Body

High-resolution cryo-electron microscopy and supercomputing have now made it possible to analyze in detail the infection mechanisms of coronaviruses. These viruses are notorious for attacking the respiratory tract of humans and animals.

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, with colleagues in Spain and Germany, have unraveled how elevated levels of particular proteins in cancer cells trigger hyperactivity in other proteins, fueling the growth and spread of a variety of cancers.

The findings are published in the February 26 online publication of Scientific Reports.

MINNEAPOLIS - A drug that would be the first to target the cause of Huntington's disease (HD) is effective and safe when tested in mice and monkeys, according to data released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 68th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada, April 15 to 21, 2016. A study to test the drug in humans has begun.

Research led by a Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center physician on ovarian cancer was published in the Feb. 24, 2016 issue of New England Journal of Medicine. The research was directed by Bradley J. Monk, M.D. and researchers at 12 other medical facilities around the nation.

February 26, 2016 - In women undergoing breast reconstruction using their own (autologous) tissue, newer "muscle-sparing" abdominal flaps can reduce complications while improving some aspects of quality of life, reports a study in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Demonstrating a strategy that could form the basis for a new class of electronic devices with uniquely tunable properties, researchers at Kyushu University were able to widely vary the emission color and efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes based on exciplexes simply by changing the distance between key molecules in the devices by a few nanometers.

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) researchers recently published the results of testing a Plasmodium vivax malaria vaccine candidate in a human challenge model.

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

DALLAS - Feb. 26, 2016 - Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that light reflectance spectroscopy can differentiate between malignant and benign prostate tissue with 85 percent accuracy, a finding that may lead to real-time tissue analysis during prostate cancer surgery.

Benefits of this procedure include highly accurate surgical removal of all cancerous tissue and the ability to spare more healthy tissue, minimizing the likelihood of cancer recurrence or additional treatment. Follow-up study is needed before this procedure could be implemented, however.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- When the body loses its ability to fold proteins into the correct shapes, the result can be irreversible and tragic. The accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins in the brain causes many devastating neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Washington, DC - Feb. 26, 2016 - Residential mold has increased in recent years, due to water damage from a rising frequency of flooding. But there is scant information on the impact of residential mold on human health. But now a team of Danish investigators has developed a modeling system that actually mimics indoor fungal aerosols. The research is published ahead of print Feb. 26, 2016 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- More than 60 percent of Rhode Island men who have sex with men (MSM) diagnosed with HIV in 2013 reported meeting sexual partners online in the preceding year, according to a study published today in the journal Public Health Reports.

Understanding the scale and range of neurological disease associated with Zika virus infection is an urgent priority, warn researchers from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health.

Since the first reports of Zika virus infection in Brazil in early 2015, its rapid spread has resulted in an estimated 1·5 million cases with 4 million predicted across the continent by the end of the year, and the declaration by the World Health Organisation of a 'public health emergency of international concern.'

February 26, 2016 - Uncorrected refractive error (URE)--nearsightedness, farsightedness, and other focusing problems correctable by prescription lenses--is responsible for moderate to severe vision impairment in 101 million people and blindness in seven million people worldwide, reports a study in the March issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.

With an increasingly aging prison population, end-of-life care for inmates is becoming a more prominent issue, according to Penn State nursing researchers. End-of-life -- EOL -- care can be complicated, no matter who the patient is, but can be especially challenging for those behind bars.

"The volume and quality of research about end-of-life care in prisons has increased, but research is still largely exploratory and descriptive," said Susan J. Loeb, associate professor of nursing and medicine. "We need to move toward more intervention research."