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Australian researchers have come one step closer to understanding how the rhythm of the heartbeat is controlled and why many common drugs, including some antibiotics, antihistamines and anti-psychotics, can cause a potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythm.
It is estimated around 40-50% of all drugs in development will block one of the main 'channels' that carries electricity in the heart and, as a result, can cause heart rhythm problems called cardiac arrhythmias. Most sudden cardiac deaths are caused by cardiac arrhythmias.
Exposure to worm infections in the womb may protect a newborn infant from developing eczema, a study funded by the Wellcome Trust suggests. A large trial in Uganda showed that treating a pregnant woman for worm infections increased her child's chances of developing the allergic skin disease.
Published this week in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, the research supports the so-called 'hygiene hypothesis', which proposes that exposure to infections in early childhood can modify the immune system and protect the child from allergies later in life.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan researchers have uncovered molecular signals that regulate catch-up growth---the growth spurt that occurs when normal conditions are restored after a fetus, young animal or child has been ill, under stress or deprived of enough food or oxygen to grow properly.
The results, published in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Development, could lead to better understanding of why babies who undergo catch-up growth are at higher risk in later life for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and other health problems.
England's health secretary Andrew Lansley has said that his reforms for the NHS are needed because the country's health outcomes are among the poorest in Europe. But in an article published on bmj.com today, John Appleby, Chief Economist at the King's Fund, reviews the data and finds the UK in better health than Lansley suggests.
It has been claimed that despite spending the same on health care, we suffer twice the rate of deaths from heart disease than France, says Appleby.
Although still rare, maternal deaths related to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) are a key indicator of risks to older women, those with multiple pregnancy and those with underlying disease, warn experts in an editorial published on bmj.com today.
Dr Susan Bewley and colleagues argue that serious adverse outcomes related to IVF treatment, such as ovarian hyperstimulation sydrome (a complication caused by some fertility drugs), should be systematically reported so that lessons can be learnt and appropriate action taken.
An investigation has found that celiac disease and Crohn's disease, both inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, share at least four genetic risk loci. Together, researchers from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands; the Broad Institute, USA; the Université de Montréal and Montreal Heart Institute in Canada performed a combined meta-analysis of genome-wide data for celiac disease and Crohn's disease.
Scientists at the Institut Pasteur and the University of Maryland have revealed how bacterial and archaea microbes successfully evolve their gene repertoires to face new challenges, predominantly by acquiring genes from other individuals. The study, published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics on January 27, was instigated to clarify the role of gene duplication, an important source of novelty in multicellular organisms, in bacteria.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – In a new study, scientists at the University of Maryland and the Institut Pasteur show that bacteria evolve new abilities, such as antibiotic resistance, predominantly by acquiring genes from other bacteria.
The researchers new insights into the evolution of bacteria partly contradict the widely accepted theory that new biological functions in bacteria and other microbes arise primarily through the process of gene duplication within the same organism. Their just released study will be published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics on January 27.
Significant disparities exist between the race of kidney disease patients and that of the physicians who will care for them, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that efforts are needed to increase minority recruitment into kidney specialty programs to more closely balance the racial background of physicians and patients.
Researchers from McGill University's Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre (GCRC), the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC), the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have discovered a gene signature that can accurately predict which breast cancer patients are at risk of relapse, thereby sparing those who are not from the burdens associated with unnecessary treatment.
People are increasingly obtaining endangered or threatened plants, often illegally, and moving them outside their native range, according to an article in the journal Nature by Patrick Shirey and Gary Lamberti in the department of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame.
The most common type of breast cancer in older women — estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) positive breast cancer — has been linked to a protein that fends off aging-related cellular damage.
A new study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researcher David Gius, M.D., Ph.D., now shows how a deficiency in this aging-associated protein may set the stage for these tumors to develop.
The findings, published in Molecular Cell, provide information that could assist in the screening, prevention and treatment of these common age-related cancers.
