Danish authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET provide further evidence which suggests that allergic diseases are becoming increasingly common in western populations.
Allergic diseases are thought to be increasingly common in more-developed countries, but few studies have measured the frequency of atopy with objective measures, and most of these studies have been done in industrialised countries. Tyra Krause and colleagues from Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, De
A chemical isolated from a weed that grows in mountain meadows in the western United States kills the cells of an aggressive brain cancer that affects some children. The compound, cyclopamine, blocks a signaling pathway that appears to be important for the survival of medulloblastoma, a form of cancer for which there is no effective treatment.
In an article published in the August 30, 2002, issue of the journal Science, a research team led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Phi
Women who have received a heart, heart-lung or lung transplant are having successful pregnancies after transplantation, according to a study by researchers at Jefferson Medical College.
While such pregnancies are considered “high risk,” the results are encouraging, says Vincent Armenti, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
The researchers compiled information through the National Pregnancy Transplantation Regi
Non-smokers who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke for at least 30 minutes a day are at far greater risk of developing acute coronary syndromes compared with people who are not exposed, finds a study in Tobacco Control.
These findings support the role of environmental tobacco smoke in the development of adverse cardiac events.
A total of 847 individuals with a first event of acute coronary syndromes and 1,078 cardiovascular disease-free controls were included in the study. P
Every morning millions of Americans reach for the world’s most popular drug to help them start their day.
“That drug is caffeine,” said Dr. James Bibb, assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Bibb is one of the authors of a new report explaining how caffeine exerts its stimulatory effect by altering the biochemistry of the brain. The findings appear in an August issue of Nature.
“Caffeine is the most frequently self-administered dru
Citric acid may help alleviate chronic shortages of critical clotting factor
The common additive that gives “tartness” to orange juice, lemon juice and sodas also can dramatically boost the production of a protein critical for treating victims of hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, a UC Irvine study has found.
The findings indicate that citric acid, the juice additive, may help alleviate recurring shortages of a protein called Factor VIII, which is important for the norm
Children raised in a house with two or more dogs or cats during the first year of life may be less likely to develop allergic diseases as compared with children raised without pets, according to a study in the August 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
“The striking finding here is that high pet exposure ear
The link between climate and cholera, a serious health problem in many parts of the world, has become stronger in recent decades, say researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Barcelona and the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh.
Their research will be published in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.
In a previous study published in the journal Science, the researchers found eviden
Research on an AIDS-like disease in monkeys continues to help scientists understand problems such as how HIV causes AIDS, how the virus “hides” from the immune system and how the disease might be prevented or treated, two decades after the human and monkey diseases were identified.
“These animals have been indispensable for understanding how the virus works and in working toward vaccines,” said Murray Gardner, professor emeritus of medical pathology at the UC Davis Center for Comparative Me
Rush is one of only two sites in nation testing the drug that may provide new treatment option
Physicians at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center have begun to recruit patients as part of a clinical research study that will evaluate the effectiveness of a new drug as a potential treatment for fragile X syndrome and autism.
The trials are taking place at Rush and the University of California, Davis. The principal investigators in the study are Dr. Elizabeth Berry-Krav
Using transplants of bone marrow cells improved the recovery from stroke in rat experiments, according to a study published in the August 27 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The rats treated with an intravenous transplant of adult human stromal cells (mature cells from bone marrow) had significant improvements in their ability to function 14 days after the stroke, compared to rats that did not receive transplants after a stroke.
“The
Results of three studies presented today at the International Congress of The Transplantation Society provide encouraging evidence that a patient’s immune system can be fooled into accepting a transplanted organ without the need for anti-rejection drugs.
According to one study conducted in India, patients are off the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine three months after undergoing living donor kidney transplantation and an elaborate set of treatments that included a separate surgical
Treating the skin with caffeine has been shown to prevent skin cancer in laboratory studies conducted in the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
“It is not a sun-screening effect, but it’s something more than that – it’s a biological effect,” said Allan Conney, William M. and Myrle W. Garbe Professor of Cancer and Leukemia Research at Rutgers’ Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. “We may have found a safe and effecti
Combining the tumor suppressing Rb2 gene with doses of gamma radiation speeds up the ability of tumor cells to die, according to a study by researchers at Temple University’s College of Science and Technology.
The results of the study, “pRb2/p130 promotes radiation-induced death in glioblastoma cell line HJC12 by p73 upregulation and Bcl-2 downregulation,” appear in the August 29 issue of Oncogene (Vol. 21, Issue 38).
In the study, which was started at Thomas Jefferson Universi
Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, is important in the healthy body for healing wounds and, in females, for the monthly reproductive cycle and during pregnancy. It is controlled in the body through the use of the body’s own angiogenesis inhibitors and stimulators. In certain diseases the body is unable to control blood vessel growth. In diseases such as cancer, diabetic blindness and psoriasis, excessive angiogenesis is occurring; and in diseases such as coronary artery disease and stroke
Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Could Lessen the Impact
Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease is expected to increase as the population of elderly grows. Early diagnosis and treatment will be the key to lessening the disease’s worst effects, but, how to spot the disease before its symptoms become serious (and harm is already done) is a challenge for health professionals. A new study by psychologists Konstantine K. Zakzanis, Ph.D., and Mark Boulos, B.Sc., of the University of
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