ST. PAUL, Minn. – New immigrants to North America may be less likely to have a stroke at a young age than long-time residents, according to a study published in the February 3, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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LA JOLLA, CA – February 3, 2010 – For Immediate Release – A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has identified two compounds that act on novel binding sites for an enzyme used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS. The discovery lays the foundation for the development of a new class of anti-HIV drugs to enhance existing therapies, treat drug-resistant strains of the disease, and slow the evolution of drug resistance in the virus.
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Medical College of Georgia researchers are seeking to refine cancer treatment with an anti-inflammatory plant derivative long used in Chinese medicine.
Celastrol, derived from trees and shrubs called celastracaea, has been used for centuries in China to treat symptoms such as fever, chills, joint pain and inflammation. The MCG researchers think it may also play a role in cancer treatment by inactivating a protein required for cancer growth.
The push is on for healthcare providers to make the switch to electronic health records but it is hard to tell how well these complex health information technology systems are being implemented and used, writes a health informatics researcher at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in a Feb. 3 commentary in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association.
COLLEGE STATION – A joke among two Texas AgriLife Research scientists later turned into a fully-funded study found Viagra can aid fetal development in female sheep. Female sheep (ewes) are an agriculturally important species, which can serve as an excellent animal model for studying the physiology of human pregnancy, the researchers said.
Scientists at The Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) led an international effort to build a map that shows in detail how the human genome is modified during embryonic development.
This detailed mapping is a significant move towards the success of targeted differentiation of stem cells into specific organs, which is a crucial consideration for stem cell therapy.
The study was published in the journal Genome Research on Feb. 4, 2010.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 2, 2010 -- Although obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and coronary heart disease worldwide, only some obese individuals go on to develop these metabolic complications, while others are relatively protected. Defining these protective factors could help scientists prevent disease in the wider population.
To this end, a research team at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, led by Suneil Koliwad, MD, PhD, recently added new details that link obesity to diabetes and heart disease.
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have identified a key protein used by the malaria parasite to transform human red blood cells, ensuring the parasite's survival.
Their discovery means researchers have a clear target against which to develop a new class of anti-malarial drugs that destroy the parasite.
A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to research published today in Nature. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London and ten other European Centres, say that missing DNA such as that identified in this research may be having a dramatic effect on some people's weight.
STANFORD, Calif. — Some cells are natural rule-breakers. Neural crest cells for example, not only migrate throughout the body during development (most cells are more selective in their wandering), they are also more developmentally flexible than their predecessors (a no-no for nearly all cell types). Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that a protein that controls DNA accessibility is responsible for the cells' unruly ways.
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a protein made by the malaria parasite that is essential to its ability to take over human red blood cells.
Malaria, which is spread by mosquito bites, kills between 1 million and 3 million people annually in Third World countries. Death results from damage to red blood cells and clogging of the capillaries that feed the brain and other organs.
NEW YORK, February 2, 2010 -- A hormone responsible for the body's stress response is also linked to the growth of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, according to JDRF- funded researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. The findings are the latest advances to underscore the potential for regeneration as a key component of a possible cure for type 1 diabetes.
Scientists in Texas are reporting that a technique used in the search for new drugs could also be used in the quest to discover new, environmentally friendly materials for fighting global warming. Such materials could be used to capture the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from industrial smokestacks and other fixed sources before it enters the biosphere. The new study appears in ACS' bi-monthly journal Energy & Fuels.
Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers — the source of long-standing human health concerns — from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics. The advance could lead to a new generation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics that are safer than those now used in packaging, medical tubing, toys, and other products, they say. Their study is in ACS' Macromolecules, a bi-weekly journal.
PHILADELPHIA –- Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania studying oocytes in mice, the immature egg cells necessary for sexual reproduction, have demonstrated an unusual behavior in microRNA, or miRNA, activity that may be the first event in reprogramming the differentiated oocyte into pluripotent blastomeres of the embryo. MicroRNAs are a member of the family of small RNAs, the so-called dark matter of the biological world.