In the May 2003 issue of EMBO reports, researchers from the German Robert Koch Institute in Berlin report finding the pathological prion protein PrPSc in a wide range of skeletal muscles after feeding hamsters with prion-infected food. PrPSc is believed to be an essential – if not the sole – constituent of the agent that causes BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
The researchers fed Syrian hamsters with food pellets that contained mashed-up brain tissue f
A new technique may allow physicians to monitor patients’ responses to molecularly targeted drugs, according to researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) *. The finding was one of three advances in proteomics – the study of proteins within cells – scheduled to be announced by researchers from the NCI-FDA Clinical Proteomics Program in a press briefing at the 94th Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, which was
Retinal abnormalities in older people without diabetes are related to hypertension. Higher blood and pulse pressure are also associated with an increased incidence of macular abnormalities, including wet and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). These are the major findings of two studies appearing in the April issue of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Eye M.D. Association.
The first study, assessing more than 2,000 men and women without
New study results offer potential explanation of complications from birth control pills
When women think about birth control, estrogen, and cardiovascular risk, they often assume that there are no answers. They would appear to be correct.
On the one hand, new pharmacological advancements have provided combination oral contraceptive (OC) formulations with lower-dose estrogen. These formulations have significantly less risk of cardiovascular adverse events compared to the olde
New study results demonstrate why caffeine and ephedra may provide a “final boost”
After Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler died during spring training earlier this year, the spotlight again turned on the dietary supplement ephedra. The Chinese herb, used for asthma in the 1960s, is attractive to athletes, because it provides and energy “boost” during games, and offers pound-dropping qualities (an attraction for Bechler, who was ten pounds overweight).
Ephedra has been
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), as a major agent of non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH), has been described as an insidious disease and a silent epidemic, mainly because the infection is often sub-clinical. Acute infection is recognized in a minority of patients and in most cases the virus results in chronic infections taking 10-20 years before the emergence of liver disease. In the US, almost four million individuals are infected and up to 170 million worldwide.
Background
An imbalance
An international collaboration between medical researchers may have identified how meningitis causing bacteria cross from the blood into the brain, paving the way for new strategies to prevent this fatal disease, the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Meeting in Edinburgh heard today, Tuesday 8 April 2003.
“Almost every known bacteria which attacks people could potentially cause meningitis,” says Professor Kwang Sik Kim of John Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA who worked on this issue fo
British children’s lives might be saved by being routinely vaccinated for chickenpox, according to Dr Anne Gershon, speaking at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Meeting in Edinburgh today, Wednesday 9 April 2003.
“At the moment British children are not given routine vaccinations. In the USA and Canada one dose against chickenpox is given to children under 13 years old, and two doses are given to older children and adults, which appears to significantly cut down outbreaks of the
Baby fat may be cuddly to new parents but pediatricians are increasingly warning families about serious medical problems resulting from baby fat that never goes away. Type 2 diabetes is on the increase in overweight and obese children in America. According to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center pediatric endocrinologist David Geller, M.D., Ph.D., “Childhood obesity is the primary reason we are seeing such a huge increase in type 2 diabetes in kids today. Clearly there is an inexorable increase in body girth
The unpleasant and painful sores, and infection of newborn babies caused by the genital herpes virus could soon be a thing of the past according to Dr Julian Hickling, who is presenting results from Xenova Research Ltd today, Tuesday 8 April 2003, to the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Meeting in Edinburgh.
“The challenge is trying to achieve a good balance between safety and a vaccine that really works,” says Dr Hickling, Research Director, Biologics of pharmaceutical company Xeno
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have devised an advanced technique that uses mass spectrometry to identify specific proteins that are over-expressed in cancer cells, blood, urine, or any substance that contains proteins.
Using this new technique, they have already identified two proteins – MIF and CyP-A — whose levels are elevated in lung cancer cells but not in normal cells, said Edward Patz, M.D., professor of radiology and pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke.
Living longer and better medical treatments such as organ transplants and cancer therapy are all paradoxically increasing our risk of blood poisoning, according to experts in bacterial infections speaking at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Meeting in Edinburgh today, Monday 7 April 2003.
“The two commonest causes of blood poisoning are bacteria called Escherichia coli from the urinary tract, and Staphylococcus aureus carried on the skin or from a hospital drip,” says Professor
Using cold temperatures could help make quicker, cheaper and safer influenza vaccines, according to Dr Alison Whiteley at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Meeting in Edinburgh today, Monday 7 April 2003.
Influenza epidemics sweep the world every year killing the very young and the very old, but every thirty years or so a new virulent strain appears which kills people from every age group. These super-dangerous strains develop from viruses which normally infect birds, and the vac
For the first time, researchers are characterizing the molecular processes that turn brain cancer deadly, and their work may result in a diagnostic test that can predict patient survival.
The research, by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center demonstrates that degree of loss of a crucial tumor suppressor gene, the AP-2( transcription factor, correlates with progression of different human gliomas.
For example, researchers found that normal brain tissue,
Researchers report that in laboratory animals, the combination of radiation and the anti-angiogenic drug, endostatin, appears to work synergistically together to stop development of new blood vessels that seek to grow and nourish damaged tumors.
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found that the regrowth of new blood vessels was reduced five-fold in mice with implanted squamous cell cancer treated with radiation and endostatin compared to diseased mice that had ra
Research to be presented at American Academy of Neurology meeting on April 3
Results of a clinical trial conducted by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) reveal yoga or exercise assists multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with fatigue. The study was conducted and funded within the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Neurological Disorders (ORCCAMIND) at OHSU. The research results will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting on April 3 in Ho
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