Body

Philadelphia, PA, Dec. 14, 2015 - Vitamin D plays a crucial role in ensuring appropriate bone density. Active individuals who enjoy participating in higher impact activities may need to maintain higher vitamin D levels to reduce their risk of stress fractures, report investigators in The Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery.

A team of researchers at UC San Francisco has devised a new approach for early stage drug discovery that uses techniques from the world of computer vision in combination with a powerful new tool: a lineage of genetically modified cancer cells in a dish that change their appearance when treated with drugs targeting common disease pathways.

The use of antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, during the final two trimesters of pregnancy was associated with increased risk for autism spectrum disorder in children, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

While prescriptions for opioid pain relievers were concentrated in specialties for pain, anesthesia, and physical medicine and rehabilitation, it was general practitioners who dominated total prescriptions among Medicare prescribers based on sheer volume, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers have suggested small groups of prolific prescribers and pill mills drive the opioid overdose epidemic. Medicare data provide an opportunity to examine prescribing patterns across a national population.

New research shows that current approaches to genome analysis systematically miss detecting a certain type of complex mutation in cancer patients' tumors. Further, a significant percentage of these complex mutations are found in well-known cancer genes that could be targeted by existing drugs, potentially expanding the number of cancer patients who may benefit.

The study, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appears Dec. 14 in the journal Nature Medicine.

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated a simple charge-based mechanism for regulating the formation and dissolution of liquid-like structures that lack outer membranes inside cells. The research provides a first step in deciphering how these poorly-understood structures function in the cell and how they may have evolved. The research, conducted by Penn State University scientists, will appear December 14, 2015, as an advance online publication of the journal, Nature Chemistry.

Most prescriptions for opioid painkillers are made by the broad swath of U.S. general practitioners, not by a limited group of specialists, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

This finding contrasts with previous studies by others that indicated the U.S. opioid epidemic is stoked by a small population of prolific prescribers operating out of corrupt "pill mills."

Researchers from Princeton University have identified genes important for age-related cognitive declines in memory in adult worm neurons, which had not been studied previously. The research, published in the journal Nature, could eventually point the way toward therapies to extend life and enhance health in aging human populations.

A collaboration between computer scientists and geneticists at Stanford University has produced a novel technique for mapping the diversity of bacteria living in the human gut.

The new approach revealed a far more diverse community than the researchers had anticipated. "The bacteria are genetically much more heterogeneous than we thought," said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of genetics.

Liquid is often seen as the kryptonite of electronics, known for damaging and corroding components.

That's why a new process that uses vapour- rather than liquid - to grow designer crystals could lead to a new breed of faster, more powerful electronic devices.

The method, invented by an international team of scientists from the University of Leuven in Belgium, the National University of Singapore and CSIRO has been published today in the journal Nature Materials.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new type of materials with nanoscale pores. Bioscience engineers from KU Leuven, Belgium, have developed an alternative method that produces these materials in the form of very thin films, so that they can easily be used for high-tech applications such as microchips.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 14, 2015 -- In a biological system, the ratio of water-to-non-water molecules, known as the hydration level, influences both the arrangement of biomolecules and the strength of the electric interactions that occur between biomolecules, free ions, and functional groups, which are groups of atoms within molecules that strongly influence the molecules' chemical properties.

Amyloid diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and type-2 diabetes pose a particular problem for drug designers because they do not present a clear target structure to aim at.

Instead of the disease being linked to a single, easily identifiable species such as the active site of an enzyme or a specific receptor, amyloid diseases are associated with heterogeneous accumulations of proteins sticking together.

This is the key reason why many amyloid diseases are currently incurable.

A method of fabricating polymer membranes with nanometer-scale holes that overcomes some practical challenges has been demonstrated by KAUST researchers.

Porous membranes can filter pollutants from a liquid, and the smaller the holes, the finer the particles the membrane can remove. The KAUST team developed a block copolymer membrane with pores as small as 1.5 nanometers but with increased water flux, the volume processed per hour by a membrane of a certain area.

Exposure to farm animals in early childhood modifies the key allergy-related immunological mechanisms, shows a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland. The study provides new insight into the role of dendritic cells and cytokine production in particular.