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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Why are some people smarter than others?

"When it comes to intelligence, what factors distinguish the brains of exceptionally smart humans from those of average humans? Photp: Jens Langner at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PET-image.jpgAs science has long suspected, overall brain size matters somewhat, accounting for about 6.7 percent of individual variation in intelligence. More recent research has pinpointed the brain’s lateral prefrontal cortex, a region just behind the temple, as a critical hub for high-level mental processing, with activity levels there predicting another 5 percent of variation in individual intelligence.Now, new research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that another 10 percent of individual differences in intelligence can...

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Cell's pressure matters

"A model that describes dividing cells within human tissues from the perspective of physicists could help further the understanding of cancer growth. Photo from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_African_Giraffes,_fighting.jpg Jonas Ranft and team created a two-component mathematical model accounting for both the cells and the fluid caught in between. On the one hand, cells are modeled as behaving like a dividing fluid subject to expansion. On the other hand, the interstitial fluid is akin to an ideal fluid that cannot be compressed. This model is designed to elucidate the nature of mechanical pressure exerted upon dividing cells by their surrounding tissues, referred to as homeostatic pressure.Physicists from the Curie...

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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,...

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How stress can boost the immune system

The study's findings provide a thorough overview of how a triad of stress hormones affects the main cell subpopulations of the immune system. They also offer the prospect of, someday, being able to manipulate stress-hormone levels to improve patients' recovery from surgery or wounds or their responses to vaccines. You've heard it a thousand times: Stress is bad for you. And it's certainly true that chronic stress, lasting weeks and months, has deleterious effects including, notably, suppression of the immune response. But short-term stress -- the fight-or-flight response, a mobilization of bodily resources lasting minutes or hours in response to immediate threats -- stimulates immune activity, said lead author Firdaus Dhabhar, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral...

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Daily Stress Takes a Toll on Long-Term Mental Health

"Our emotional responses to the stresses of daily life may predict our long-term mental health, according to a new study published inPsychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Psychological scientist Susan Charles of the University of California, Irvine and colleagues conducted the study in order to answer a long-standing question: Do daily emotional experiences add up to make the straw that breaks the camel’s back, or do these experiences make us stronger and provide an inoculation against later distress? Using data from two national surveys, the researchers examined the relationship between daily negative emotions and mental health outcomes ten years later. Participants’ overall levels of negative emotions predicted psychological distress (e.g.,...

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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...

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