Tests on Hereditary Diseases

Scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School (UMDNJ-NJMS) have developed new DNA sequencing tests that hold significant promise for decreasing costs associated with diagnosing cancer and hereditary diseases, including cystic fibrosis. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation web site, "More than 10 million Americans are symptomless carriers of the defective CF gene." This chronic disease impacts the lungs and the digestive system. It occurs when a child inherits one defective CF gene from each parent. Statistics show New Jersey averages 125,000 births of children who are diagnosed with cystic fibrosis annually.Officials at the New Jersey Department of Health approved the use of the new Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Carrier and Diagnosis Test,...

Read more »

Gut bacteria linked to obesity

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified 26 species of bacteria in the human gut microbiota that appear to be linked to obesity and related metabolic complications. These include insulin resistance, high blood sugar levels, increased blood pressure and high cholesterol, known collectively as "the metabolic syndrome," which significantly increases an individual’s risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke. "We identified 26 species of bacteria that were correlated with obesity and metabolic syndrome traits such as body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose levels and C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation," says the senior author, Claire M. Fraser, Ph.D., professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology...

Read more »

Scientists Can Now Block Heroin, Morphine Addiction

In a major breakthrough, an international team of scientists has proven that addiction to morphine and heroin can be blocked, while at the same time increasing pain relief. Photp: Jens Langner at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PET-image.jpg Laboratory studies have shown that the drug (+)-naloxone (pronounced: PLUS nal-OX-own) will selectively block the immune-addiction response.The team from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado has discovered the key mechanism in the body's immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs. The results -- which could eventually lead to new co-formulated drugs that assist patients with severe pain, as well as helping heroin users to kick the habit -- will be published...

Read more »

An Artificial Retina With the Capacity to Restore Normal Vision

Two researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have deciphered a mouse's retina's neural code and coupled this information to a novel prosthetic device to restore sight to blind mice. The researchers say they have also cracked the code for a monkey retina -- which is essentially identical to that of a human -- and hope to quickly design and test a device that blind humans can use. Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amandine_Eyes.jpg The lead researcher, Dr. Sheila Nirenberg, a computational neuroscientist at Weill Cornell, envisions a day when the blind can choose to wear a visor, similar to the one used on the television show Star Trek. The visor's camera will take in light and use a computer chip to turn it into...

Read more »

Half of Inhaled Soot Particles from Diesel Exhaust, Fires Gets Stuck in the Lungs

The exhaust from diesel-fueled vehicles, wood fires and coal-driven power stations contains small particles of soot that flow out into the atmosphere. The soot is a scourge for the climate but also for human health. Now for the first time, researchers have studied in detail how diesel soot gets stuck in the lungs. The results show that more than half of all inhaled soot particles remain in the body. (Credit: © Imagenatural / Fotolia) The figure is higher than for most other types of particles. For example "only" 20 per cent of another type of particle from wood smoke and other biomass combustion gets stuck in the lungs. One explanation is that diesel soot is made up of smaller particles and can therefore penetrate deeper into the lungs,...

Read more »

New research suggests animal-to-human transmission of MRSA

"Using whole genome sequencing, scientists have found two independent human cases of infection have been linked to livestock. Having found this new MRSA in both people and animals on the same farm it was likely that it is being transmitted between animals and people. Mark Holmes Cambridge scientists have linked two human cases of infection with the antibiotic- resistant superbug MRSA to farms in Denmark. The results of the study, published today in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, suggest the methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria was transmitted from the livestock to the farmers. The type of MRSA which was found in both of the human cases was only discovered two years ago by Dr Mark...

Read more »

Avian Flu Viruses Which Are Transmissible Between Humans Could Evolve in Nature

It might be possible for human-to-human airborne transmissible avian H5N1 influenza viruses to evolve in nature, new research has found. Colorized transmission electron micrograph of Avian influenza A H5N1 viruses (seen in gold) grown in MDCK cells (seen in green) [Credit: CDC/Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki] The findings, from research led by Professor Derek Smith and Dr Colin Russell at the University of Cambridge, were published June 22 in the journal Science. Currently, avian H5N1 influenza, also known as bird flu, can be transmitted from birds to humans, but not (or only very rarely) from human to human. However, two recent papers by Herfst, Fouchier and colleagues in Science and Imai, Kawaoka and...

Read more »

1 Million Billion Billion Billion Billion Billion Billion: Number of Undiscovered Drugs

A new voyage into "chemical space" -- occupied not by stars and planets but substances that could become useful in everyday life -- has concluded that scientists have synthesized barely one tenth of 1 percent of the potential medicines that could be made. The report, in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, estimates that the actual number of these so-called "small molecules" could be 1 novemdecillion (that's 1 with 60 zeroes), 1 million billion billion billion billion billion billion, which is more than some estimates of the number of stars in the universe. A new voyage into "chemical space" -- occupied not by stars and planets but substances that could become useful in everyday life -- has concluded that scientists have synthesized barely...

Read more »

Air Pollution Linked to Chronic Heart Disease

Air pollution, a serious danger to the environment, is also a major health risk, associated with respiratory infections, lung cancer and heart disease. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher has concluded that not only does air pollution impact cardiac events such as heart attack and stroke, but it also causes repeated episodes over the long term. Cardiac patients living in high pollution areas were found to be over 40 percent more likely to have a second heart attack when compared to patients living in low pollution areas, according to Dr. Yariv Gerber of TAU's School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. "We know that like smoking cigarettes, pollution itself provokes the inflammatory system. If you are talking about long-term...

Read more »

16th-Century Korean Mummy Provides Clue to Hepatitis B Virus Genetic Code

The discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype C2 sequence common in Southeast Asia. The ancient Korean mummy of a child provides clues to the hepatitis B virus genome [Credit: Seoul National Univesity] Additional analysis of the ancient HBV genomes may be used as a model to study the evolution of chronic hepatitis B and help understand the spread of the virus, possibly from Africa to East-Asia. It also may shed further light on the migratory pathway of hepatitis B in the Far East from China and Japan to Korea as well as to other regions in Asia and Australia...

Read more »

Nanoparticles Seen as Artificial Atoms

In the growth of crystals, do nanoparticles act as "artificial atoms" forming molecular-type building blocks that can assemble into complex structures? This is the contention of a major but controversial theory to explain nanocrystal growth. A study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) may resolve the controversy and point the way to energy devices of the future. These are sequential color TEM images showing the growth of Pt3Fe nanorods over time, displayed as minutes:seconds. At the far right, twisty nanoparticle chains straighten and stretch into nanorods [Credit:  Haimei Zheng] Led by Haimei Zheng, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division,...

Read more »

Drug Destroys Human Cancer Stem Cells but Not Healthy Ones

A team of scientists at McMaster University has discovered a drug, thioridazine, successfully kills cancer stem cells in the human while avoiding the toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments. "The unusual aspect of our finding is the way this human-ready drug actually kills cancer stem cells; by changing them into cells that are non-cancerous," said Mick Bhatia, the principal investigator for the study and scientific director of McMaster's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. Unlike chemotherapy and radiation, thioridazine appears to have no effect on normal stem cells. The research, published May 24 in the science journal Cell, holds the promise of a new strategy and discovery...

Read more »

Genetic Discovery Will Revolutionize Understanding Of Gene Expression

Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases. Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases. Now, researchers have made a discovery that once again forces us to rewrite our textbooks. This time, however, the findings pertain to RNA, which like DNA carries information about our genes and how they are expressed. The...

Read more »

In the Genes, but Which Ones? Studies That Linked Specific Genes to Intelligence Were Largely Wrong, Experts Say

For decades, scientists have understood that there is a genetic component to intelligence, but a new Harvard study has found both that most of the genes thought to be linked to the trait are probably not in fact related to it, and identifying intelligence's specific genetic roots may still be a long way off. For decades, scientists have understood that there is a genetic component to intelligence, but a new study has found both that most of the genes thought to be linked to the trait are probably not in fact related to it, and identifying intelligence's specific genetic roots may still be a long way off [Credit: Web] Led by David I. Laibson '88, the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics, and Christopher F. Chabris '88, Ph.D. '99, assistant...

Read more »

Powerful Function of Single Protein That Controls Neurotransmission Discovered

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered that the single protein -- alpha 2 delta -- exerts a spigot-like function, controlling the volume of neurotransmitters and other chemicals that flow between the synapses of brain neurons. The study, published online in Nature, shows how brain cells talk to each other through these signals, relaying thoughts, feelings and action, and this powerful molecule plays a crucial role in regulating effective communication. In the study, the investigators also suggest how the widely used pain drug Lyrica might work. The alpha 2 delta protein is the target of this drug and the new work suggests an approach to how other drugs could be developed that effectively twist particular neurotransmitter...

Read more »