A new study http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj082068.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca suggests that air pollution may trigger appendicitis in adults.
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BOSTON—Multiple myeloma cancer cells thwart many of the drugs used against them by causing nearby cells to turn traitor – to switch from defending the body against disease to shielding the myeloma cells from harm – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report in the October issue of Cancer Cell.
Seven new glow-in-the-dark mushroom species have been discovered, increasing the number of known luminescent fungi species from 64 to 71. Reported today in the journal Mycologia, the new finds include two new species named after movements in Mozart's Requiem. The discoveries also shed light on the evolution of luminescence, adding to the number of known lineages in the fungi 'family tree' where luminescence has been reported.
Montreal, October 5, 2009 – Expectant mothers who eschew asthma treatment during pregnancy heighten the risk transmitting the condition to their offspring, according to one of the largest studies of its kind published in the European Respiratory Journal. A research team from the Université de Montréal, the Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal and Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center found that 32.6 percent of children born to mothers who neglected to treat their asthma during pregnancy developed the respiratory illness themselves.
Functional food is the food industry's fastest-growing product group, its leading products including dairy products which contain probiotics, that is, bacteria promoting health. Valio's Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG®) is the most frequently studied and used probiotic. Under the supervision of researchers at the Institute of Biotechnology, and the Department of Basic Veterinary Sciences at the University of Helsinki, an international research team determined the genome sequences of LGG and a bacterium closely related to it.
It is estimated that more than 7,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year in the UK and approximately 3,500 cases result in death. These cancers include tumours of the mouth, lips, throat and voice-box, and some have been linked to the sexually transmitted infection, HPV-16. Scientists at Liverpool analyzed the DNA of more than 90 cancerous tissue samples to look for genes that indicated infection.
Scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota show in a research report published online in the FASEB Journal that gene therapy may be used to improve an ailing heart's ability to contract properly. In addition to showing gene therapy's potential for reversing the course of heart failure, it also offers a tantalizing glimpse of a day when "closed heart surgery" via gene therapy is as commonly prescribed as today's cocktail of drugs.
SAN DIEGO – A Henry Ford Hospital study has identified 231 new genes associated with head and neck cancer, one of the most deadly cancers responsible for 2.1 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States.
Previously, only 33 genes were reported associated with head and neck cancer.
San Diego, CA - Organ transplant recipients benefit significantly when they are monitored and receive prompt diagnosis and treatment for otitis media, a common inner ear infection.
In a paper presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in San Diego, researchers reviewed the medical records of 3,278 patients who received solid organ transplantation between February 1995 and December 2007 at a medical center in Seoul, South Korea.
San Diego, CA - A new study suggests that a growing segment of patients are turning to complementary and alternative medical therapies to help treat the symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS).
In a paper presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in San Diego, researchers sought to explore the pattern of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in patients with a prior diagnosis of CRS at a rhinology outpatient clinic in Aberdeen, Scotland.
San Diego, CA - Radiofrequncy-tonsillotomy, which enables surgeons to reduce the size of the tonsillar tissue instead of removing the tonsils entirely, seems to be an effective and safe method of treating children with symptoms of enlarged tonsils.
San Diego, CA – A combination of medications and a particular light therapy is effective at treating certain types of head and neck cancers in subtropical climates.
DURHAM, N.C. -- As scientists work toward making genetically altered bacteria create living "circuits" to produce a myriad of useful proteins and chemicals, they have logically assumed that the single-celled organisms would always respond to an external command in the same way.
Alas, some bacteria apparently have an individualistic streak that makes them zig when the others zag.
DURHAM, N.C. – Imagine a surgical patient on a blood-thinning drug who starts bleeding more than expected, and an antidote that works immediately – because the blood thinner and antidote were designed to work together. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have engineered a way to do this for an entire, versatile class of drugs called aptamers and published their findings in Nature Medicine.
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University Medical Center and National Cancer Institute scientists have discovered that a novel genetic alteration – a second copy of an entire gene – is a cause of familial chordoma, an uncommon form of cancer arising in bones and frequently affecting the nervous system.
Inherited differences in gene copy number, known as copy number variation (CNV), have been implicated in some hereditary diseases but none of the previously discovered familial cancer genes has had CNV as the genetic change.