Every year at least 30 million women in malaria-endemic areas of Africa become pregnant. Many of them develop placental malaria, a pregnancy-specific form of the disease, which frequently results in low birth weight of the child. Placental malaria might increase the susceptibility of infants to malaria, but previous studies were inconclusive. A careful study by Patrick Duffy and colleagues (of the Seattle Biomedical Institute), published in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medic
The progression of the artery-clogging disease atherosclerosis is linked to the inability of specialized bone marrow cells to continuously repair damage to the arterial lining, Duke University Medical Center researchers have demonstrated.
The researchers also identified characteristic clusters of genes expressed at distinct phases of disease progression. The Duke cardiologists and geneticists believe that the findings of their latest experiments represent a new paradigm for unders
But reveals little influence of reefs on land damage
According to research reported this week in Current Biology, tsunami damage to coral reefs closest to the epicenter of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake was occasionally spectacular, but surprisingly limited, particularly when compared to damage from chronic human misuse in the region.
Less than 100 days after the tsunami of December 26, 2004, a team of ecologists from James Cook University, the Wildlife Conser
Social learning and use of social information in general have been understood to be largely restricted to vertebrates. Among insects, social learning or processes akin to it have been reported only in colonial species (bees, ants, termites), suggesting that highly structured social organizations may have assisted the evolution of social learning. However, learning about predators or predation risk from others may constitute life-saving information, and not just in vertebrates or colonial insects.
This week, researchers report evidence that a statin drug already shown to be safe for use in humans has proven effective at correcting cell-cell communication and curing learning disfunction in a mouse model of Neurofibromatosis type I, a human genetic disorder that causes learning disabilities in millions of people worldwide.
Learning disabilities affect 5% of the world’s population, have a profound impact on countless lives, and cost billions of dollars, but there is little
For children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), possessing a variant of a gene involved in brain signaling may predict antisocial behavior and increase susceptibility to the effects of lower birth weight, according to a study in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Biological processes play a key role in the genesis of antisocial behavior with specific evidence of brain involvement and contribution of gene
UCLA scientists use statins to overcome learning disabilities in mice
In a surprise twist that recalls the film classic “Flowers for Algernon,” but adds a happy ending, UCLA scientists used statins, a popular class of cholesterol drugs, to reverse the attention deficits linked to the leading genetic cause of learning disabilities. The Nov. 8 issue of Current Biology reports the findings, which were studied in mice bred to develop the disease, called neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1).
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Virginia hope to reset part of the “epigenetic code” in lupus patients and thus improve treatment.
The epigenetic research focuses on histones, the tiny spools in the nuclei of cells around which DNA winds and compacts when it is not in the process of copying in cell division. Epigenetic changes in the histones are those that can alter gene expression – and associated proteins – without altering the un
Tiny worms that can trick the body’s natural defences could hold the key to new treatments for a range of conditions, including diabetes, asthma and hay fever. University of Edinburgh scientists, who have discovered that helminth parasites can exploit an ’Achilles heel’ in our immune system, now hope to mimic the worms’ survival tactics in a bid to beat infection.
To find out how helminths fool the body’s defences, the team are focusing on the role played b
Scientists at the University of Bradford have discovered that the hormone oestrogen could be responsible for giving women the advantage when performing certain tasks such as driving.
In a test carried out on volunteers aged between 18 and 35, results showed that a woman’s attention span and her ability to learn rules are far higher than a man’s.
This might explain why girls find it easier than boys to concentrate at school, and why women are more careful drivers.
Scientists recently discovered an anti-aging hormone called Klotho. Now, a new study shows that this protein acts by increasing the cell’s ability to detoxify harmful reactive oxygen species. The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.
The klotho gene, named after the Greek goddess who spins life’s thread, is associated with preven
Scientists at Oregon State University have successfully cultured in a laboratory a microorganism with a gene for an alternate form of photochemistry – an advance that may ultimately help shed light on the ecology of the world’s oceans.
The microorganism is SAR11, the smallest free living cell known and probably the most abundant organism in the seas. By being able for the first time to study the SAR11 “proteorhodopsin” gene in a laboratory, researchers will be able to better
A newly identified gene expression profile could help predict how patients with advanced ovarian cancer will respond to chemotherapy treatment. Described in a study in the November 1, 2005 issue of The Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), the new findings further establish an important role for microarray gene profiling as a predictor of clinical outcome in ovarian cancer, and could eventually provide clinicians with insights into the mechanisms of drug resistance.
“In many pati
Modern humans arrival in South Asia may have led to demise of indigenous populations
In a major new development in human evolutionary studies, researchers from the University of Cambridge argue that the dispersal of modern humans from Africa to South Asia may have occurred as recently as 70,000 years ago. “Paleoanthropological projects must now be launched in South Asia if we hope to document the spread of our species and if we wish to explain how we became behaviorally mode
Most comparisons of language and inherited traits consider whether genetic patterns conform with expected relationships observed by linguists. But few have considered the use of genetic data to support specific hypotheses raised by linguists regarding the relationships between language families.
In a forthcoming article in Current Anthropology, Francisco M. Salzano (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil) examines the proposals of three eminent lingu
Initial results in mice show this promising new treatment may disrupt the vessels supplying blood and nutrition to tumors
For the first time, ultrasound is being used in animal models – to treat cancer by disrupting tumor blood vessels. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine completed a study in mice in which they used ultrasound both to see a tumor’s blood perfusion and then to treat it with a continuous wave of low-level ultrasound. After three minu
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