Body

Therapeutic hypnosis is an effective and safe complementary technique in surgery and the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. This is the conclusion of a systematic review by Winfried Häuser and his co-authors in the latest issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2016; 113: 289-96).

Picture a chromosome as a string of beads. The beads are in fact called nucleosomes and are formed by the DNA strand that makes up the chromosome itself, tightly wrapped around proteins, called histones, which act a bit like spools. Nucleosomes are joined to one other by a segment, of varying length, of the same strand of DNA. The "beads" can be moved along the strand, grouped close together or moved apart, by the action of special proteins called "remodelling motors". One type of these motors arranges the nucleosomes equidistantly on the "string of beads".

Berlin, 20 May 2016 - New evidence for the clinical efficacy of cannabis therapy is presented in the latest issue of the Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology (JBCPP), a De Gruyter publication. The authors have studied cannabis therapy for many years at international research centers, examining its effects, potential applications, and risks.

Scientists from ITMO University and Trinity College have designed an optically active nanosized supercrystal whose novel architecture can help separate organic molecules, thus considerably facilitating the technology of drug synthesis. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

A drug for breast cancer that is more effective than existing medicines may be a step closer thanks to new research.

Scientists have identified a chemical compound that is highly effective at blocking the growth of breast cancer cells in the laboratory.

The compound - called eCF506 - targets a molecule called Src tyrosine kinase that is required for breast cancer cells to grow and spread.

According to new international research, just less than one per cent of the population is naturally protected against developing chronic coronary artery diseases. .

The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world's most highly renowned health journals, has just published the results of international genetic research collaborations.

The lab of Rice University synthetic organic chemist K.C. Nicolaou has reported the streamlined total synthesis of delta12-prostaglandin J3, a molecule previously claimed to kill leukemic cancer cells.

The researchers said their work sets the stage for large-scale synthesis of the cytotoxic agent, a lipid found in nearly all animal tissues, and related compounds that can be produced as potential agents to treat certain types of cancer.

The report by Nicolaou and his colleagues on the streamlined total synthesis appeared in Chemistry - A European Journal.

Scientists of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) led by the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) have shown in a mouse model that the epigenetic* modification of the Igfbp2** gene observed in the young animal precedes a fatty liver in the adult animal later in life. In addition, young animals with this modification exhibit impaired glucose metabolism and are significantly more prone to morbid obesity. Annette Schürmann of DIfE said: "Also in morbidly obese people with incipient diabetes, we were able to demonstrate this modification in the corresponding gene.

Washington, DC - May 20, 2016 - Vibrio cholerae infects roughly four million people annually, worldwide, causing severe diarrheal disease, and killing an estimated 140,000 people. Its success as a pathogen belies the challenges this bacterium faces. The waters this bacterium inhabits when it's not infecting H. sapiens can be 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than our normal body temperature.

Washington, DC - May 20, 2016 - Oral administration of certain probiotics reduced uptake of the heavy metal, cadmium, in the intestines of mice, and in a laboratory experiment using human intestinal cells. The research, which might ultimately be applied to improving public health in areas of heavy metal contamination, is published ahead of print May 20 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases presents a cost-effectiveness tool that can help guide decisions regarding resource allocation to fund interventions targeted at curtailing the ongoing Zika virus outbreak. Analyses using the tool suggest that proposed funds to combat Zika in the US and other countries would be cost-effective, based on quantification of the serious health conditions associated with Zika infection.

Zebra mussels, a ship-borne invasive species, are such a problem in American waters that they cost the U.S. power industry alone $3.1 billion in economic losses in 1993-1999, mainly by blocking pipes that deliver water to cooling plants. Researchers looking for a way to predict where they might end up next, so that preventive measures can be taken, have relied on network science, a way to identify patterns and meaningful connections in fields ranging from invasive species to international terrorism and social networks to infectious diseases.

Climate scientists have long recognized the importance of forest conservation and forest regrowth in climate mitigation and carbon sequestration -- capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. But the detailed information required to make accurate estimates of this potential has remained elusive.

Now, an international team of 60 scientists, working together as the 2ndFOR Network, has completed studies on the effects of forest conservation and secondary forest regeneration across 43 regions in Latin America.

Inside each ovarian tumor, there are good cells and bad cells. A new paper explains their roles:

The bad cells are fibroblasts. They work to block chemotherapy, which is why nearly every woman with ovarian cancer becomes resistant to treatment.

The good cells are immune T cells. They can reverse that resistance.

T cells (red) attack ovarian cancer cells (green). Credit: University of Michigan Health System

Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified, according to the results of a new study.

The estimate, based on universal scaling laws applied to large datasets, appears today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report's authors are Jay Lennon and Kenneth Locey of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

The scientists combined microbial, plant and animal datasets from government, academic and citizen science sources, resulting in the largest compilation of its kind.