Interferon — a critical protein that mediates the body’s defense against a wide variety of infectious agents and tumors — may soon have greater therapeutic value as the result of a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“Essentially, we found a way to grease the gears that drive the interferon signal,” says Michael J. Holtzman, M.D., the Selma and Herman Seldin Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Pulmonary and

Adult stem cell therapy quickly and significantly improves recovery of motor function in an animal model for the ischemic brain injury that occurs in about 10 percent of babies with cerebral palsy, researchers report.

Within two weeks, treated animals were about 20 percent less likely to favor the unaffected side of their bodies and experienced about a 25 percent improvement in balance, compared to untreated controls, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

Their fi

Vending machines that allow consumers to dial-up personalised milkshakes with nutritional supplements could find their way into gyms, schools and doctors’ surgeries in as little as 3 years, prompting calls for health warnings by experts.

The machines asks consumers questions regarding their age, gender and exercise regime to specific health conditions like diabetes. And although the consumer can choose flavours and colours, the machine decides how much vitamins, minerals, fatty acid

Low Cost Fails To Ensure The Availability Of Lifesaving Drug

A life-saving drug used to treat seriously-ill pregnant women in Africa is not widely available – in part because it’s too cheap. Magnesium sulphate is a low-cost but effective treatment for eclampsia and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women. The disease, although relatively rare, claims the lives of more than 63,000 women a year, mostly in poorer countries and can also kill unborn children.

But researchers at the L

White blood cells may be cause of dementia in people with AIDS

Researchers studying the evolution of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the brain have found that the body’s own defenses may cause HIV-related dementia.

Publishing in the Sept. 2005 issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers show that HIV in the temporal lobe mutates at a rate 100 times faster than in other parts of the body, triggering white blood cells to continually swarm to attack the infe

Mayo Clinic research reinforces the importance of blood sugar control from onset of diabetes to prevent nerve damage later

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that subtle change in nerve conduction is the first reliable sign of nerve complications from diabetes and that this change can be measured long before other symptoms or signs of nerve damage develop.

“We’ve found what we believe is the earliest sign of nerve change due to diabetes,” says Peter J. Dyck, M.D., Mayo

Scientists are depicting a novel scheme for atherosclerosis development, suggesting that this pathology might result from an imbalance between pro-inflammatory processes and calming ones. This is one of intriguing scientific results that emerge from the Second European Vascular Genomics Network Conference (EVGN Conference – Hamburg, September 27th – 30th 2005). These results provide new insights into the role of inflammation in heart disease and led to development of new informative models of b

A Cornell University virologist has isolated a highly contagious equine flu virus that is spreading a sometimes-fatal respiratory flu among dogs, and is responsible for a major dog-flu outbreak in New York state. There is no evidence that the virus could infect people.

According to a paper published in the Sept. 26 issue of Science Express, the online version of Science magazine, this is the first time an equine flu virus has been found to jump species.

The equine influ

UK scientists are working on new methods to regenerate cartilage and bone by delivering genes to stem cells within the body to instruct them to turn into bone cells. The research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), could lead to a new approach to tissue engineering. With the ageing populations of Western countries it holds the potential of significant benefits for patients needing joint replacement or similar treatments.

The new research will us

Scientists studying the humble fruit fly have found a family of proteins that enhances the sensitivity of a cell to a hormone that can trigger abnormal growth and cancer. Their discovery could lead to a completely new approach to tackling some cancers and the development of new drugs to stop uncontrolled growth in a wide variety of tumour cells.

The researchers at the University of Oxford, funded in part by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), discove

Iron key to nitric oxide reduction

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom have uncovered a mechanism with which disease-causing bacteria may thwart the body’s natural defense responses. The findings, which could ultimately lead to the development of more effective antibiotics, appear in the September 29, 2005 issue of the journal Nature.

“Nitric oxide is produced by the body to fight infections. We discove

Seasonal wedges of undersea water block upwelling of plant sustaining nitrates

Duke University oceanographers have developed an explanation for why a vast North Atlantic circulation zone can have a large variability in nutrient supplies needed to sustain ocean plants and, by extension, support the food web of marine life.

The circulating zone in the North Atlantic Ocean, known as a “subtropical gyre,” swirls in a clockwise direction between the Gulf Stream — the warm

Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have made the surprising discovery that flaviviruses, which cause such serious diseases as West Nile fever, yellow fever and forms of encephalitis, evade immune system defenses in different ways depending on whether they are transmitted by mosquitoes or ticks. This finding could lead to new approaches to developing vaccines and treatments against these illnesses.

Flavanol-rich cocoa drink improved blood vessel function in smokers.

Phytochemicals known as flavanols, which are found in chocolate, fruits and vegetables, can boost the levels of nitric oxide in the blood of smokers and reverse some of their smoking-related impairment in blood vessel function, according to a new study in the Oct. 4, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“While the long-term benefits of such improvements remain to be establ

MIT mathematicians have discovered how certain insects can climb what to them are steep, slippery slopes in the water’s surface without moving their limbs — and do it at high speed.

Welcome to the world of the tiny creatures that live on the surface of ponds, lakes and other standing bodies of water. There, “all the rules change,” said David Hu, a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics and first author of a paper on the work to appear in the Sept. 29 issue of Natur

By altering a molecule called Stat1, which is involved in cellular immune signaling, scientists have succeeded in making the molecule more responsive and thus more efficient. This old protein with a new twist may eventually be used to improve the body’s defense against infection.

Stat1 is involved in immune responses that are initiated by proteins called interferons. These proteins are produced by the cells of the immune system in response to challenges by foreign agents suc