at-home treatment for jet lag

A simple, at-home treatment -- a single light box and the over-the-counter drug melatonin -- allows travelers to avoid jet lag by resetting their circadian body clock before crossing several time zones, according to new research being published in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

3 Nov 2005

New insight into the eradication of HIV in infected individuals receiving antiviral therapy

Antiviral therapy has been used to suppress HIV replication and has dramatically improved the clinical course of disease in affected patients. But the existence of viral reservoirs precludes the complete elimination of HIV from treated patients.

3 Nov 2005

Dynamic protein personalities reveal traits

A Brandeis University study published in Nature this week advances fundamental understanding of the dynamic personalities of proteins and proposes that these enzymes are much more mobile, or plastic, than previously thought.

3 Nov 2005

Targeted drug delivery now possible using nanoparticle-apatamer conjugates

Ground-breaking results from researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, disclosed at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) have shown for the first time that targeted drug delivery is possible using nanoparticle-apatamer conjugates.

3 Nov 2005

First steps taken to treat human hereditary blindness

A team led by Krzysztof Palczewski, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has taken the first steps in treating an eye disease causing irreversible congenital blindness in millions of people worldwide by successfully testing two new treatments in mice.

3 Nov 2005

Nearly one-fourth of all dialysis patients have a close relative on dialysis

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and others, report in the current online edition of the American Journal of Nephrology. The researchers suggest screening other relatives for undetected kidney disease.

3 Nov 2005

Space ultrasound training program for non-physicians

An ultrasound training program for non-physicians gives astronauts and sports trainers the tools to assess injuries using real-time remote assistance from medical experts.

3 Nov 2005

New findings on bacterial vaginosis

Despite being one of the most common infections among women, scientists and doctors know little about the causes of bacterial vaginosis (BV), a usually benign disease that is also linked to serious health problems including pelvic inflammatory disease

3 Nov 2005

Study examines cancer risks after cancer diagnosis in family

After a person is diagnosed with cancer, increased surveillance among their family members may result in the earlier detection of asymptomatic familial cancers.

3 Nov 2005