Preliminary research has found that children with autism are more likely to have impaired mitochondrial function (structures within cells responsible for energy production) and mitochondrial DNA abnormalities than typically developing children, according to a study in the December 1 issue of JAMA.
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(CHICAGO) -- Children with autism are far more likely to have deficits in their ability to produce cellular energy than are typically developing children, a new study by researchers at UC Davis has found. The study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that cumulative damage and oxidative stress in mitochondria, the cell's energy producer, could influence both the onset and severity of autism, suggesting a strong link between autism and mitochondrial defects.
Death and length of stay are increased among hospitalized inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients who develop hospital-acquired infections, according to a study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. Also, health-care-associated and hospital-acquired infections are most frequent in patients with severe liver disease, according to an additional study published in the journal.
New Rochelle, NY, November 30, 2010—Access to quality reproductive healthcare for women around the globe is a fundamental aspect of a woman's human rights, freedom, equity, and right to control her own body. A Special Section on Global Women's Reproductive Health in the current issue of Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., explores the compelling medical, socioeconomic, and gender-based factors that impact global women's health issues. The Special Focus articles are available free online.
Boston, MA – A team of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) scientists report finding a molecular "switch" that can "turn off" some cellular processes that are protective against aging and metabolic diseases. While more research is needed, the findings may open doors for new drug treatments to halt or slow development of metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes or heart disease. The research findings appear in the December 1, 2010 issue of Cell Metabolism.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) ― Researchers from the UC Davis Health System have found that compared with healthy controls, blood levels of vitamin D are significantly reduced in patients in the Sacramento area with metabolic syndrome, a constellation of disease risk factors that affects about one in three U.S. adults and predisposes them to diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
(Garrison, NY) Should parents be able to use medical means to restrict the growth of profoundly disabled children to make them easier to care for at home? A working group convened to discuss the ethical and policy considerations of "growth attenuation" proposes some guidelines in an article in the Hastings Center Report.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In what might be one of the world's first medicinal body piercings, UC Davis Health System surgeons announced today that they have successfully implanted an experimental device in the throat of a man that will enable him to manually control his ability to swallow. The device, which could offer an effective treatment option for people suffering from severe swallowing problems, is controlled by pulling on a tiny metal pin that extends through the skin in the neck. The post, when pulled forward, manually opens the esophagus and allows food and water to pass.
CHICAGO – Rush University Medical Center has just enrolled the first U.S. patient in an international clinical trial testing a novel drug to treat certain kinds of melanoma, a deadly skin cancer that in its advanced stages currently has few effective treatments.
Rather than blocking or killing all rapidly dividing cells, whether malignant or not, the drug, called nilotnib, is one of a new class of agents that have been designed to sabotage aberrant molecules characteristic of individual cancers – in this case, the c-kit protein.
PHILADELPHIA — Scientists working with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and The Academy ofNatural Sciences have made an important discovery in the Delaware River between Chester, Pennsylvania, andTrenton, New Jersey: beds of freshwater mussels. This includes several uncommon species, two of which werepreviously believed to no longer exist in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – New research shows the NSAID Celebrex may help prevent some non-melanoma skin cancers from developing in patients who have pre-cancerous actinic keratoses lesions and are at high risk for having the disease.
A new report in the December Cell Metabolism identifies a protein without which diets high in saturated fat lead to a massive inflammatory response that can prove fatal. The studies in mice suggest that deficiencies in this protective pathway could promote inflammation in those who regularly consume high levels of saturated fat.
"In mice without this protein that ate a lot of saturated fat, the lymph nodes blew up to extreme levels," said Sander Kersten of the Nutrigenomics Consortium and Wageningen University in the Netherlands. "I'd never seen anything like it before."
New research shows that anti-microbial medications are a common cause of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) leading to acute liver failure (ALF), with women and minorities disproportionately affected. While ALF evolves slowly, once it does occur a spontaneous recovery is unlikely; however liver transplantation offers an excellent survival rate. Full findings of this ten-year prospective study are published in the December issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
DURHAM, N.H. – Once lost in the mists of time, the colonial hydrology of the northeastern United States has been reconstructed by a team of geoscientists, biological scientists and social scientists, including University of New Hampshire Ph.D. candidate Christopher Pastore.