Brain overcompensates for mutations
The supersensitivity to dopamine that is characteristic of schizophrenia can be caused by mutations to a wide variety of genes, rather than alterations to just two or three specific genes, says a University of Toronto researcher.
In research published in the Feb. 15 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Toronto pharmacology professor Philip Seeman and his 16 colleagues in eight universities show th
A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) has identified the gene responsible for spreading the poisonous (toxic) effects of cadmium–a finding, say the researchers, that may one day lead to the prevention of cadmium toxicity in humans.
Cadmium–a heavy metal suspected of causing human birth defects, lung cancer and testicular cancer–is found in cigarette smoke, some shellfish and seafood, soil and some plants. It is known to damage the human central nervous
Hybrid targeted therapy effective in treating Gleevec-resistant disease
Using rational drug design strategies, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland have created a targeted therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) that may ultimately be more effective than Gleevec®, the current frontline treatment. The researchers report in the February issue of Cancer Cell that the new compound, AMN107, is about 20 times more
Increasing levels of uric acid, a metabolic breakdown product found in blood and urine, may help cut some of the potentially devastating “secondary” cellular damage that occurs following a spinal cord injury, say researchers at Jefferson Medical College. The finding may lead to new treatments for such injuries.
After a spinal cord injury, the body’s inflammatory response may actually make things worse, releasing a variety of potentially harmful chemicals that can make the injury
UCLA investigators reviewed pharmaceutical ads in American medical journals and found that nearly one-third contained no references for medical claims; while the majority of references to published material were available, only a minority of company data-on-file documents were provided upon request; and the majority of original research cited in the ads was funded by or had authors affiliated with the product’s manufacturer.
In one of the largest studies of its kind, UCLA
A series of studies by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center sheds light on the mechanisms used by viruses to thwart a host’s immune defenses and may aid in the development of more effective drugs to fight hepatitis C and West Nile viruses, as well as the flu and the common cold.
In a study to appear in a March issue of the Journal of Virology and currently available online, UT Southwestern researchers describe how an essential gene, called RIG-I, turns on a casca
Researchers have identified that Dishevelled doesn’t only function in the cytoplasm and at the cell membrane – it must also pass into the nucleus. A study published today in Journal of Biology reveals that Dishevelled, a key player in the Wnt/beta-catenin signalling pathway, has to be localised in the nucleus to perform a key aspect of its function. This discovery should shed light on both normal embryonic development and the development of cancer.
In the paper, Sergei Sokol and
Food of animal origin, contaminated with E.coli, can lead to urinary tract infections in women, according to a team of bacteriologists.
“We found out that UTIs may be caused by ingesting food contaminated with E. coli,” said Dr. Chobi DebRoy, director of Penn State’s Gastroenteric Disease Center. Previously, this link was not established, she noted.
Senior author, Dr. Lee W. Riley, University of California-Berkeley, found that E.coli strains isolated from patie
Sweden’s new supercomputer for weather forecasting will greatly improve prediction reliability. An enhanced and powerful computational package, tailored especially for the needs of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, SMHI, is now installed at the National Supercomputer Center, NSC, sited at Linköping University.
The new computer system, called Blixt in honor of its lightning-fast processing, employs new computational methods to forecast land and sea weather cond
The Novosibirsk researchers have developed a device capable of producing mist with support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE). The precise name of the device is “field device for measuring liquid and gas velocities”. It helps to perform prompt, precise and, most importantly, simultaneous measuring of the velocity at any point of the fluid and gas flow.
“Field device for measuring liquid and gas ve
Vets at the University of Liverpool are looking for Dobermann volunteers to participate in a research project to combat canine heart disease.
The dogs will take part in a screening programme to detect early signs of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a heart condition that is particularly common in the breed.
The disease, which can affect dogs, cats and humans, causes the heart to become enlarged and weakened. Over a number of years the contraction of the heart begins to dec
In defending her PhD thesis, Teresa Garde Cerdán, Doctor in Chemical Sciences at the Public University of Navarre, stated that the maximum concentrations of compounds transferred to wine from wood is reached after 10 to 12 months of the wine being stored in wooden casks.
Moreover, it has been shown that, after a year, the concentration of these compounds, positive for the aroma of the wine, not only do they not increase but, in some cases, they begin to decrease. This is an importa
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown how the transplantation of stem cells improves recovery from spinal injury. However, a painful condition can also develop, which can be prevented if the stem cells are supplemented with a certain gene that controls their maturing process. The results are important for planning of stem cell therapy trials on patients with spinal injury.
Spinal injury confines some 150 Swedes a year to wheelchairs. The damage cause the loss of movement
Internet dating is proving a much more successful way to find long-term romance and friendship for thousands of people than was previously thought, new research shows.
A new study of online dating site members has found that when couples who had built up a significant relationship by e-mailing or chatting online met for the first time, 94 per cent went on to see each other again. Perhaps surprisingly, the study, by Dr Jeff Gavin, of the University of Bath, also found that men were
A decision has now been taken on the grant that the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme is to provide for EICOSANOX, a major research project coordinated by Karolinska Institutet’s Professor Jesper Z. Haeggström. The project, which ranked highest in its category, is an Integrated Project (IP) and is to be allocated research funding of 10.7 million euro over the course of five years. A total of 15 research groups from six European nations will be merged into a very large multi-disciplinary consortiu
Discovery could lead to new direction for prevention, treatment research
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that women with a common thyroid gland disorder appear to have a reduced chance of developing invasive breast cancer, according to a study published in the March 15 issue of Cancer, out online Feb. 14.
In a retrospective case-control study of 2,226 females, researchers found that women with primary hypothyroidism (under-a
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