Body

Skin bleaching with the use of glutathione is on the rise, despite the potential ethical issues and adverse side effects associated with the practice, warns a doctor in The BMJ this week.

Ophelia Dadzie, a consultant dermatologist at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Founder and Director of London Ethnic Skin Limited, says that "there is a lack of authoritative public health information in the UK about the efficacy and safety of this practice."

LA JOLLA, CA--As an arm of the innate immune system, white blood cells called neutrophils form the first line of defense against invading pathogens. Neutrophils spend most of their lives racing through the bloodstream, patrolling for bacteria or other foreign particles. Once they arrive at tissues besieged by infectious agents, they halt on a dime and then blast through the vessel wall to reach the inflammatory attack site. They do this by activating integrins, a class of adhesion receptors that can switch on in less than a second.

It can be challenging for regulators to keep up with advances related to medical drugs and devices. A new analysis and editorial published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology provide insights on how officials are working to support accelerated access to new therapies while also ensuring their safety.

The Griffith University study investigated parasite interactions in wild birds and found they are a crucial indicator of malaria infection risk.

The study Co-infections and environmental conditions drive the distributions of blood parasites in wild birds has been published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Researchers were able to cut the number of patients who died from sepsis, or infections that spread to the bloodstream, by 40% (from 12.5% to 7.1%) after the introduction of relatively simple steps at the wards at Levanger Hospital in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway.

The steps, which included increased training and a special observation chart, were introduced as part of a research project carried out by Nord University, Levanger Hospital, and the Mid-Norway Centre for Sepsis Research at NTNU and St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway.

New research uncovers the first steps of how human organs and tissues develop - unlocking new potential for understanding and diagnosing developmental disorders

For the first time, the precise way individual human organs and tissue develop has been mapped - providing new insight into how genetic disorders can occur during the crucial early phase of development.

The research, carried out by a team from the University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is published in the current issue of the journal eLife.

A new theory aims to explain how the complex vertebrate body, with its skeleton, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems, arises from a single cell during development and how these systems evolved over time. The theory, called embryo geometry, is the culmination of nearly 20 years of work by a team of researchers and science illustrators.

The new theory is published along with illustrations - or "blueprints" - depicting how it applies to different vertebrate organ systems in Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology.

CRISPR/Cas9 is likely one of the most revolutionary tools in biotechnology, with tremendous implications for a broad range of biological and medical disciplines. As programmable scissors this technology allows cleavage of DNA at predefined sites in the genome of cells. Now researchers from the National Center for Tumor Disease (NCT) Dresden, the German Consortium ortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) and the Medical Faculty of the TU Dresden have found a way to utilize the technology to diagnose and inactivate cancer mutations, thereby accelerating cancer research.

The Tibetan Plateau, as the Earth's third pole, has long been of interest to many, especially in relation to its human history. Over the last few decades our understanding of the history of human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau has significantly improved as a result of progress made in archaeological, genetic and earth science studies. However, arguments still remain as a result of the major discrepancies which exist between the findings of studies based on different materials and using different approaches.

As a nutritional trace element, selenium forms an essential part of our diet. In collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have been able to show that high blood selenium levels are associated with a decreased risk of developing liver cancer. In addition to other risk factors, the study also examines in how far selenium levels may influence the development of other types of cancer. Results from this study have been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.*

A team of researchers led by Cardiff University has discovered a promising new drug treatment for cocaine addiction.

The experimental therapy, which involves administering a drug currently used in cancer therapy trials, treats cocaine addiction by inhibiting memories responsible for cravings.

A research team, led by Cardiff University, has made a significant step towards the development of a simple blood test to predict the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Funded by the Alzheimer's Society, the group of researchers from Cardiff University, King's College London and the University of Oxford studied blood from 292 individuals with the earliest signs of memory impairment and found a set of biomarkers (indicators of disease) that predicted whether or not a given individual would develop Alzheimer's disease.

AMHERST, Mass. - Results of the two-year, $8 million Great Elephant Census (GEC) of African savannah elephants led by Elephants Without Borders (EWB) were released today at an international wildlife conference in Hawaii, confirming massive declines in elephant numbers over just the last decade. The researchers report the current rate of species decline is 8 percent per year, primarily due to poaching.

Research published this week in the journal Vaccine reports field trials of the oral vaccine SAG2 in Ethiopian wolves, Africa's most threatened carnivore and the world's rarest canid.

The trials, undertaken by the University of Oxford, the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, are the first ever conducted in wild populations of an endangered carnivore.

Do you feel overweight, about right, or too skinny?

Your answer to that question may be tied to genes you inherited from your parents, especially if you are a female, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

"This study is the first to show that genes may influence how people feel about their weight," said CU Boulder doctoral student Robbee Wedow, lead study author. "And we found the effect is much stronger for women than men."