Strictly speaking, the ‘choked’, i.e., inactivated three viruses (A1, A2, B) in the new vaccine will be the same as before. They are included in the vaccine composition on the recommendation of the World Health Organisation. But the additional substances, however, proposed by the researchers, are what make it possible to make this vaccine in tablet form. What is more, believe the authors, this vaccine will be more efficient than all known equivalents. Not because an injection is replaced with a tabl

A major mystery in epilepsy research has been why infants are more prone to seizures than adults and how those seizures progress to chronic epilepsy. Now, researchers have discovered that central to those seizures in the developing brain are neurons triggered by the neurotransmitter GABA. They say their findings could lead to new ways to treat seizures in newborns. Also, they say, their findings suggest that the use of drugs that enhance GABA action may be particularly harmful to the newborn brain.

A new study finds that a gene which plays an important role in immune function, known as toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), may also play a critical role in suppressing chronic lung inflammation and tumor development in mice.

“We know that chronic inflammation predisposes people to many types of cancer,” says NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D. “By using this new information we may be able to suppress chronic inflammation and reduce our Nation’s cancer burden.”

In the Decem

Researchers have known for some time that nuts and seeds are rich sources of phytosterols, a class of plant chemicals that have been shown to reduce cholesterol levels and improve heart health. In what is believed to be the most comprehensive analysis to date of the phytosterol content of nuts and seeds, chemists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., analyzed some 27 nut and seed products and found that pistachios and sunflower kernels had the highest levels

Life on Earth may owe its existence to tiny microorganisms living in the oceans, but the effect of human-induced change on the vital services these microbes perform for the planet remains largely unstudied, says a report released today by the American Academy of Microbiology, entitled Marine Microbial Diversity: The Key to Earth’s Habitability.

“Since life most likely began in the oceans, marine microorganisms are the closest living descendants of the original forms of life,” says Jenni

A team of ASU researchers led by Nongjian Tao and Peiming Zhang has developed a new, breakthrough technique for the detection of DNA mutations.

Their results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate for the first time, the possibility of directly identifying these mutations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), by means of measuring the electrical conductance of a single DNA molecule.

SNPs are buried in the 3 billion

The Johns Hopkins scientists who first created “mighty mice” have developed, with pharmaceutical company Wyeth and the biotechnology firm MetaMorphix, an agent that’s more effective at increasing muscle mass in mice than a related potential treatment for muscular dystrophy now in clinical trials.

The new agent is a version of a cellular docking point for the muscle-limiting protein myostatin. In mice, just two weekly injections of the new agent triggered a 60 percent increa

Duke University biochemists aided by Duke computer scientists and computational chemists have identified the likely way two key enzymes dock in an intricate three-dimensional puzzle-fit to regulate cell division. Solving the docking puzzle could lead to anticancer drugs to block the runaway cell division behind some cancers, said the researchers.

Significantly, their insights arose not just from meticulous biochemical studies, but also from using sophisticated simulation techniques to p

The pretty yellow bush lupine is no pushover for freeloading bacteria

Many, if not all, plants maintain relationships with bacteria, and like any hardworking homeowner, they have developed ways to get rid of freeloaders, University of California, Berkeley, biologists have found.

In a study of a coastal California lupine that harbors nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots, UC Berkeley researchers have shown that the roots respond differently to bacteria that efficiently prod

Pioneering research by a North East scientist could lead to a cure for some of the most deadly antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Toxic Shock, Septicemia and the flesh-eating disease necrotizing faciitis are just some of the potentially fatal invasive infections caused by the streptococcus bacterium, which has increased significantly over the past 10 years.

Until now, scientists have not understood what turns this ordinary bacterium – which is best known as the cause of so

Dermatologists seem to agree that something in milk and dairy products may be linked to teen-age acne.

But is it hormones and “bioactive molecules,” as a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology suggested, or is there something else?

University at Buffalo dermatologist Harvey Arbesman, M.D., says there could be something else: Iodine.

Arbesman, a UB clinical assistant professor of dermatology and social and preventive medicine, details his reas

A brain chemical recently found to boost trust appears to work by reducing activity and weakening connections in fear-processing circuitry, a brain imaging study at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has discovered. Scans of the hormone oxytocin’s effect on human brain function reveal that it quells the brain’s fear hub, the amygdala, and its brainstem relay stations in response to fearful stimuli. The work at NIMH and a collabor

Patients speak out regarding impact on intimacy, relationships and careers

Results released today from the Voices of UC survey of 1,000 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients underscore the extensive burden of the disease. UC is a debilitating chronic disease affecting more than 500,000 Americans, for whom there is no medical cure. While UC affects more people in the United States than multiple sclerosis or cystic fibrosis, general awareness of the disease is disproportionately lower.

Opening a new door to an effective vaccine and therapy for a disease that strikes thousands annually, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School discovered that the bacteria that causes the intestinal disease Cholera spreads in the environment in much the same way it infects humans. Appearing in the December 8 issue of the journal Nature, the study investigates the bacterium Vibrio cholerae and its ability to attach to a host, enabling it to multiply and adding to the risk of infecting humans.

Women with breast cancer face increased risk of developing a second cancer

A new large-scale study on women with breast cancer found a 25 percent increase in the risk of developing a new non-breast cancer compared to women without cancer. The study, published online December 8, 2005 in the International Journal of Cancer, the official journal of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), is available via Wiley InterScience.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer a

Asthma patients who don’t respond to steroid treatment suffer repeated asthma attacks, and are at greater risk of dying from the condition. Researchers from King’s College London have found that vitamin D3 could substantially improve the responsiveness of these patients to steroid treatment, offering them hope of an improvement in their condition. Their results are published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Asthma is usually treated very effectively with inhaled s