Major tissue, cell protease inhibitor’s role in lung previously unrecognized
Using a combination of genetic linkage, microarray gene expression and genetic association studies, a group of Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School researchers have identified a serine protease inhibitor clade E, member 2, or SERPINE2, “as a novel candidate susceptibility gene for COPD,” according to Sorachai Srisuma, who is presenting the research at the 35th Congress of the Internati
Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, in the seas are as vital to the survival of life on earth as the oxygen producing plants are on land. But marine bacteria are attacked by viruses, which can seriously affect their life-sustaining abilities but mow a researcher at the University of Warwick has discovered that these viruses don’t work in the dark, according to research presented today (Monday, 04 April 2005) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 156th Meeting at Heriot-Watt University
The right answer could yield better anesthetics, as well as improved stroke and heart attack outcomes – for everyone
For a human, mere minutes without oxygen (called anoxia) resulting from cardiac arrest, cerebral stroke or being trapped under water can lead to profound tissue damage and even death. However a Western painted turtle can survive anoxia for months without apparent tissue damage. Why, and how?
“Key to surviving anoxia is the shutting off of energy-utilizing
Six months on ’CJ’ normalizes blood vessel function-relaxation and may protect against heart disease
Protection against a wide variety of diseases is among the many benefits of a diet high in whole fruits and vegetables. Cranberries over the years have been identified with preventing or ameliorating urinary tract infections and playing a positive role gum disease, ulcers and even cancer.
Recent work shows that cranberries contain naturally derived compounds (antio
In a study believed to have implications for children and adults suffering from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, rat pups given alcohol during a period of rapid brain development demonstrated significant changes in circadian or 24-hour rhythms as adults. The alcohol dosage was the equivalent of several nights of binge drinking on the part of a pregnant woman, and it was given at a time during rat brain development (shortly after birth) equivalent to the third trimester of human fetal development.
The development of a huge observing network to monitor ocean currents and temperature and understand the conditions that bring rain – and drought – to nearly two thirds of the world’s population is underway in the Indian Ocean.
The development of a huge observing network to monitor ocean currents and temperature and understand the conditions that bring rain – and drought – to nearly two thirds of the world’s population is underway in the Indian Ocean.
“This is
Researchers from the University of Chihuahua in Mexico report that immune systems of patients with asthma responded differently to a common laboratory challenge, depending on whether their white blood cells had been obtained during a time when they were suffering from common season allergic rhinitis or when they were free of such allergic symptoms.
The study was presented by Dr. Irene Leal-Berumen on Saturday, April 2, at The American Association of Immunologists scientific sessions during
Small daily doses of allicin, the active metabolic in garlic, proved effective in preventing a severe form of pulmonary hypertension in rats, according to a study reported Saturday, April 2 by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers at the Experimental Biology 2005 meeting in San Diego. The human form of the disease – primary pulmonary hypertension – often leads to cardiovascular complications such as right heart hypertrophy and failure and is frequently lethal.
Dr. Davi
The herbicide Roundup® is widely used to eradicate weeds. But a study published today by a University of Pittsburgh researcher finds that the chemical may be eradicating much more than that.
Pitt assistant professor of biology Rick Relyea found that Roundup®, the second most commonly applied herbicide in the United States, is “extremely lethal” to amphibians. This field experiment is one of the most extensive studies on the effects of pesticides on nontarget organisms in a na
Purdue University study of tornado formation indicates that twisters can develop in unexpected ways and at unexpected times and places, a discovery that presents a new twist to weather watchers across the country.
Although tornadoes are often conceived of as arising from springtime storms that develop in early evenings out of isolated weather cells, a new study spearheaded by Purdue’s Robert “Jeff” Trapp indicates those conceptions often fail to hold, especially in the Midwe
The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Clinical Research Network is launching its first two clinical trials for the study of NASH, a liver disease that resembles alcoholic liver disease but occurs in patients who drink little or no alcohol. NASH occurs most often in adults over the age of 40 who are overweight or have diabetes, insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), or hyperlipidemia (excess concentrations of fatty materials in the blood). NASH can also occur in children, the elderly, normal-weight,
New findings from Mayo Clinic indicate that cT3 prostate cancer, a disease in which the cancer has spread locally from inside the prostate to immediately outside it, is operable and has 15-year cancer survival rates of almost 80 percent.
“These patients have a better chance if they undergo surgery and are living longer than if they undergo radiation therapy,” says Horst Zincke, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic urologist and senior study investigator.
Treatment of this type o
Achievement could benefit fields of superchemistry, quantum computing
A research team that in 2003 created an exotic new form of matter has now shown for the first time how to arrange that matter into complex molecules.
The experiments–conducted by Cheng Chin, now at the University of Chicago, and his colleagues under the leadership of Rudolf Grimm at Innsbruck University in Austria–may lead to a better scientific understanding of superconductivity and advance a grow
Dozens of new genes identified
By intensely and systematically comparing the human X chromosome to genetic information from chimpanzees, rats and mice, a team of scientists from the United States and India has uncovered dozens of new genes, many of which are located in regions of the chromosome already tied to disease.
Regions of the X chromosome, one of the two sex chromosomes (Y is the other), have been linked to mental retardation and numerous other disorders, but find
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium that can cause respiratory tract infections, which can be life threatening in patients who have cystic fibrosis. It is therefore important to develop a vaccine against this pathogen. Appearing online on 1 April 2005 in advance of print publication of the May issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Ronald Crystal and colleagues from Cornell University use a novel strategy to create a genetic vaccine against P. aeruginosa.
The researchers us
Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that causes inflammation, particularly of the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys. Patients with lupus produce antibodies against their own proteins. Patients also have immune T cells that produce a protein called IL-2, which normally usually protects against infection, at lower than typical levels. In a study appearing in the April 1 print edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, George Tsokos and colleagues from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Resea
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