Body

Faced with the risk of developing side effects, even ones as mild as fatigue, nausea and fuzzy thinking, many older patients are willing to forego medications that provide only average benefit in preventing heart attack, according to a report by Yale School of Medicine researchers.

Bacteria in the human gut may not just be helping digest food but also could be exerting some level of control over the metabolic functions of other organs, like the liver, according to research published this week in the online journal mBio®. These findings offer new understanding of the symbiotic relationship between humans and their gut microbes and how changes to the microbiota can impact overall health.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research that reveals how maternal antibodies block an immune response to the measles virus is a first step toward improving current childhood vaccination practices, scientists say.

A research study coordinated by Manel Esteller, researcher at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) has identified a substance that inhibits cancer growth by activating the so‑called "dark genome" (or non‑coding DNA) and micro‑RNA molecules. The study appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28—With worldwide Internet data traffic increasing by 50 percent each year, telecommunications companies that handle this digital torrent must be able to economically expand the capacities of their networks while also adapting to new, more-efficient data-handling technologies. Over the last decade, a development team at Infinera Corp. in Sunnyvale, Calif. has pioneered the design and manufacture of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) aimed at meeting that need.

BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 28, 2011 – Science fiction novelist and scholar Issac Asimov once said, "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny.' " This recently rang true for an international team of researchers when they observed something they did not expect.

If Dr. Doolittle is famous for talking to animals, then here's a story that might make him hold his tongue: According to new research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), scientists have successfully fused human stem cells derived from subcutaneous adipose (fat) tissue with muscle cells from rat hearts. Not only did these cells "talk" to form new muscle cells altogether, but they actually beat.

Same-sex erotic relationships are as old as humanity, but our modern understanding of what it means to be homosexual—and the earliest gay rights movement—started in nineteenth-century Germany, according to an article by historian Robert Beachy from Goucher College.

The article, "The German Invention of Homosexuality," is published in a recent issue of The Journal of Modern History. Beachy's book on the subject, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (Knopf), is due out next year.

Sanfilippo disease is a rare disorder caused by the failure of enzymes to break down specific kinds of complex carbohydrates, resulting in their accumulation in cells and often severe physical and neurological problems – and sometimes early death.

A Wayne State University School of Medicine physician-researcher has developed a personalized therapy to treat a wide range of cancers. The treatment is based on a naturally occurring human enzyme that has been genetically modified to fool cancer cells into killing themselves.

ATLANTA –February 28, 2011– A sharp decline in breast cancer incidence rates among non-Hispanic white women in the U.S. after a dramatic drop in the use of postmenopausal hormone therapy did not continue through 2007, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. While there are several possible explanations for the recent stabilization, it may indicate that the decrease in breast cancers thought to be related to postmenopausal hormone use has bottomed out.

Heart attack patients with a history of depression presenting at emergency departments were less likely to receive priority care than people with other conditions, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100685.pdf.

A medical journal's revenue source can affect drug recommendations, with free journals positively recommending specific drugs while journals funded solely by subscriptions usually recommending against the use of the drugs, states a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100951.pdf.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 2011) – Results from a study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology reveal a close relationship between pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)—exceedingly high blood pressure in the arteries carrying blood from the heart to the lungs—and abnormalities of the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow (known as myeloid abnormalities).

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that patients with node negative T3 and T4 non-small lung cancer who underwent chemotherapy before surgery had more than three times the survival rate than patients who only underwent surgery. These findings currently appear on-line in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.