Body

Cincinnati, OH, May 27, 2016 -- Many pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists believe that their clinical care extends from treating ill children through end-of-life care. However, are pediatricians actually meeting the needs of families and their dying child? In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers surveyed bereaved parents and found that pediatric end-of-life care needs improvement.

A year and a half ago, researchers at Brown University found a molecular gas pedal for melanin production. Now they've found a brake. For scientists, the finding deepens not only the basic understanding of how eyes, skin and hair gain color, but also what perhaps can be done in disorders, such as albinism, when that doesn't happen.

By increasing the level of a specific microRNA (miRNA) molecule, researchers have for the first time restored chemotherapy sensitivity in vitro to a line of human pancreatic cancer cells that had developed resistance to a common treatment drug.

A naturally occurring vitamin, nicotinamide riboside (NR), can lower blood sugar levels, reduce fatty liver, and prevent peripheral nerve damage in mouse models of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa and the Iowa City VA Health Care System.

The findings provide a scientific rationale for conducting human trials to test the effects of NR on metabolic disorders including prediabetes and T2D, as well as obesity, fatty liver disease, and neuropathies.

University of California, Berkeley scientists have developed a quicker and more efficient method to alter the genes of mice with CRISPR-Cas9, simplifying a procedure growing in popularity because of the ease of using the new gene-editing tool.

While CRISPR-Cas9 has drawn worldwide attention because of its potential to correct simple hereditary diseases in humans, basic researchers are excited about its ability to help them understand the causes and develop treatments for more complex diseases, including cancer and dementia.

The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus produces a group of previously unknown natural products. With reference to plant isoquinoline alkaloids, these substances have been named fumisoquins. Researchers from Jena (Germany) discovered the novel substances together with their American colleagues while studying the fungal genome. The family of isoquinoline alkaloids contains many pharmacologically active molecules. This study, which has just been published in Nature Chemical Biology, shows that fungi and plants developed biosynthetic pathways for these complex molecules independently of each other.

A new tool by Japan-based researchers predicts the risk of Zika virus importation and local transmission for 189 countries.

Countries that are well connected to/from Brazil have been at particularly high risk of importation, according to the analysis by a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

Flowers without scent produce fewer seeds, although they are visited as often by pollinators as are flowers that do emit a scent. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, made this surprising observation, when they studied tobacco plants that have been silenced in their ability to produce floral volatiles.

A new study indicates that sharks of the same species can have different personalities.

Certain Port Jackson sharks were bolder than others in tests of the propensity of individuals to emerge from cover and explore a novel, potentially dangerous habitat. Also, certain sharks were more stressed when held out of water.

Boldness and handling stress reactivity were both significantly repeatable in juvenile sharks, and there was a correlation between boldness and more active stress responses.

A research group led by Professor Mochida Tomoyuki (Kobe University Graduate School of Science) and Dr. Funasako Yusuke (Tokyo University of Science, Yamaguchi) has developed a metal-containing compound which transforms into a solid when exposed to light and returns to liquid form when heated. This substance could potentially be used for photolithography technology, such as fabricating printed circuits, among other applications. The findings were published in the journal Chemical Communications on May 7, 2016 (Japan Standard Time).

A DNA sample provided by a businessman has confirmed him as a descendant of a medieval king of Scotland.

It has also led to the discovery of a distinct genetic marker for descendants of King Robert III.

DNA tests undertaken as part of a study led by the University of Strathclyde, proved that Archie Shaw Stewart is in the family line of King Robert III, who reigned from 1390 until his death in 1406.

Animals can perceive changes in many environmental factors such as temperature and the taste or smell of foods. This is achieved by specialized nerve cells called sensory neurons. Interestingly, sensory neurons have been known to control the rate of aging in various animals, including the tiny free living roundworm C. elegans.

Several new malaria drugs under development share a common feature: they promote an influx of sodium ions into Plasmodium parasites that have invaded red blood cells and multiply there. A study published on May 26th in PLOS Pathogens suggests that this increase in sodium concentration kills the parasite by changing the composition of its outer membrane (the skin equivalent) and promoting division of the parasite before its genome has been replicated.

Fungi can sense environmental signals and react accordingly, changing their development, direction of growth, and metabolism. Sensory perception lies at the heart of adaptation to changing conditions, and helps fungi to improve growth and recycle organic waste, and to know when and how to infect a plant or animal host. New results based on characterizing and then conducting a comparative analysis of two genome sequences published online May 26, 2016 in the journal Current Biology shed new light on the evolution of sensory perception in fungi.

Malnourished children are most likely to die from common infections, not starvation. New experimental evidence, reviewed May 26 in Trends in Immunology, indicates that even with a healthy diet, defects in immune system function from birth could contribute to a malnourished state throughout life. Researchers speculate that targeting immune pathways could be a new approach to reduce the poor health and mortality caused by under- and overnutrition.