But trends in some countries and among younger women give future hope

The first comprehensive picture of female lung cancer mortality trends in Europe shows rates are still rising in most countries. But, the research does indicate that there is some room for cautious optimism in the longer term due to decreases or smaller rates of increase in some countries and a more favourable trend among younger women in many countries.

The Italian and Swiss authors, writing in Ann

Over half of women who began menopausal hormone therapy because of symptoms such as hot flashes or night sweats experience those symptoms when they discontinue hormone therapy, according to a study in the July 13 issue of JAMA.

Recommended guidelines and prescribing practices for menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) have changed significantly since publication of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) estrogen plus progestin (E + P) trial findings that the overall health risks of

Expanded newborn screening is now required by law in dozens of states, but most infants still are not covered by the full panel of 29 tests recommended by experts, according to the March of Dimes 2005 state-by-state report card on newborn screening.

The March of Dimes recommends that every baby born in the United States receive screening for a uniform panel of 29 disorders that includes metabolic conditions and hearing deficiency. All of these disorders can be successfully managed

Complicated plasminogen system yields potential therapeutic target; implications for aging, liver, lungs, heart, and degenerative diseases

Skeletal muscles naturally repair themselves very efficiently after injury. But when they don’t, otherwise successful recovery following damage from overuse during exercise, surgery or trauma can be stymied. Furthermore, as we age, muscle repair slows noticeably, and in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and other degenerative muscle diseases, normal

Ainara Lecumberri Munárriz recently defended her PhD thesis at the Public University of Navarre, in which the applicability of new inductors derived from camphor in asymmetric alkylation and Diels-Alder reactions was studied.

Spatially selective synthesis

Assymetric synthesis is the process by which the molecule is made to react solely on one side. This is of interest because carbons are tetrahedral and the properties of the molecules depend on how their atoms are sit

Is your cup of coffee suffering from fertility problems? If you’re drinking the instant variety it may very well be! The Robusta crop (Coffea canephora), which is the main variety for producing instant coffee, suffers from ’self-incompatibility’ so can’t pollinate itself. This presents a dilemma for coffee farmers who have to grow it in mixed plantings so that cross-pollination takes place – but which varieties to cross with which?

Sylvester Tumusiime (Unive

Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a genetically controlled brain mechanism responsible for social behavior in humans–one of the most important but least understood aspects of human nature. The findings are reported in Nature Neuroscience, published online on July 10, 2005.

The study compared the brains of healthy volunteers to those with a genetic abnormality, Williams Syndrome, a rare diso

Finding may yield a new test to explain recurring infections

A newly discovered gene mutation may account for many cases of immune deficiency, in particular two syndromes known as immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency and Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID), report researchers in the July issue of Nature Genetics. The discovery may lead to a new diagnostic test for these conditions, which make people highly susceptible to infections and often go unrecognized because of a lack

A team of University of Minnesota researchers has discovered how a gene that suppresses the development of melanoma and other human cancers works. The study points the way to treatments based on the function of the gene. The researchers, led by Zigang Dong, director of the university’s Hormel Institute in Austin, Minn., have applied for a patent on one such treatment. The work will be published online July 10 in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

A critical event in th

Curcumin, the yellow pigment found in the spice turmeric and a key ingredient in yellow curry inhibits melanoma cell growth and stimulates tumor cell death, according to a new study. Published in the August 15, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study also elucidates curcumin’s intracellular mechanisms of action in this type of tumor.

As well as showing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, curcumin has been shown to

Fakery is seen throughout the animal kingdom and is especially evident in the realm of mate selection and mating behavior. A puzzling behavior frequently observed in many species is copulation between males and females without the delivery of semen. In a world where reproduction is key to a species, survival, such behavior poses a real mystery. In a study that sheds new light on the evolution of sexual behavior, researchers have utilized a novel technique to reveal that in feral chickens, the s

A new study in the July 18 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine shows that gold-colored bacteria are more harmful than their unpigmented relatives. A group of scientists led by Victor Nizet (UCSD, San Diego, CA) have discovered that the molecules that give certain bugs their color also help them resist attack by immune cells called neutrophils.

Scientists and clinicians have known for many years that gold-colored strains of a bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus tend to be

UCSD scientist’s discovery suggest new way to fight antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus infections

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital and Health Center, San Diego have discovered that “Staph” bacteria use a protective golden armor to ward off the immune system, a finding with the potential to lead to new treatments for serious infections now increasingly resistant to standard antibiotics.

The resea

A molecule that helps the body’s motor nerve cells grow along proper paths during embryonic development also plays a major role in inhibiting spinal-cord neurons from regenerating after injury, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. In cultured cells, the researchers found that a component of myelin – a substance that normally insulates and stabilizes long nerve fibers in adult vertebrates – chemically blocks the ability of nerve cells to grow through myelin that is releas

MADISON-Boosting levels of two critical proteins that normally shut down during Huntington’s disease, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic, neurodegenerative condition.

Forms of the same proteins-known in short form as CREB and HSP-70–exist in all cells, including those of humans.

The study results, published online today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

A ground-breaking new research approach to understanding the cellular processes of Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases has revealed a promising pathway to the development of new types of drugs for these diseases.

The discovery, made in the laboratory of Ratnesh Lal, research scientist in the Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is published in this week’s online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of