The BioScience Talks podcast features discussions of topical issues related to the biological sciences.
Body
A new study led by researchers of the University of Barcelona and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, proves once more that evolution does not always imply more complexity or more genes in living beings.
FINDINGS
Chapman University has published research on how breastfeeding rates differ among white, black and Hispanic mothers. The study looked to see if ethnic and racial disparities in breastfeeding could be explained by differences in the use of formula in hospitals, family history of breastfeeding, mother's belief that "breast is best"; and demographic measures including poverty, education and relationship status.
Washington, DC - July 12, 2016 - Ebola and Marburg filovirus disease outbreaks have typically occurred as isolated events, confined to central Africa. However, the recent Ebola epidemic spread to several African countries, and caused 11,000 deaths. That epidemic underscored the need to develop vaccines and therapeutics that could be used to fight future disease outbreaks.
WHAT: Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are reporting new, unexpected details about the fundamental structure of collagen, the most abundant protein in the human body. In lab experiments, they demonstrated that collagen, once viewed as inert, forms structures that regulate how certain enzymes break down and remodel body tissue. The finding of this regulatory system provides a molecular view of the potential role of physical forces at work in heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and other disease-related processes, they say.
Philadelphia, PA, July 12, 2016 - Understanding the effects of age and disease on sexual wellbeing is crucial as sexual health is increasingly associated with vitality. In a new study published in The American Journal of Medicine, researchers looked at the role metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease play in postmenopausal women's sexual health.
In May 2016 at the World Health Assembly of 194 member states the WHO announced the process of developing and launching Emergency Medical Teams as a critical component of the global health workforce concept. Over 64 countries have either launched or are in the development stages of vetting accredited teams, both international and national, to provide surge support to national health systems through WHO Regional Organizations and the delivery of emergency clinical care to sudden-onset disasters and outbreak-affected populations.
PHOENIX -- A drug combination designed to enhance the immune system's ability to zero in and attack cancer cells has shown a pronounced therapeutic effect against advanced and metastatic cancers in mice, according to a Mayo Clinic study, published in the July 12 edition of the online journal Oncotarget.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - These days fecal transplantation is no joke.
Fecal transplants are increasingly being used as the treatment of last resort for certain infections in the human gut and have had remarkable success treating the nursing home and hospital-acquired scourge, Clostridium difficile colitis, an infectious diarrhea that often follows antibiotic treatment. There is also preliminary evidence that the transplantation of stool from healthy individuals can be effective in treating multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.
Mitochondrial disorders are a chameleon-like set of diseases that take many different forms and vary widely from individual to individual.
Mitochondria are special organelles found in cells that produce most of the chemical energy that powers cell operations. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been associated with a wide variety of illnesses, including autism, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, dementia, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, stroke, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome and cardiovascular disease.
Increasing the number of men who undergo circumcision and increasing the rates at which women with HIV are given antiretroviral therapy (ART) were associated with significant declines in the number of new male HIV infections in rural Ugandan communities, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health research suggests.
The development of an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infections would represent a critical step toward ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Thus far, the only large clinical trial for an HIV vaccine to show promise was the RV144 study conducted in Thailand in 2009, which resulted in a modest 31 percent reduction in infection. Researchers are working to improve on the results of RV144 and also have launched efforts to create vaccines that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block a wide range of HIV variants.
In a study appearing in the July 12 issue of JAMA, an HIV/AIDS theme issue, Xiangrong Kong, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, and colleagues examined whether increasing community medical male circumcision and antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage was associated with reduced community HIV incidence in Uganda.
In a report appearing in the July 12 issue of JAMA, an HIV/AIDS theme issue, Huldrych F. Gunthard, M.D., of University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues with the International Antiviral Society-USA panel, updated recommendations for the use of antiretroviral therapy in adults with established HIV infection, including when to start treatment, initial regimens, and changing regimens, along with recommendations for using antiretroviral drugs for preventing HIV among those at risk, including preexposure and postexposure prevention.