Leading experts address need to reduce risk to global blood supply
There is increasing evidence that infectious prions that can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of “mad cow” disease, can be transmitted through blood transfusion, according to Roger Eglin, Ph.D., Head of National Transfusion Microbiology Laboratories for the English National Blood Service. He spoke at a symposium on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) where he was joined b
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed three drugs to remove excess iron from the brains of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The presence of too much iron in the brain is a hallmark of such diseases. The drugs, VK-28, HLA-20 and M30, mop up the iron before it can trigger a “brain rust” chemical reaction where highly active oxygen particles destroy brain cells.
Professor Moussa Youdim of the Faculty of Medicine and his colleagues – Prof.
One of the most promising drugs on the market today is neither new nor revolutionary. You can even buy it over the counter. What is it? Aspirin.
The November issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource covers new and not-so-new uses for this 107-year-old medication. In addition to being a fever reducer, headache tamer and arthritis soother, aspirin is now commonly used to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin also is gaining credit for possibly helping to prevent some types of
Before you pop that cookie in your mouth, take a moment to consider how long it will take to burn off those extra calories.
If you eat two cookies, about 150 calories, and you weigh about 140 pounds, you’ll have to walk more than an hour at a pace of 2 miles an hour to burn off those cookies. Speed up the walk to 3.5 mph, and you still have to walk 45 minutes. (Eating the cookies probably took less than a minute.) What if you ate a peach, with about 40 calories, instead? It would ta
Study suggests prolonged preventive effect of breastfeeding and links irregular menstrual cycles to increased risk of disease
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an inflammatory disease of the immune system, is between two and four times more likely to strike women than men. Among women, RA is more likely to develop when reproductive hormonal levels are changing, such as in the first few months following a pregnancy and around the time of menopause. Although previous researchers have stu
Research scientists at the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory in Oslo have developed a flow metre with fluid channels thinner than a strand of hair. The new device controls that patients receive the correct dosage of medicine.
The new invention is a micro-technological control instrument that can measure medicine flows. The active components in the sensor are only a few thousandths of a millimetre thick and the tiny device can measure liquid amounts of less than one-millionth of
Optical technology can give the answer to when bruising happened and how. This can be important for cases of violent crime.
In court, a bruise can sometimes be important evidence. And the age of the bruise can be instrumental if a person is to be charged for the injuries in a crime. A cross-functional research team with the Norwegian University of Scence and Technology (NTNU) is currently developing a method, based on optical technology, for dating bruises. The method will be quic
A more than 50 % increase in the life span of Zucker rats, a commonly used animal model for human obesity, was seen by enrichment of unhealthy food with a novel combination of plant sterols and mineral nutrients. Extensive studies in the University of Helsinki have shown that the increase in life span is mainly due to the ability of this new composition to lower serum cholesterol and lower blood pressure, and decrease obesity, which were all increased by the high-fat, high-salt diets without the
Research began when doctors discovered that various members of the same family had Parkinson’s. There are many kinds of Parkinson’s and some are hereditary. Now, a group of scientists have identified the gene which produces the hereditary Park8 variant of Parkinson’s in four Basque families and another in the UK. The gene is called dardarina; a term derived from Basque which means tremble. The mutation of this gene is the cause of the hereditary Park8 variant of Parkinson’s.
The research
A unique haemodynamic (blood flow) monitoring system which will help to minimise the risk of complications during cardiovascular surgery is being developed by Leeds-based medical devices company, Medics Research Ltd.
Described as “the most significant breakthrough in measuring key cardiovascular parameters in over 30 years”, the HeartSmart® technology was presented to investors attending the White Rose BioScience Forum in York today (03 November).
Limitations and ris
The Department of Psychiatry at the University Hospital of the University of Navarre has received two awards at the XVII Congress of the European College of Neuropsychcopharmacology, held recently in Stockholm.
The studies awarded deal with the final conclusions of research work carried out by the Department in the field of schizophrenia. They specifically studied the biological bases of the disorder using neuroimaging and genetic study techniques. “It is known that one of the funct
St. Jude clinical trial XIIIB was based on stringent risk classification, early intensification of chemotherapy and addition of dexamethasone to improve outcome and increase quality of life
Improved risk classification for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), coupled with more intensive intrathecal chemotherapy for high risk patients and the use of a drug called dexamethasone, could one day permit physicians to omit irradiation as a part of routine treatment. These
Diabetic or obese patients suffering advanced heart failure have higher levels of fat embedded in their hearts and greater molecular evidence of haywire cardiac metabolism, a research team led by cardiologists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston reports in the November issue of the FASEB Journal.
Heart failure, progressive and potentially fatal weakening of the heart muscle, is associated with both obesity and diabetes, but the mechanisms by which damage occur
Increased fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease but not cancer, according to a new study in the November 3 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily has been recommended to reduce a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, the leading causes of death in the United States. Studies have evaluated the association of fruit and vegetable con
When earthlings make their first attempt to land on Mars, E. Paul Larrat will be justified in thinking he played a small role in the 35-million-mile voyage.
Larrat, associate dean of the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy, spent much of the summer as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Faculty Fellow at the Advanced Life Support Center at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Larrat was one of 100 fellows chosen from a field of 700 nominees to
A malaria protein that traps infected cells in the placenta may provide a promising new target for a vaccine against pregnancy-associated malaria (PAM). Salanti and colleagues show that the malaria protein VAR2CSA is displayed on malaria-infected cells that bind to the placenta, as they report in the November 1 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine. This causes a dangerous infection, which puts both mother and developing child at risk.
Most adults living in malaria-endemi
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