Body

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Some of the newest therapies in the war on cancer remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.

These immunotherapies, such as CTLA4, strengthen the immune system's attack on cancer by keeping apart two proteins that prevent key immune cells called T cells from activating.

Research featured on the cover of the Journal of Immunology suggests that these therapies also keep tumors from benefitting from IDO, an enzyme used by fetuses and tumors alike to suppress the immune response.

A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology is using the Aquarius underwater laboratory off the coast of Florida to study how the diversity of seaweed-eating fish affects endangered coral reefs. The research mission, which began Sept. 13, may provide new information to help scientists protect and even restore damaged coral reefs in the Caribbean.

Cincinnati, OH, September 16, 2011 -- Pharmaceutical poisoning remains a common childhood injury, despite years of concerted prevention efforts, such as improved safe guards on packaging. Over half a million children are exposed to pharmaceuticals each year. A new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics attempts to understand this growing problem to aid in the progress of reducing the number of childhood injuries due to pharmaceutical poisoning.

The number of young children admitted to hospitals or seen in emergency departments because they unintentionally took a potentially toxic dose of medication has risen dramatically in recent years, according to a new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study.

The rise in exposure to prescription products has been so striking that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established the PROTECT Initiative, intended to prevent unintended medication overdoses in children.

Raised yellow patches of skin (xanthelasmata) around the upper or lower eyelids are markers of an individual's increased risk of having a heart attack or suffering from heart disease, finds research published on bmj.com today.

The study, led by Professor Anne Tybjærg-Hansen at the University of Copenhagen, also concludes that white or grey rings around the cornea (arcus corneae) are not linked to an increased risk.

PHILADELPHIA--It is a commonly held that information on Wikipedia should not be trusted, since it is written and edited by non-experts without professional oversight. But researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have found differently, according to a study published online Sept. 15 in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

A group of scientists, based primarily at Stanford University School of Medicine, have introduced ethnicity-specific reference genome sequences in a study to be published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics on September 15th. Their utility was demonstrated in analyzing the genomes of a four-person family and following the flow of genes, in particular those associated with disease risk, from one generation to the next.

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have predicted the inherited health risks of a four-person family by analyzing their whole genome sequences. With the DNA sequences of both parents and children, the team was able to better check for sequencing errors and more accurately predict how individual genetic variants affect each family member's risk for disease.

Alcohol is known to be carcinogenic to humans in the upper aerodigestive tract, liver, colorectum, and the female breast. Evidence suggests that acetaldehyde, the primary metabolite of alcohol, plays a major role in alcohol-related esophageal cancer. A new study using human cells has established linkages between alcohol metabolism and acetaldehyde-DNA damage that may have implications for breast and liver cancers.

Results will be published in the December 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

Apples and pears may keep strokes away.

That's the conclusion of a Dutch study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association in which researchers found that eating a lot of fruits and vegetables with white flesh may protect against stroke.

While previous studies have linked high consumption of fruits and vegetables with lower stroke risk, the researchers' prospective work is the first to examine associations of fruits and vegetable color groups with stroke.

CHICAGO – Ovarian cancer is a rare but often deadly disease that can strike at any time in a woman's life. It affects one in 70 women and in the past was referred to as a silent killer, but researchers have found there are symptoms associated with ovarian cancer that can assist in early detection. Experts at Northwestern Memorial say the best defense is to make use of preventive methods, understand the risks and recognize potential warning signs of ovarian cancer.

GALVESTON — Researchers have found that a protein linked to cell division and migration and tied to increased cell proliferation in ovarian tumors is also present at high levels in breast cancer specimens and cell lines. The protein, dubbed "UNC-45A," was also determined to be more active in breast cancer cells than in normal breast cells.

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists describe these findings and others in a paper now online in the Journal of Molecular Biology.

COLLEGE STATION, Sept. 15, 2011 – In the next 20 years, more than 590,000 square miles of land globally — more than twice the size of Texas — will be gobbled up by cities, a trend that shows no signs of stopping and one that could pose threats on several levels, says a Texas A&M University geographer who is part of a national team studying the problem.

Just as cell phones and computers transmit data through electronic networks, the cells of your body send and receive chemical messages through molecular pathways. The term "cell signaling" was coined more than 30 years ago to describe this process.

Now, for the first time, scientists have quantified the data capacity of a biochemical signaling pathway and found a surprise – it's way lower than even an old-fashioned, dial-up modem.

The theory of plate tectonics is at the centre of our understanding of how the Earth works. It has been known for decades that new crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges and that this crust is subducted as plates dive underneath other plates in regions such as the Pacific Ring of Fire and descend into the Earth's mantle. What is not so well known is the fate of these subducted plates.