Body

It's time to say goodbye to ineffective and costly cancer treatments. Japanese scientists have found unique genetic alterations that could indicate whether expensive immune checkpoint inhibitors would be effective for a particular patient.

Programmed-death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is a protein that tells the immune system not to kill a particular cell. Publishing in Nature, a recent study reports that genetic alterations affecting a part of the PD-L1 gene increases the production of the protein, allowing cancer cells to escape detection by the immune system.

Antibodies to native double-stranded DNA are present in the blood of healthy people, but their level is increased manifold in patients with autoimmune diseases, when the human immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissues. Symptoms of these diseases can affect many different body systems, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, and lungs.

Joint research between scientists from Kumamoto University, Japan and Imperial College London, UK has revealed the mechanisms of persistent latent infection of the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). This is an important achievement that may contribute to the prevention of refractory leukemia, a form of leukemia in which leukemic cells do not respond well to treatment.

A novel method for adding liquid by-products from the wood industry into wood-plastic composites (WPCs) prior to manufacturing was developed in a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The study also discovered that proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometry (PTR-MS) is a suitable method for measuring the amounts of volatile organic compounds, VOCs, released from WPCs.

Wood-plastic composites -- replacing plastics with wood

Bosses play no role in fostering a sense of meaningfulness at work - but they do have the capacity to destroy it and should stay out of the way, new research shows.

The study by researchers at the University of Sussex and the University of Greenwich shows that quality of leadership receives virtually no mention when people describe meaningful moments at work, but poor management is the top destroyer of meaningfulness.

Ramucirumab (trade name: Cyramza) is a monoclonal antibody, which blocks a receptor, reducing the growth of blood vessels and so reducing blood supply to the tumours. This aims to slow the growth of the tumours. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in two early benefit assessments whether the drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapies for adult patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) or with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

New research reveals that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was a strong, negative predictor of sexual satisfaction in both male and female veterans who returned from warzones in recent Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

For the Journal of Traumatic Stress study, investigators assessed 1581 males and females from the Veterans After-Discharge Longitudinal Registry (VALOR), a gender-balanced registry of VA healthcare-seeking veterans with and without PTSD.

In collaboration with Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., scientists from Aarhus University have used X-rays to understand how the therapeutic antibody eculizumab prevents our immune system from destroying red blood cells and damaging kidney tissue.

The scientists in Aarhus studied an important protein from the innate immune system called C5 which is cleaved by enzymes when pathogens invade our body as a defense mechanism. The two C5 fragments formed through this cleavage recruit immune cells to fight the pathogen and may directly kill it.

Once upon a time, settlers in the Fertile Crescent of West Asia domesticated few wild plant and animal species. To be precise, it was about 11-12 thousand years ago (kya), and nowadays we name this behavior as, agriculture.

KNOXVILLE--Extracting gas from shale rock not only causes environmental disturbances below ground, the surface infrastructure required to drill the wells can cause a variety of problems above ground, from fragmenting fragile habitats, eroding soil, degrading freshwater systems and displacing rare species.

Minimizing the environmental consequences above-ground is possible, but at a cost to the developers. However, a new study suggests that the additional cost to developers is far smaller than the savings made to the environment.

New research suggests that early severe social deprivation may impact DNA modifications that affect the expression of stress-related genes. These nongenetic (or epigenetic) modifications occur when molecules called methyl groups are added to components of DNA.

CHICAGO -- Delivering genetic test results to patients at risk for cancer-causing genetic mutations over the phone helps to ease cost and transportation burdens and, compared to receiving results in person, does not cause patients additional stress, according to a new study from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania which will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (abstract 1502).

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, June 3, 2016 -- The arrival of a thin and lightweight computer that even rolls up like a piece of paper will not be in the far distant future. Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), built upon a plastic substrate, have received greater attention lately for their use in next-generation displays that can be bent or rolled while still operating.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- If you work in a hospital these days, you've probably gotten the invitation: Take a survey about how well you, your team and your hospital do at protecting patients from harm, and how empowered you feel to do the right thing.

In fact, you've probably gotten many invitations and reminders to take the survey, as your hospital tries to get employees to respond. It's all in the name of gauging something called "patient safety culture."

But a new study questions whether such surveys actually measure how well a hospital is doing at keeping patients safe.

With the United Kingdom's referendum on continued membership in the European Union (EU) approaching, experts are considering the impact of a vote to leave ('Brexit') on numerous aspects of UK society, including agriculture.