Body

A research team at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has shown in a study that two closely related enzymes could be targets for the treatment of lung cancer. The discovery was made when the researchers blocked the production of the two enzymes in transgenic mice. This resulted in inhibition of cell growth, fewer tumours and greater survival among the mice.

Throughout our lives we are exposed to an enormous range of man-made chemicals, from food, water, medicines, cosmetics, clothes, shoes and the air we breathe. At the request of the EU, researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have looked at the risk of "chemical cocktails" and have proposed a number of measures that need to be implemented in the current practice of chemical risk assessment.

Researchers from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University found that one year after 248 individuals completed a 12-week cardiac rehabilitation program following a heart attack, bypass surgery or angioplasty, only 37% exercised three times a week to keep their hearts healthy.

Women across the age groups were less inclined to make the healthy changes in comparison to men. Although all groups had a decline between months 9 and 12, younger men sustained healthy exercise patterns better than all the other groups.

MADISON, WI, March 29, 2010- The number of waste treatment facilities using biological processes to biodegrade waste has been increasing over the years. These installations receive municipal and industrial organic wastes with the common main goal of reducing their biodegradable organic matter content. Composting, anaerobic digestion, and mechanical-biological treatment plants contribute to organic matter recycling and energy recovery, and avoid landfilling.

People with diabetes who undergo cancer surgery are more likely to die in the month following their operations than those who have cancer but not diabetes, an analysis by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests.

The factors instrumental in triggering latent tuberculosis (TB) infection to progress into active disease have long remained elusive to researchers. New insight into the mystery is provided by Professor David Russell, speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today. His work could help develop innovative strategies for treating the disease.

Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according to Jesse Harrison presenting his research at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today.

Pathogenic bacteria in the gut recognise their surroundings by detecting hormone signals from the host, which can prompt them to express lethal toxins. Intercepting these hormonal messages could be a better way to treat serious food-borne infections where antibiotics do more harm than good, explains Vanessa Sperandio speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today.

Tiny chemical sensors implanted into patients could help diagnose disease and track its progress, following a development by scientists.

Researchers have developed tiny probes comprising gold-coated particles. These can be inserted into cells, enabling diseases to be detected and monitored remotely using light from a laser.

Once the probe is inside a cell, laser light shone on to it is absorbed then re-emitted, causing nearby proteins in the cell to vibrate according to their shape.

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Giving tomato breeders and ketchup fans something to cheer about, a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientist and his colleagues at the Hebrew University in Israel have identified a gene that pushes hybrid tomato plants to spectacularly increase yield. The yield-boosting power of this gene, which controls when plants make flowers, works in different varieties of tomato, and crucially, across a range of environmental conditions.

HOUSTON - A two-drug combination destroys precancerous colon polyps with no effect on normal tissue, opening a new potential avenue for chemoprevention of colon cancer, a team of scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have identified a new strategy for treating type 2 diabetes, identifying a cellular pathway that fails when people become obese. By activating this pathway artificially, they were able to normalize blood glucose levels in severely obese and diabetic mice. Their findings will be published online by Nature Medicine on March 28.

NORFOLK, VA. –- A new minimally invasive surgery to correct a chest wall deformity -- often known as pigeon chest -- was demonstrated Friday at an international conference attended by surgeons from the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Puerto Rico, Germany, Spain and Russia.

A new test developed by Japanese scientists may revolutionize how and when physicians diagnose Alzheimer's disease. According to a research report published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), the new test measures proteins in the spinal fluid known to be one of the main causes of brain degeneration and memory impairment in Alzheimer's patients: high molecular weight A-Beta oligomers.