Body | Page 4268 | Science Codex

Studies on nutrients, gene expression could lead to tailored diets for disease prevention

Personal health recommendations and diets tailored to better prevent diseases may be in our future, just by focusing on genetics.

Researchers at Kansas State University recently published an academic journal article discussing the potential for nutrigenomics, a field that studies the effects of food on gene expression. The researchers discussed the possibility of using food to prevent an individual's genes from expressing disease. The researchers said nutrigenomics could completely change the future of public health and the food and culinary industries.

Exploring Echinacea's enigmatic origins

An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist is helping to sort through the jumbled genetics of Echinacea, the coneflower known for its blossoms--and its potential for treating infections, inflammation, and other human ailments.

Gluten intolerance in Finland has doubled

The occurrence of gluten intolerance in the Finnish population has doubled in the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, about one per cent of adults in Finland had gluten intolerance, but the figure has since gone up to two per cent by the 2000s.

US doctors sanction transplant criteria for liver cancer patients

Liver transplantation specialists recently convened to address U.S. guidelines for allocation of organs for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, liver cancer). Representatives from more than 130 U.S. transplant centers were invited to the conference and participants included 180 leaders in liver transplantation (LT) from the 50 most active centers. Full details of the recommendations developed at the conference are published in the March issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Whetting Singapore's thirst for rice

Singapore: Singaporeans consume around 275,000 tons of rice each year, which requires 688 billion liters of water to be produced – 2.5 times Singapore's annual domestic water use.

Competition for water is getting fiercer and water supplies are dwindling, yet Singapore can contribute to securing its rice supply by joining the global community in helping farmers become water-wise.

Endocytosis: A fingerprint for genes

Cells may not have a mouth, but they still need to ingest substances from the external environment. If this process - known as endocytosis - is affected, it can lead to infectious diseases or cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, Huntington’s and diabetes. In cooperation with the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at the Dresden University of Technology, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics therefore applied a new strategy to identify and characterize genes involved in endocytosis.

Successful treatment of periodontal disease lowered preterm birth incidences

Washington, DC, USA – Previous studies have explored the effect of periodontal treatment, irrespective of efficacy of treatment, in reducing infant prematurity. In a study titled "Risk of Preterm Birth Is Reduced with Successful Periodontal Treatment," lead researcher M. Jeffcott, and colleagues S. Parry and M. Sammel (all from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) and G. Macones (Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri) determined whether a reduction in infant prematurity was associated with successful periodontal treatment.

Periodontal pathogens enhance HIV-1 promoter activation in T cells

Washington, DC, USA – Today, during the 39th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research, convening at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, lead researcher O.A. Gonzalez (University of Kentucky, Lexington) will present a poster of a study titled "TLR2 and TLR9 Activation by Periodontal Pathogens induce HIV-1 Reactivation." Although oral co-infections (e.g.

Exotic flowers help bees stay busy in winter

Recent years have seen an unusual rise in the number of bees about in the cold winter months, and scientists are now beginning to find out why.

While most bees are hibernating, the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, is out taking advantage of exotic winter-flowering plants in our gardens and parks, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London.

Stress -- don't let it grind you down

People who are stressed by daily problems or trouble at work seem to be more likely to grind their teeth at night. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Head & Face Medicine studied the causes of 'sleep bruxism', gnashing teeth during the night, finding that it was especially common in those who try to cope with stress by escaping from difficult situations.

Breakthrough reveals blood vessel cells are key to growing unlimited amounts of adult stem cells

NEW YORK (March 4, 2010) -- In a leap toward making stem cell therapy widely available, researchers at the Ansary Stem Cell Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered that endothelial cells, the most basic building blocks of the vascular system, produce growth factors that can grow copious amounts of adult stem cells and their progeny over the course of weeks. Until now, adult stem cell cultures would die within four or five days despite best efforts to grow them.

Study identifies key cause of chronic leukemia progression

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have discovered a key reason why a form of leukemia progresses from its more-treatable chronic phase to a life-threatening phase called blast crisis.

The study, led by cancer researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James), indicates that chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) progresses when immature white blood cells lose a molecule called miR-328.

Revisiting chicxulub

For decades, scientists have accumulated ever-larger datasets that suggest an enormous space rock crashed into the ocean off the Yucatan Peninsula more than 65 million years ago, resulting in the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction.

Recent research, supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), suggested that the impact could have occurred 300,000 years prior to the K-Pg extinction, and that another cause--perhaps a second impact, or the long-lasting volcanic activity at the Deccan Traps in what is now India--drove numerous plant and animal species to their end.

Acupuncture may relieve joint pain caused by some breast cancer treatments

NEW YORK (March 4, 2010) – A new study, led by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, demonstrates that acupuncture may be an effective therapy for joint pain and stiffness in breast cancer patients who are being treated with commonly used hormonal therapies. Results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Experimental vaccine protects monkeys against chikungunya

GALVESTON, Texas — Imagine a mosquito-borne virus that has already infected millions of people in recent outbreaks in South and Southeast Asia, the islands of the Indian Ocean, Africa and northern Italy. Although seldom fatal, it causes highly painful arthritis-like symptoms that can linger for months or even years. It's capable of adapting to spread through a mosquito species common in much of North America. And no vaccine or treatment exists to protect humans from its effects.