Once-daily antiretroviral combination more effective and better tolerated than traditional drug ’cocktail’
An international team of AIDS researchers at Johns Hopkins and other institutions has found that a once-daily combination of three antiretroviral drugs works better as an initial treatment for HIV infection than another three-drug combination long considered the gold standard.
Reporting in the Jan. 19 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the res
The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network of 26 research sites in which more than 1,800 scientists and students collaborate through funding by the National Science Foundation, turned 25 years old in 2005. During that quarter century, researchers have made important strides in understanding how ecosystems change over time.
But a new report, co-authored by an anthropologist at the University of Georgia, says that much more attention should be paid at the study sites and elsew
International scientific team reacts to misinterpretation of their research results and provides the correct perspective
In a recent study (Nature, 12 January 2006), scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Utrecht University, Netherlands, and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland, UK, revealed that plants produce the greenhouse gas methane. First estimates indicated that this could account for a significant proportion of meth
In this study, members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) health equity research group examined access to general practitioners and medical specialists in 21 OECD countries.
After taking into account the age, sex and reported level of health of respondents to national surveys, the authors found that – although in many countries general practitioner care is distributed fairly equally and is often even pro-poor (more visits among poorer households)
A new study in mice suggests that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may be triggered when adult neurons try to divide. The finding helps researchers understand what goes wrong in the disease and may lead to new ways of treating it. The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and appears in the January 18, 2006 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.*
For unknown reasons, nerve cells (neurons) aff
Men who delay surgical repair of a hernia until the hernia becomes uncomfortable fare as well those who undergo immediate surgery, according to a study at five North American medical centers.
In the study, published in the Jan. 18 issue of JAMA, a journal of the American Medical Association, 720 men with inguinal hernia (a small part of the large or small intestine protruding into the groin) were randomly assigned to either “watchful waiting” or standard hernia repair surgery an
Data strikingly similar to Finnish studies
Using technology that allows DNA from thousands of genes to be collected and surveyed on a 3 x 1½-inch chip, University of Utah medical researchers have confirmed that a region on a single chromosome probably harbors a gene that causes autism. The researchers at the U School of Medicine made the finding by tracing variations in the DNA of an extended Utah family that has a high occurrence of the disorder and whose members are descended
Biologists have long believed that bigger is better when it comes to body size, since many lineages of animals, from horses to dinosaurs, have evolved into larger species over time.
But a study published this week by two biologists at the University of California, San Diego in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that maxim, known as “Cope’s Rule,” may be only partly true.
The scientists found that populations of tiny
A new study published in the online open-access journal PLoS Biology explores a longstanding paradox in the regulation of a key tumor suppressor protein called p53. Min Hu, Yigong Shi, and their colleagues applied structural and mutational approaches to shed light on the regulation of a crucial regulatory pathway. Mutations that disable p53, which also plays a crucial role in regulating cell growth, are the most common mutations in many human cancers.
When cell damage occurs, p
More than three-quarters of people with overactive bladders (OAB) say that their condition makes it difficult to perform daily activities, yet only 43 per cent would consider consulting a doctor.
And men are much more likely to express concern than women, according to the results of a large-scale study published in the latest issue of BJU International.
11,521 people aged 40-64 took part in the survey which was conducted in six European countries – France, Germany,
Investigators still recommend procedure, although they want patients aware of risks
A new Mayo Clinic study finds that vertebroplasty, a procedure used to treat painful compression fractures in the spinal vertebrae due to osteoporosis, appears to increase the risk for new fractures in adjacent vertebrae. The study also found vertebrae adjacent to fractures treated with vertebroplasty fracture significantly sooner than more distant vertebrae. Findings will be published in the
In an important new longitudinal study forthcoming in the Feb. 2006 issue of the American Journal of Education, researchers draw on a nationally representative sample of more than 8,000 kindergarteners and 500 U.S. public schools to explore the role of full-day vs. half-day kindergarten in early academic achievement. The researchers found that full-day programs, which are most commonly available to less-advantaged children, are roughly equivalent to an additional month of schooling each year when co
Study is first to associate calorie restriction with delayed primary aging in humans
The hearts of people who follow a low-calorie, yet nutritionally balanced, diet resemble those of younger people when examined by sophisticated ultrasound function tests, and they tend to have more desirable levels of some markers of inflammation and fibrosis, according to a new study in the Jan. 17, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Eating less, if it i
Results suggest that coffee may impair peak heart function
In healthy volunteers, the equivalent of two cups of coffee reduced the body’s ability to boost blood flow to the heart muscle in response to exercise, and the effect was stronger when the participants were in a chamber simulating high altitude, according to a new study in the Jan. 17, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Whenever we do a physical exercise, myocardial blood flow
St. Jude study finds that more than 85 percent of adults with X-linked agammaglobulinemia work full time or are full-time students
Individuals who have a rare genetic immune system disorder that prevents them from making antibodies nevertheless appear to be moderately healthy and lead productive lives, according to results of a study by investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A report on this study appears in the current online edition of Clinical Immunolog
A research team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has discovered a cell-signaling mechanism instrumental in the most common brain cancer in adults.
The study, published in today’s issue of the journal Cancer Research, opens an avenue to develop therapeutic drugs to target the epidermal growth factor receptor genes that play a major role in the development of deadly brain tumors, researchers said.
The median survival of patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM
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