BOSTON, Mass. (April 15, 2011) — Strains of genital herpes in Africa are far more virulent than those in the United States, researchers at Harvard Medical School report, a striking insight into a common disease with important implications for preventing HIV transmission in a region staggered by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The researchers arrived at this finding by testing mouse model strains of the disease against vaccine candidates. All vaccines were far more efficacious in abating the U.S. strain.
Body
A safer and more effective treatment for 10 million people in developing countries who suffer from infections caused by trypanosome parasites could become a reality thanks to new research from Queen Mary, University of London published today (15 April).
Scientists have uncovered the mechanisms behind a drug used to treat African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease, infections caused by trypanosome parasites which result in 60,000 deaths each year.
PHILADELPHIA — Scientists at Yale University have identified a set of plasma biomarkers that could reasonably predict the risk of metastasis among patients with melanoma, according to findings published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
[EMBARGOED FOR APRIL 15, 2011] Urinary tract infections are common in women, costing an estimated $2.5 billion per year to treat in 2000 in the United States alone. These infections frequently recur, affecting 2 to 3 percent of all women. A depletion of vaginal lactobacilli, a type of bacteria, is associated with urinary tract infection risk, which suggests that replenishing these bacteria may be beneficial. Researchers conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled trial to investigate this theory.
Writing in BioEssays, cancer scientists Ana Soto and Carlos Sonnenschein pit their controversial Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT) of the origin of cancer against the widely accepted Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT) in what is believed to be the first time the two theories have formally opposed each other – championed by authors from opposite sides of the debate – in a common forum for discussion.
Two small randomised trials published on bmj.com today suggest that closed loop insulin delivery (also known as an artificial pancreas) may improve overnight blood glucose control and reduce the risk of nocturnal hypoglycaemia (a sudden drop in blood glucose levels during the night) in adults with type 1 diabetes.
Evolutionary changes that make us uniquely human – such as our large heads and narrow pelvises – may have "pushed" human birth timing earlier and can be used to identify genes associated with preterm birth, a new study suggests.
Kidney transplant recipients who develop antibodies in response to receiving new organs can develop accelerated arteriosclerosis, or narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the kidney, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results indicate that arteriosclerosis resulting from such donor-specific antibodies may play an important role in organ rejection following transplantation.
Eight genes which control levels of the main steroid produced by the adrenal gland, believed to play a role in ageing and longevity, have been uncovered by an international consortium of scientists, co-led by King's College London.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Studies of the small sea squirt may ultimately help solve the problem of rejection of organ and bone marrow transplants in humans, according to scientists at UC Santa Barbara.
An average of 20 registered patients die every day waiting for transplants, due to the shortage of matching donor organs. More than 110,000 people are currently waiting for organ transplants in the U.S. alone. Currently, only one in 20,000 donors are a match for a patient waiting for a transplant.
In a novel approach that works around the gene defect in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, an inherited immune deficiency disorder, researchers used an alternative cell signaling pathway to significantly improve immune function in a 13-year-old boy with the disease. The study, at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, provides a proof-of-principle that immunotherapy, which harnesses elements of the body's immune system, may be used to treat this rare but often deadly disorder.
The odds of surviving stroke appear to be much better for seniors living in neighborhoods where they interact more often with their neighbors and count on them for help, according to research published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
(Boston) – Surgeons from Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that in diabetic patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, aggressive glycemic control does not result in any significant improvement of clinical outcomes as compared with moderate control. The findings, to be presented at the 131st annual meeting of the American Surgical Association, also found the incidence of hypoglycemic events increased with aggressive glycemic control.
Stephen Spielberg's movie Jurassic Park got one thing right.
Velociraptors hunted by night while big plant-eating dinosaurs browsed around the clock, according to a paper on the eyes of fossil animals published on-line this week in Science Express.
That overturns the conventional wisdom that dinosaurs were active by day while early mammals scurried around at night, said Ryosuke Motani, a geologist at the University of California at Davis, and a co-author of the paper.
"It was a surprise, but it makes sense," Motani said.
The movie Jurassic Park got one thing right: Those velociraptors hunted by night while the big plant-eaters browsed around the clock, according to a new study of the eyes of fossil animals. The study will be published online April 14 in the journal Science.
This conclusion overturns the conventional wisdom that dinosaurs were active by day while early mammals scurried around at night, said Ryosuke Motani, professor of geology at UC Davis and co-author of the paper.
"It was a surprise, but it makes sense," Motani said.