New findings may one day advance treatments to prevent type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome
Insulin uses two distinct mechanisms to control glucose and the metabolism of blood fats (lipids) in the liver, a new Joslin Diabetes Center-led study has discovered. Failures in each of these networks can lead to serious health problems: the breakdown of glucose metabolism that can lead to type 2 diabetes, and the malfunction of lipid metabolism contributing to metabolic syndrome, which
The blood of patients with head and neck cancer appears to have unique patterns of protein expression that one day could serve as a screening test for the highly aggressive cancer that is often diagnosed too late, researchers say.
Studies comparing protein expression in 78 patients with head and neck cancer to 68 healthy controls revealed numerous differences in protein expression, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.
“We found scores and scores of proteins that w
Analysis finds statins succeed where it matters most—in improving survival
Patients who begin aggressive statin therapy while in the hospital for acute coronary syndromes (ACS) have a significantly greater chance of long-term survival, according to an analysis reported at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 29th Annual Scientific Sessions in Chicago, May 10–13. (Time of presentation: Thursday, May 11, 11:33 a.m., Central Time)
By combining
A team of researchers working at the University of Bristol has found a potential new treatment for listeriosis, a deadly form of food poisoning. Their work is reported in Nature Medicine.
The group, led by Professor Jose Vazquez-Boland, has shown that one particular antibiotic – fosfomycin – can treat Listeria in the body, despite it being ineffective in laboratory conditions.
Because it was not effective in the laboratory, this drug has never been considered for the treat
New research published today in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism showed the first positive effect of testosterone on bone density, body composition and emotional, cognitive and behavioral function in women with low testosterone levels resulting from under-active pituitary glands.
Loss of ovarian and/or adrenal function can cause many women to experience hypopituitarism or under-active pituitary glands, and therefore low levels of testosterone, which is responsible for
Research reveals significant link to melanoma
Fifty years of medical studies show that sun exposure is a primary component in the development of melanoma, the most serious and deadly type of skin cancer, report leading dermatologists in the April 2006 issue of Dermatology Surgery.
“Though genetics may play a role in the development of some melanomas, there’s overwhelming evidence that shows sun exposure adversely affects patients both with and without genetic pre
Don’t even think about trying to pronounce it. Although it is found in many organisms including humans, glycosylphosphatidylinositol has remained a mouthful for laymen and a puzzle for scientists. And yet GPIs, as science thankfully calls these cellular lipids, are important in numerous biological functions, including disease transmission.
Now, for the first time, cellular biologists at the University of Georgia have developed new tools to study and localize GPIs in living organisms
Therapeutic design acts locally, could reduce recurrence of blocked blood vessels
A new tactic in the battle against cardiovascular disease – employing nanoengineered molecules called “nanolipoblockers” as frontline infantry against harmful cholesterol – is showing promise in early laboratory studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
In a paper scheduled for publication June 12 in the American Chemical Society’s journal Biomacromolecules and now appeari
Unique mouse model helps solve protein mystery
A question long debated among Alzheimer’s disease researchers has been definitively answered by scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in San Francisco.
Using a unique mouse model, Gladstone Investigator Yadong Huang, MD, PhD, and his team have proven that, under certain conditions, neurons produce Alzheimer’s-linked apolipoprotein E.
Also known as apoE, this cholesterol-carryin
Texas scientists have added one more trick to the amazing repertoire of carbon nanotubes — the ability to carry electrical signals to nerve cells.
Nanotubes, tiny hollow carbon filaments about one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, are already famed as one of the most versatile materials ever discovered. A hundred times as strong as steel and one-sixth as dense, able to conduct electricity better than copper or to substitute for silicon in semiconductor chips, carbon
A lifelong habit of trimming just a few calories from the daily diet can do more than slim the waistline – a new study shows it may help lessen the effects of aging.
Scientists from the University of Florida’s Institute on Aging have found that eating a little less food and exercising a little more over a lifespan can reduce or even reverse aging-related cell and organ damage in rats.
The discovery, described this month in the journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, builds o
Ghrelin, a hormone long considered a key player in obesity, may instead take a major role in maintaining the balance between insulin and glucose and the development of diabetes, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report in the current issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.
“Everybody has been pushing the connection between obesity and ghrelin,” said Dr. Roy G. Smith, director of the BCM Huffington Center on Aging, “Companies have been developing ghrelin antagonists
Scientists verify that ionic and other air purifiers add to pollutants already in a room in levels that can exceed health standards
In a small, poorly ventilated room, an indoor air purifier that produces even a few milligrams of ozone per hour can create an ozone level that exceeds public health standards, researchers at UC Irvine have found.
Scientists also discovered that ozone produced by air purifiers adds to ozone already present in any room – a prediction that had
Florida State University sociologists in Tallahassee, Fla. have found that some South Floridians who survived 1992’s Hurricane Andrew suffered mental health problems many years later, a finding that has led the researchers to predict even more dire consequences for those who lived through last year’s devastating Hurricane Katrina.
The researchers, sociology doctoral student and lead author David Russell and professors John Taylor and Donald Lloyd, presented their findin
The morale of British midwives is at an all time low and 10,000 extra staff are needed, according to a leading healthcare expert.
Linda Ball, a midwife and senior lecturer in health and social care research at Sheffield Hallam University, says that the midwifery profession is crippled by unhappy staff and overstretched wards.
The revelations come after National Midwifery Week (1-7 May, 2006) and compound the Government’s NHS misery, after it announced more job cuts
Could reduce HIV transmission: Study
HIV plagues more than 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization, and efforts to develop a vaccine against the virus have achieved limited success.
But what if a vaccine against another sexually transmitted infection found widely in that region of Africa – chancroid – was relatively easy to develop and could reduce transmission of HIV as much as 10-fold?
That may be the case, accordin
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