GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As scientists work to find new treatments for Pompe disease — the devastating genetic "villain" that drives the efforts of the main characters in the new film "Extraordinary Measures" — University of Florida researchers are hopeful that gene therapy will help patients in the late stages of the disease breathe on their own.
Clinical trials of a gene therapy for Pompe-related breathing problems in six infants are expected to begin at UF this summer.
Montreal, January 26, 2010 – A Université de Montréal research team is developing a pill composed of leptin, the protein that tells our brain to stop eating. "Mice deprived of leptin will not stop eating. They become so big they have trouble moving around," says Moïse Bendayan, a pathology professor at the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine who has studied the leptin protein extensively.
Biodiversity in freshwater systems is impacted as much or more by environmental change than tropical rain forests, according to University of Oklahoma Professor Caryn Vaughn, who serves as director of the Oklahoma Biological Survey. "When we think about species becoming extinct, we don't necessarily think of the common species in freshwater systems, many of which are declining," says Vaughn.
Mankind may finally have a weapon to fight two of the world's deadliest diseases.
A University of Central Florida biomedical researcher has developed what promises to be the first low-cost dual vaccine against malaria and cholera.
Hamburg, 26 January 2010 – Cells rely on a range of signaling systems to communicate with each other and to control their own internal workings. Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now found a way to hack into a vital communications system, raising the possibility of developing new drugs to tackle disorders like neurodegeneration, cancer and cardiovascular disease. In a study published today in Science Signaling, they have pieced together the first snapshot of what two of the system's components look like while interacting.
The same evolutionary genetic advantages that have helped increase human lifespans also make us uniquely susceptible to diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease and dementia, reveals a study to be published in a special PNAS collection on "Evolution in Health and Medicine" on Tuesday, Jan. 26.
By as early as 7 years of age, being obese may raise a child's risk of future heart disease and stroke, even in the absence of other cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), women taking commonly used forms of antidepressant drugs may experience delayed lactation after giving birth and may need additional support to achieve their breastfeeding goals.
OAK BROOK, Ill. – Preoperative computed tomography (CT) may help reduce unnecessary surgeries in women of reproductive age with suspected acute appendicitis, according to a new study appearing in the February issue of the journal Radiology.
Scientists at the Babraham Institute have discovered a novel survival factor whose rapid transport along nerve cells is crucial for keeping them alive. The same factor seems likely to be needed to keep our nerves healthy as we age. These findings, published today in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, show that a molecule known as Nmnat2 provides a protective function; in its absence healthy, uninjured nerve cells start to degenerate and boosting levels of Nmnat2 can delay degeneration when the cells are injured.
DURHAM, N.C. – Scientists at Duke University Medical Center say they are now convinced that rare genetic variants – as opposed to more common ones – lie at the heart of the genetic component of most common diseases.
Research published this week in PLoS Medicine concludes that at least 125.2 million women at risk of malaria become pregnant each year.
As the Prince Mahidol Award Conference on Health Information kicks off in Bangkok, Thailand, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, gets underway this week, eight global health agencies call for a concerted global effort to collect better health data.
The international humanitarian medical aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) supports a wide network of medical laboratories in resource-constrained countries. In a Health in Action article in this week's PLoS Medicine, Derryck Klarkowski and Juan Daniel Orozco of MSF discuss how the organization has addressed the issue of maintaining quality control for laboratory testing.
Funding: The authors received no specific funding to write this paper.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
In the decade since the Human Genome Project produced the first map of DNA sequences in the human genome, scientists throughout the world have combed through genome data to identify genes and gene variants that cause human disease. A new study suggests that researchers may need to broaden their search farther afield to pinpoint rare but powerful disease-causing mutations.