Method tracks water molecules in blood

The holiday season is notorious for the emotional stress it evokes. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have come up with a non-invasive way to see the effects of psychological stress in an area of the brain linked to anxiety and depression. This research has important implications for how practitioners treat the numerous long-term health consequences of chronic stress.

In the study, which is repo

Treating lupus patients suffering from kidney inflammation with a medicine known as mycophenolate mofetil may be more effective in inducing remission than treating them with the standard regimen of intravenous cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), a new clinical trial indicates.

The study, published in Thursday’s issue (Nov. 24) of the New England Journal of Medicine, also showed that mycophenolate mofetil produced fewer complications, researchers found.

Such results could be an im

A Queen’s University study of fruit flies that may revolutionize the way birth defects are studied has identified the genes affected by a widely prescribed drug known to cause birth defects.

Methotrexate (MTX), a popular cancer-fighting drug also used to treat psoriasis, ectopic pregnancies, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, lasts a long time in the body and causes birth defects in children from women who have it in their systems. The study of the drug’s effect on fruit

One of the key controllers of neural development seems to depend on a simple cellular decision–whether to divide perpendicularly or in parallel to the embryonic structure called the neuroepithelium. Nevertheless, such orientation is critical, and understanding its machinery could help neuroscientists learn to control the division of adult neural stem cells to regenerate neural tissues.

Researchers know that during the earliest embryonic brain development, neural stem cells divid

Study finds AKT blocks cancer cell motility; paradoxical discovery raises questions in developing cancer inhibitor therapies

In investigating the molecular mechanisms of cancer cell motility – the unique property that enables cancer to spread from its primary origin to other parts of the body – researchers have uncovered a surprising role for the AKT/PKB (protein kinase B) enzyme, providing important new insights into cancer metastasis and suggesting that current efforts to deve

Using a nuclear magnetic resonance technique, University of Illinois at Chicago chemists have obtained the first molecular-level images of precursors of bundled fibrils that form the brain plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Untangling the molecular structure of these pre-fibril forms, which may be the key neurotoxins in Alzheimer’s, may help identify targets for new drugs to combat many neurodegenerative diseases.

Microscopic bundled fibrils made of p

Stem cells may cause some forms of bone cancer, University of Florida scientists report.

The researchers are the first to identify a population of cells with characteristics of adult and embryonic stem cells in cultures derived from biopsies of patients’ bone tumors. They describe their findings in this month’s issue of the medical journal Neoplasia.

“We’re saying the cell of origin of these tumors may be very, very primitive,” said C. Parker Gibbs, M.D., an

Two proteins involved in the process that controls plant growth may help explain why human cells reject chemotherapy drugs, according to an international team of scientists.

Researchers from Purdue University and Kyoto University in Japan have shown for the first time that proteins similar to multi-drug resistant proteins in humans move a plant growth hormone into cells, said Purdue plant cell biologist Angus Murphy. Because plant proteins called P-glycoproteins (PGPs) are closel

The most comprehensive analysis ever performed of the genetic relationships among all the major groups of snakes, lizards, and other scaly reptiles has resulted in a radical reorganization of the family tree of these animals, requiring new names for many of the tree’s new branches. The research, reported in the current issue of the journal C. R. Biologies, was performed by two biologists working at Penn State University: S. Blair Hedges, professor of biology, and Nicolas Vidal, a postdoctoral f

New application of fMRI technique may help physicians better diagnose and treat the effects of stress

Using a novel application of an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) technique, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have, for the first time, visualized the effects of everyday psychological stress in a healthy human brain. Their work, performed at Penn’s Center for Functional Neuroimaging, provides a neuro-imaging marker of psychological s

University of Pittsburgh researchers report a high level of effectiveness in re-opening completely blocked internal carotid arteries (ICA) as late as two to three days after acute stroke symptoms by using stents. The study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Stroke Institute, is in the November issue of Stroke, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Heart Association.

“This re

Peroneal nerve injury in traumatic knee dislocation is common, especially in high-speed collisions or sports injuries. “Because of its superficial course and proximity to the underlying bone, the peroneal nerve is susceptible to direct injury during contact sports and to indirect injury during knee trauma,” said the authors.

Clinically, the nerve is usually inspected during reconstructive knee surgery if pain and a sensory deficit on the anterolateral skin of the leg is appare

The image quality for detecting prostate cancer is significantly better for MRI at 1.5 T using an endorectal-body phased-array coil as compared with the 3.0 T imaging using the torso phased-array coil, a recent study found.

The study, consisting of 24 patients with prostate cancer, compared the use of MRI at 1.5 and 3.0 T in terms of image quality, tumor delineation, and depiction of staging criteria. MRI using an endorectal coil was found to be superior to the conventional bo

BACKGROUND: Neonatal mortality rates–that is, mortality in the first 28 days–in the United States fell significantly between 1940 and 2000 from 28.8 deaths per live birth to 4.6 deaths. Yet ethnic and racial disparities have persisted or increased during that time. Deaths among very low-birthweight infants (VLBW) account for more than half the infant deaths in the United States. The researchers sought to determine whether there is a correlation between mortality among VLBW infants a

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that people reduce their average alcohol consumption as they age. In the new study the researchers sought to determine whether the percentage of heavy drinkers–that is, men who have at least five drinks in one sitting and women who have at least four drinks — also reduced as they aged. This latest study was based on data from 14,127 participants, aged 25 to 74, in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, first administered betwe

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues shows that a drug originally used to treat breast cancer may help combat the severe weight loss that can plague patients undergoing radiation treatment for lung and head and neck cancer.

“The drug clearly reduced weight loss and improved quality of life in study patients,” said Michael Farmer, M.D., who presented the results last month at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and