A joint research project by scientists in Cardiff, UK, has developed a new protein, which could end the suffering of thousands.
The research, by scientists at Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine (UWCM), and funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, is designed to tackle the problem of chronic inflammation – which can lead to serious disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and bacterial peritonitis.
Now a two-year development programme is getting un
By solving a long-standing puzzle about how the influenza virus assembles its genetic contents into infectious particles that enable the virus to spread from cell to cell, scientists have opened a new gateway to a better understanding of one of the world’s most virulent diseases.
This insight into the genetic workings that underpin infection by flu, reported today (January 27, 2003) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provides not only a better basic understa
While about 80 percent of people with epilepsy gain significant relief from drug therapy, the remaining 20 percent have seizures that cannot be controlled by medications. Many of these people have a particular type of epilepsy called partial epilepsy. A new study shows that people with partial epilepsy often have seizures controlled by medications for years before their seizures become drug-resistant. The study also found that periods when seizures stopped for a year or more are common in these patie
Fear of the dark is a common complaint in children and is often attributed to attention seeking behaviour. Yet researchers in this week’s BMJ suggest that it may be due to night blindness – a diagnosis which can be easily missed.
They describe two children with an inherited form of stationary night blindness. Both were very frightened of the dark, had a history of bumping into things at night, and insisted that curtains were drawn much earlier than others would choose. One child had fear of
Authors of a fast-track study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET propose an alternative to antibiotics to treat infection associated with the use of chemotherapy for patients with blood cancer.
The toxic effects of chemotherapy cause organisms in the gut to migrate to the bloodstream, frequently resulting in bacterial infection. Michael Ellis and colleagues from the United Arab Emirates investigated whether interleukin 11 (IL-11)-an agent involved in the immune response and thought to prote
Findings Show The Force of Blood Flow Has Anti-Inflammatory Effect
Scientists have found a new way in which exercise may protect against heart disease. Increased blood flow can mimic the powerful anti-inflammatory actions of certain glucocorticoid steroid drugs, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Medicine and Engineering. The researchers discovered that an increase in shear stress – the drag force exerted by blood flowing over endothelial
A vaccine aimed against AIDS, developed at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, the Emory Vaccine Center, and the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will begin a Phase I clinical trial this week.
A total of 30 human volunteers will be enrolled at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the San Francisco Departmen
Stress at work and fatigue increase the chance of acute infections such as common colds, flu-like illnesses and gastroenteritis. This was discovered in research carried out by Danielle Mohren at Maastricht University, in which more than 8000 employees from various companies were followed over a three-year period.
The study revealed that employees in highly demanding jobs suffered from colds 20 percent more often than employees in less demanding positions. Also job insecurity, for example as
Vessel wall cells and blood cells have been found to release cell particles which can damage blood vessels. This was demonstrated in laboratory experiments carried out by Marja van Wijk during her doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam. Poorly functioning blood vessels play a role in pre-eclampsia.
For her research (conducted at the Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam) Van Wijk isolated blood vessels from pieces of tissue taken from pregnant women. She placed the blood
Employing high-tech, digital X-ray microtomography (microCT), Northwestern University scientists have discovered the way in which newts form new bone and cartilage during limb regeneration. Newts are a type of salamander, the only vertebrates capable of rebuilding lost structures such as limbs throughout their lifetimes.
Reporting in the January issue of Developmental Dynamics, Northwestern researchers Hans-Georg Simon and Stuart Stock showed that bone formation in a regenerated forelimb co
UF researchers report: Immunosuppressant drug prevents late rejection of transplanted kidneys
A drug that suppresses the immune system and prolongs the survival of donated kidneys in patients in the first months after transplantation also has the ability to block organ rejection over the long haul, University of Florida researchers have found.
The drug, mycophenolate mofetil, has been shown to decrease acute rejection by 50 percent compared with an older agent commonly used,
Binghamton University researcher fractures myths around osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is not a disease, and neither weight-bearing exercise nor calcium supplements-not even a combination of the two-is capable of triggering the growth of new bone, says Kenneth McLeod, chair of the bioengineering department at Binghamton University and a leading researcher in the field of tissue development, healing and adaptation.
But don’t throw in the towel and plan your wardrobe and life a
In a recent study, giving iron supplements to anemic children when they have a cold or other upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) significantly improved their iron status without increasing stomach upset or other side effects, says a Penn State nutritionist.
Dr. Namanjeet Ahluwalia, associate professor of nutrition and principle investigator on the research team, says, “Because of conflicting results from previous studies, physicians preferred to be cautious and generally withhold iron
Technique used to shrink tumors, delay their growth
A team of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center scientists shrunk tumors or delayed their growth in animal studies by using radiation to enable a drug to “zero in” and block the tumor blood vessels.
The work, reported in the January issue of the journal Cancer Cell, is a model for what might be achieved in patients by using radiation to activate drug targets in tumors. “We can now use combinations of chemotherapy and radiation to
New pathway presents target for medication development
Brain molecules similar to the active compound in marijuana help to regulate alcohol consumption, according to new reports by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), Bethesda, Maryland, and a separate NIAAA-supported group at several New York state research institutions.
In studies conducted with a strain of mice known to have a high preference for alcohol, the scientists found great
Treatment with two medications that suppress the immune system, rituximab and cyclophosphamide, appears to have cured one woman of an otherwise untreatable case of the blood disease known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). The findings support the theory that TTP is an autoimmune disease, and not only provide insight into diagnosis and treatment, but also reveal clues about blood clotting and autoimmune diseases in general.
“In this particular patient who did not respond to stand
Feedback
