University of Florida researchers have uncovered how the inhaled form of anthrax disarms bacteria-fighting white blood cells before they can fend off the disease, which kills most victims within days.
The lethal toxin in anthrax paralyzes neutrophils, the white blood cells that act as the body’s first defense against infection, by impairing how they build tiny filaments that allow them to crawl throughout the body and eat invading bacteria.
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Often viewed as a hindrance, having a quirky or socially awkward approach to lifemay be the key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor.
New research on individuals with schizotypal personalities – people characterized by odd behavior and language but who are not psychotic or schizophrenic – offers the first neurological evidence that they are more creative than either normal or fully schizophrenic individuals, and rely more heavily on the right sides of their brains tha
Researchers from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories, together with fellow members of the Joint Water Reuse & Desalination Task Force, in coming months will be studying the best ways to desalinize – and make potable – ocean water, subsurface brines, and wastewater.
The California Department of Water Resources recently granted Sandia and its Task Force partners $1 million for the study. The Task Force – which comprises Sandia, the
Sometimes less is more.
That is a difficult concept to grasp, particularly when you are a 3-year-old. But psychologists have discovered something that helps – symbols.
Researchers investigating how self-control develops in children found that abstract symbols can lead the youngsters toward a more optimal decision than when they have to make a choice with tangible objects such as candy.
This was demonstrated when the researchers gave 3-year-olds the choice o
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are the first to create a large-scale, cell-based screening method that identifies which compounds activate immune-response cells that hold promise for future cancer-fighting vaccines.
The new screening technique can scan thousands and even millions of compounds to identify those that activate dendritic cells, which are on constant recon patrol throughout the body to scout out cancerous or infected cells and alert the immune system.
A group of researchers from Mexico has discovered that a diet rich in soy protein may alleviate fatty liver, a disease which often accompanies diabetes. The details of their findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.
The high levels of insulin and insulin-resistance that accompany diabetes are often associated with fatty liver or hepatic steatosis, an untreatable condition that c
Four sugar-coated faces made by stem cells as they differentiate into brain cells during development have been identified by scientists.
These unique expressions of sugar on the cell surface may one day enable stem cell therapy to repair brain injury or disease by helping stem cells navigate the relative “jungle” of the adult brain, says Dr. Robert K. Yu, director of the Institute of Neuroscience and the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Geor
3D MRI can detect pancreatic cancer when it is smaller and patients have a greater likelihood of survival, a new study shows.
The study included 57 patients who had clinical symptoms of pancreatic cancer. All had contrast enhanced 3D gradient-echo MRI examinations. Radiologists correctly identified pancreatic cancer in 24 patients, said Richard Semelka, MD, professor of radiology, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an author of the study. Eight of the cancers fo
Batch reading, the process of interpreting screening mammograms during a set-aside block of time in a quiet environment that prevents interruption or distraction, can significantly reduce the number of patients who have to return for additional mammograms—although few hospitals use it, say researchers from the University of Wisconsin.
For the study, the researchers analyzed the recall and cancer detection rates for 9,522 screening mammograms, 1,538 of which were interpreted by batch re
Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that the naturally occurring marine toxin domoic acid can cause subtle but lasting cognitive damage in rats exposed to the chemical before birth. Humans can become poisoned by the potentially lethal, algal toxin after eating contaminated shellfish.
The researchers saw behavioral effects of the toxin in animals after prenatal exposure to domoic acid levels below those generally deemed safe for adults, said Edward Levin, Ph.D.
Attention, vigilance, driving skills suffer as much from long work hours & overnight shifts as from blood alcohol level of 0.04%
The long hours and overnight shifts that are a rite of passage for young doctors may leave them so sleep-deprived that they function as poorly as if they’d had a few cocktails, a new study finds.
In findings published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, 34 young pediatric residents showed simila
Aromatase inhibitor improves survival for some patients, reduces metastasis
The complete analysis of data from an international trial of the drug letrozole (Femara) confirms earlier reports that the drug reduced the recurrence of breast cancer in women previously treated with tamoxifen. It also finds that letrozole prevents the development of metastases, even in women whose cancer had originally spread to their lymph nodes. The report appears in the September 7 issue of the Journa
In findings that support a relationship between agricultural chemicals and Parkinson’s disease, two groups of researchers have found new evidence that loss of DJ-1, a gene known to be linked to inherited Parkinson’s disease, leads to striking sensitivity to the herbicide paraquat and the insecticide rotenone. The two studies were performed with the fruit fly Drosophila, a widely used model organism for studies of human disease, and shed new light on biological connections between inheri
By experimentally relocating migratory white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) from their breeding area in the Canadian Northwest Territories to regions at and around the magnetic North Pole, researchers have gained new insight into how birds navigate in the high Arctic. In particular, the findings aid our understanding of how birds might determine longitudinal information–a challenging task, especially at the earth’s poles.
The work is reported in Current Bi
Most teenage boys who don’t plan to cause pregnancy still believe it is likely they will get someone pregnant within six months. The likelihood is linked to beliefs about pregnancy and condoms, as well as socioeconomic status. These findings are reported in the electronic edition of the September issue of Pediatrics.
Despite playing an influential role in whether girls become pregnant and keep their babies, males are often overlooked in efforts to understand the motives behind teen pre
Smoking appears to reduce a key enzyme in the lungs, possibly contributing to some of smoking’s deleterious health effects, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The study, which used a radiotracer to track the enzyme, also shows that smokers had a lower concentration of the tracer in the bloodstream than nonsmokers did, leading to speculation that smokers and nonsmokers may respond differently to a variety of substances administered by inhala
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