Washington, DC - May 20, 2016 - Vibrio cholerae infects roughly four million people annually, worldwide, causing severe diarrheal disease, and killing an estimated 140,000 people. Its success as a pathogen belies the challenges this bacterium faces. The waters this bacterium inhabits when it's not infecting H. sapiens can be 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than our normal body temperature.
Body
Washington, DC - May 20, 2016 - Oral administration of certain probiotics reduced uptake of the heavy metal, cadmium, in the intestines of mice, and in a laboratory experiment using human intestinal cells. The research, which might ultimately be applied to improving public health in areas of heavy metal contamination, is published ahead of print May 20 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases presents a cost-effectiveness tool that can help guide decisions regarding resource allocation to fund interventions targeted at curtailing the ongoing Zika virus outbreak. Analyses using the tool suggest that proposed funds to combat Zika in the US and other countries would be cost-effective, based on quantification of the serious health conditions associated with Zika infection.
Zebra mussels, a ship-borne invasive species, are such a problem in American waters that they cost the U.S. power industry alone $3.1 billion in economic losses in 1993-1999, mainly by blocking pipes that deliver water to cooling plants. Researchers looking for a way to predict where they might end up next, so that preventive measures can be taken, have relied on network science, a way to identify patterns and meaningful connections in fields ranging from invasive species to international terrorism and social networks to infectious diseases.
Climate scientists have long recognized the importance of forest conservation and forest regrowth in climate mitigation and carbon sequestration -- capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. But the detailed information required to make accurate estimates of this potential has remained elusive.
Now, an international team of 60 scientists, working together as the 2ndFOR Network, has completed studies on the effects of forest conservation and secondary forest regeneration across 43 regions in Latin America.
Inside each ovarian tumor, there are good cells and bad cells. A new paper explains their roles:
The bad cells are fibroblasts. They work to block chemotherapy, which is why nearly every woman with ovarian cancer becomes resistant to treatment.
The good cells are immune T cells. They can reverse that resistance.
T cells (red) attack ovarian cancer cells (green). Credit: University of Michigan Health System
Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified, according to the results of a new study.
The estimate, based on universal scaling laws applied to large datasets, appears today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report's authors are Jay Lennon and Kenneth Locey of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
The scientists combined microbial, plant and animal datasets from government, academic and citizen science sources, resulting in the largest compilation of its kind.
PHILADELPHIA - The mistaken activation of certain cell-surface receptors contributes to a variety of human cancers. Knowing more about the activation process has led researchers to be able to induce greater vulnerability by cancer cells to an existing first-line treatment for cancers (mainly lung) driven by a receptor called EGFR. The team, led by Eric Witze, PhD, an assistant professor of Cancer Biology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published their findings this month in Molecular Cell.
Along the West Coast, lingcod fish are top predators -- voracious eaters that aren't picky about where their next meal comes from.
But lingcod in the Pacific Ocean used to be overfished, to the point where managers created protected areas for these fish and other depleted groundfish species, such as yelloweye and canary rockfish.
The bacteria in and on our bodies have been shown to be vital for human health, influencing nutrition, obesity and protection from diseases.
But science has only recently delved into the importance of the microbiome of plants. Since plants can't move, they are especially reliant on partnerships with microbes to help them get nutrients.
A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.
LOS ANGELES - A study published today by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) Roski Eye Institute in JAMA Ophthalmology found that the U.S. prevalence in visual impairment (VI) and blindness is expected to double over the next 35 years. By 2050, the number of Americans with a variety of eye disease and impairment issues, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy (DR) and cataracts, will dramatically increase impacting both individuals and society.
Patients who are critically ill, be they dog, cat or human, have a tendency toward blood clotting disorders. When the formation of a clot takes too long, it puts them at risk of uncontrolled bleeding. But the other extreme is also dangerous; if blood clots too readily, it can lead to organ failure or even death if a clot goes to the lungs, brain or heart.
BALTIMORE - May 19, 2016. Adolescent girls whose diet is higher in saturated fats and lower in healthier unsaturated fats have higher breast density in early adulthood, which may potentially increase their risk for breast cancer later in life, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The research was published online today in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Joint injury can lead to post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). In fact, about half of all people who rupture the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in their knee will develop PTOA within 10-20 years of the injury.
But the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to cartilage degeneration or PTOA due to trauma are not well understood.