Working with an enzyme that degrades anti-cancer drugs in humans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill biochemists and colleagues have made a discovery that they believe eventually could help improve such drugs’ design and effectiveness.
The scientists have shown that the enzyme protein can be made to “fly through the vapor phase” — from which solvent water is totally absent — without changing its structure.
When a solution containing the enzyme was introduced
A minimally invasive approach to curing the most common heart rhythm abnormality, atrial fibrillation, takes half the time of the traditional surgical procedure but is equally effective, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Results from the first reported clinical trial testing the procedure appear in the October issue of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. “Our findings show that this technique is much easier to perform but
Breakthrough discovery is 10 times longer than previous current-carrying nanotubes, paves way for supercomputer and health care applications
UC Irvine today announced that scientists at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering have synthesized the world’s longest electrically conducting nanotubes. These 0.4 cm nanotubes are 10 times longer than previously created electrically conducting nanotubes. The breakthrough discovery may lead to the development of extremely strong, light
University of Illinois at Chicago researchers are comparing two drugs used to treat pediatric bipolar disorder patients to evaluate how the drugs affect brain function in children with the disorder.
“More and more clinicians are using second generation anti-psychotics to treat children with bipolar disorder, but there are no randomized controlled trials of these medications,” said Dr. Mani Pavuluri, director of the Pediatric Mood Disorders Clinic at UIC and principal investiga
A major step forward for optical sensing technology
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have reported the first demonstration of integrated optical waveguides with liquid cores, a technology that enables light propagation through small volumes of liquids on a chip. The new technology has a wide range of potential applications, including chemical and biological sensors with single-molecule sensitivity. “It is an enabling technology that opens up a wide range of
For the first time, researchers have sequenced all 36 genes of novel receptors that appear to play a critical role in the innate immune protection of zebrafish – an achievement that could lead to a better understanding of infectious diseases and certain cancers.
Their paper, titled “Resolution of the novel immune-type receptor gene cluster in zebrafish,” appears online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This is the most genetically complex system
Transplantation of human brain cells corrected involuntary muscle spasms in rats with ischemic spinal cord injury, according to research published online October 12 and in print October 19, 2004 in the European Journal of Neurosciences by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.
Ischemic spinal cord injury, caused by reduced blood flow to the spinal cord, occurs in 20 to 40 percent of the several hundred patients each year in the U.S. wh
The first study of the patient’s perspective on errors in medicine may have health care professional rethinking what is important to their patients.
The study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, suggests that patients are more disturbed with lack of access to and relationships with their physicians than technical errors in diagnosis and treatment.
Although much has been written about medical errors since the controversial To Err is Human: Building A Safer He
Brisk walking allied to the use of an abdominal muscle stimulation machine can improve fitness and body appearance, according to a study carried out by researchers at the University of Ulster.
The researchers from the University’s School of Health Sciences tested a 32-strong group of normally sedentary women, drawn from within the University, over an eight week period.
One group engaged solely in taking 30-minute walks five times a week; another group carried out the
Comprehensive study raises questions about ’demethylation’ agents
Agents believed to selectively “restart” genes that limit cancer’s growth — a potential treatment option already in early clinical studies — instead turn off as many genes as they turn on, a team of researchers from the National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins has discovered. “We don’t know what effect all these changes might have, but it’s clear that when scientists are looking onl
In the largest known study of its kind, scientists have confirmed that men with high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia or PIN, characterized by abnormal cells in the lining of prostate ducts, are at high risk for invasive prostate cancer. The study, presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research Third Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, showed that about one in three men with high grade PIN are at high risk for prostate cancer wit
Method may help halt A-T, cancer, other genetic diseases
UCLA scientists have devised a novel way to repair one of the genetic mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia, (A-T), a life-shortening disorder that devastates the neurological and immune systems of one in 40,000 young children. Reported Oct. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings could hold far-reaching implications for treating A-T, cancer and other genetic diseases.
Often mi
Postmenopausal women who take combination estrogen-plus-progestin hormone-replacement therapy for one year experience a twofold increase in breast density – a known risk factor for breast cancer – and a quadrupled risk of having an abnormal mammogram, according to new findings from a sub-study of the Women’s Health Initiative, or WHI.
Lead investigator Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, presented these findings today at the third annual I
While the struggle continues to encourage Americans to consume more fruits and vegetables, science has now suggested its value in preventing yet another form of cancer. According to a study presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research Third Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, vegetables, fruits and antioxidant vitamins may reduce the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a form of cancer of the lymphoid tissue.
The results
Patients with stable vitiligo, a skin disorder characterized by patches of lighter colored, or depigmented skin, may achieve good repigmentation of these areas with skin transplants using skin taken from normally-pigmented areas of their own bodies, according to two articles in the October issue of The Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to the articles, vitiligo is one of the most common pigment cell disorders, distinguished by depigmented patc
Researchers have discovered an unexpected role as a tumor promoter for a molecule that was previously thought to function exclusively as a cancer suppressor in neuroblastoma (NB), a highly aggressive and deadly childhood cancer. The study, published in the October issue of Cancer Cell, reveals new evidence about what stimulates progression of neuroblastoma and may provide a likely target for new anti-cancer therapies.
Neurotrophin tyrosine kinase receptor type I (TrkA) responds to nerve
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