Body

WASHINGTON D.C., February 29, 2016 - If you suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF) -- a condition where disorganized electrical signals cause the heart's upper chambers to contract quickly and irregularly -- your doctor may prescribe an antiarrhythmic drug. While these drugs have long been prescribed for AF, which has been linked to an increased risk of stroke, chest pains and even heart failure, their complete mechanisms for restoring action and mitigating these risks have been unclear.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University researchers have engineered microbes that can't run away from home; those that do will quickly die without protective proteins produced by their peers.

Dubbed "swarmbots" for their ability to survive in a crowd, the system could be used as a safeguard to stop genetically modified organisms from escaping into the surrounding environment. The approach could also be used to reliably program colonies of bacteria to respond to changes in their surrounding environment, such as releasing specific molecules on cue.

Washington, DC, February 29, 2016 - Placing alcohol-based hand sanitizers (AHS) in the middle of a hospital lobby floor in front of the visitor entrance increased visitor usage by 528 percent, according to a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

JUPITER, FL - February 29, 2016 - Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time developed a way to predict how a specific type of stem cell will act against different diseases. With more than 500 stem cell-based therapies currently in clinical trials, the findings could have an impact on evaluating these therapies and developing new ones.

The new study, published recently by the journal EBioMedicine, was led by Professor Donald G. Phinney, acting chair of Scripps Florida's Department of Molecular Therapeutics.

HUNTSVILLE, TX (02-29-16) -- Sam Houston State University is advancing the field of forensic botany with the publication of two recent studies that use marijuana DNA to link drug supplies and pollen DNA to aid in forensic investigations.

For men with low-grade prostate cancer, active surveillance -- monitoring with the option to treat if the cancer worsens -- is the most common management strategy at a regional diagnostic centre in Ottawa, Ontario, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)

Public health should be involved in Canada's national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, because many factors underlying family and interpersonal violence are linked to mental health issues, substance abuse, low income and other public health issues, urges an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)

Of the approximately 24,000 Canadians diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, about half have a slow-growing form that poses little risk to their health. A new study from The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa shows that men with these slow-growing tumours are increasingly avoiding unnecessary and potentially harmful treatment in favour of an approach called active surveillance -- monitoring the cancer with regular tests and treating it only if it changes to a higher risk form.

The modern plagues of obesity, physical inactivity and processed food have been definitively established as modern causes of colon cancer. Researchers have also associated a mutation of the Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene with the deadly disease. But which came first? Is colon cancer a lethal product of modernity? Or is this an open-and-shut case of DNA gone awry?

DENVER - Metabolic phenotyping of blood plasma by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR) identified unique metabolic biomarkers specific to lung cancer patients and allowed for the accurate identification of a cohort of patients with early and late-stage lung cancer.

It is blood pressure that drives the opening of small capillaries during angiogenesis. A team of researchers led by Prof. Holger Gerhardt of the MDC observed the process for the first time and published their findings in Nature Cell Biology. The scientists showed how the pressure exerted by the blood causes the membrane of endothelial cells to cave in and grow into the cell's body, until a continuous vessel forms. The cell itself directs the process with the help of the actomyosin filaments of its cytoskeleton.

Research in Nature Neuroscience suggests the possibility of treating a group of genetic birth defects with molecular therapy that would regenerate malformed nerve insulation in the central nervous system.

Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report their findings in the journal's Feb. 29 online edition. The study focuses on a genetic condition called CHARGE syndrome, which leads to multiple life-altering birth defects that include craniofacial malformations, neurological dysfunction and growth delay.

Plastic waste could find its way deep into the ocean through the faeces of plankton, new research from the University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory shows.

The study is further evidence of the widespread impact plastic pollution could have on the marine environment.

Researchers have found tiny marine creatures called zooplankton readily ingest "microplastics", plastic debris smaller than one mm in size. This plastic is later egested within their faecal pellets.

reaggregation of marine sponges' cells helped the scientists to come closer to understanding of the origin and early evolution of multicellular animals.The work was published in Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology.

Andrey Lavrov and Igor Kosevich, MSU biologists, researched the ability of the cells of marine sponges (Porifera) to reaggregation - a process, during which the artificially separated sponge cells reaggregate and build multicellular aggregates of varying types.

In Germany, nearly 2 million people have non-dialysis-dependent renal insufficiency. This is the result presented by Matthias Girndt and colleagues, based on a study from the Robert Koch Institute and published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2016; 113: 85-91). In a second paper, Falk Hoffmann and colleagues conclude that one in five nursing home residents with renal insufficiency receives a contraindicated medication (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2016; 113: 92-98).