Texas–Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have identified a key biochemical connection between the hepatitis C virus and liver cancer.

The molecular mechanism is similar to the one that links the human papilloma virus (HPV), the cause of genital warts, and cervical cancer, according to Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, the senior author of a paper on the discovery that will be published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National A

Some forms of colorblindness may actually afford enhanced perception of some colors, according to findings reported this week in Current Biology by John Mollon and colleagues at the University of Cambridge.

The most common form of colorblindness is an X-chromosome-linked variant form of color vision technically known as deuteranomaly. Colors are detected by humans through the combined action of three different types of so-called cone photoreceptors, each of which is optimally acti

Statistics isn’t what normally comes to mind what people think of cancer research, but a new statistical tool developed at the Stanford University School of Medicine could smooth out some of the fits and starts that have plagued the effort to understand and treat the disease.

The tool is at the heart of a new study that divides similar-looking kidney tumors into subtypes depending on which of thousands of genes are turned on or off. The idea behind this and related studies

Completing a daily crossword and enjoying a range of activities and interests has long been accepted as a recipe for maintaining a healthy brain in older age, but the reasons for this have never been clear. Now, scientists at the University of Edinburgh are seeking to identify brain’s ’survival’ genes which lie dormant in unused brain cells, but are re-awakened in active brain cells. These awakened genes make the brain cells live longer and resist traumas such as disease, stroke and

Study underscores another keyreason to control hypertension

People with high blood pressure and their doctors have a new reason to work at controlling this common but high-risk condition: As patients get older, they might otherwise have worse-than-normal problems with short-term memory and verbal ability. New research shows that uncontrolled hypertension puts people at higher risk for sharper drops in these cognitive functions than does blood pressure that’s normal due to

Findings pinpoint mechanism behind social deficits

New imaging research at UCLA detailed Dec. 4 as an advance online publication of the journal Nature Neuroscience shows children with autism have virtually no activity in a key part of the brain’s mirror neuron system while imitating and observing emotions.
Mirror neurons fire when a person performs a goal-directed action and while he or she observes the same action performed by others. Neuroscientists believe this ob

The stress a typical married couple feels during an ordinary half-hour argument is enough to slow their bodies’ ability to heal from wounds by at least one day, a new study has shown.

Moreover, if the couple’s relationship is routinely hostile toward each other, the delay in that healing process can be even doubled. The results of this study have major financial implications for medical centers and health care insurers.

The new study, reported in the curre

Many congestive HF-associated physiological changes were also suppressed, but the mechanisms aren’t known; level of exercise is critical but results come despite antecedent hypertension

A classic clinical dilemma faces doctors treating patients with congestive heart failure (CHF): while exercise generally protects the normal heart from cardiovascular disease, will exercise potentially “improve the prognosis of patents with CHF, or (will it place) a further excessive demand on an a

A better life for people with general anxiety and panic disorders may only be a phone call away, according to a University of Pittsburgh study published in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The researchers report that telephone-based care for people with generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder significantly improves both their symptoms of anxiety and depression and their mental health-related quality of life. The Pitt researchers also found the inte

“While our research reaffirmed the risk of stroke among patients with heart disease, the surprise was that the risk was so high in the month after a heart attack,” says Veronique Roger, M.D., M.P.H., the Mayo Clinic cardiologist who led the study.

“A lot of patients survive heart attacks today, which is why this study is so relevant,” she says. “It emphasizes the importance of worrying about other things that can happen beyond heart attacks, stroke being one of them.”

Mitochondria are the cell’s equivalent of power stations. A power station burns fuel to build up steam pressure and uses that pressure to drive a turbine linked to a dynamo. This in turn generates electricity. In mitochondria, the fuel is oxidised and builds up a pressure of hydrogen ions (protons). These force through molecular turbines and enable the cell to generate ATP, an energy unit that can be used throughout the cell.

Just as you can work out a power station’s efficiency by seeing

Placing your foot accurately is a complicated process. If something moves where you plan to place your foot then you can adjust your step while your foot is swinging through. Experts thought previously that if nothing changed in the path, or in your plans, then the place where your foot will land is fixed before it even leaves the ground. In this case, you would make no use of immediate visual information during each step.

Researchers monitored the accuracy with which subjects could step

Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease have identified a potential new way to stop brain cell death related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Working with cell cultures, the scientists investigated how amyloid beta proteins, which build up in the brain tissue of people with Alzheimer’s disease, kill neurons. The cell cultures were established from brain tissue of laboratory rats. Study findings showed that amyloid beta could be prevented from causing neuronal c

Study suggests that histone deacetylase enzymes cooperating with CBP/p300 histone acetylases trigger expression of many genes that respond to hypoxia, according to St. Jude

A biochemical mechanism that cells use to cope with hypoxia (lack of oxygen) actually cooperates with a less well-known mechanism that helps increase the expression of those hypoxia-sensitive genes, according to investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The two mechanisms each enab

Study sheds new light on this critical protein’s involvement in autoimmunity and chronic, corrosive joint inflammation

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the joints, which gradually erodes the cartilage and bone. The agents of destruction include inflammatory cells, cytokines, and protein-degrading enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The vicious cycle begins when inflammatory cells infiltrate the tissue

The mutation was not found in patients’ parents’ DNA

Gene mutations in the HRAS sequence are present in most patients affected with Costello syndrome, according to a new study in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. The mutations occurred de novo in patients, meaning, they were not observed in their parents’ genes. The study is published in the December issue of the journal, which is published by John Wiley & Sons. It is also available online via Wiley Inters