Psychological treatment that teaches children to face their fears is the most effective treatment for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a new Mayo Clinic analysis of previously published research.

The treatment, a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) called exposure and response prevention, produces almost twice as much benefit compared with medications used for childhood OCD, says Jonathan Abramowitz, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic psychologist and lead res

While the incidence of disease from HIV and hepatitis is increasing in the United States, little is known about their prevalence in patients undergoing surgery. Now, researchers have shown that nearly 40 percent of surgeries at The Johns Hopkins Hospital occur in patients who tested positive for a bloodborne germ.

“While these rates are alarming, they are not entirely unexpected. General precautions have been in effect for some time to prevent the spread of disease to health

Members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family of proteins play many regulatory roles in several tissues. FGF-21 is a novel member of the FGF family, but its biological role was not known. In a study appearing online on May 2 in advance of the print publication of the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Alexei Kharitonenkov and colleagues from Lilly Research Laboratories show that FGF-21 may be a new therapeutic treatment for Diabetes Mellitus.

The researchers show th

A study published in the May issue of Developmental Cell identifies specific genes that appear to be key players in the regulation of human-blood stem cells. This work is the first to validate gene expression analysis in human stem cells with functional experiments. The findings also suggest that changes in the expression of genes associated with universal cell signaling pathways can have a substantial impact on human stem cell behavior.

Formation and ongoing maintenance of bl

Although they may look small and unassuming, planarian worms are famous in the scientific world for their extraordinary ability to regenerate body parts after injury. Even a small piece cut off a planarian can reorganize and regenerate to form a whole new worm. Now, scientists have completed the first systematic investigation of gene function in planarians, opening the door to using genetic analysis to decipher how regeneration works in this enigmatic animal. The research, published in the May i

Could lead to strategies to regenerate tissue after heart attack

In the best documented effort to date, researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have successfully induced adult heart-muscle cells to divide and multiply.

Heart-muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, were previously considered incapable of replicating in mammals after birth, which is why heart attack is such a problem: once killed, heart

Analysis of approximately 41,000-year-old human remains found in France suggests that Neandertals may have become regionally mobile earlier than scientists once thought.

Cédric Beauval and colleagues from Université Bordeaux 1 in France, Max Planck Institute in Germany, and Washington University in St. Louis, conclude that the human femur fragment found in 2002 in the cave of the Rochers-de-Villeneuve comes from a Neandertal, based on its shape and mitochondrial DNA. Its age pl

Hohenstein quality label provides guidance

Probably no other catchword has had such an impact on professional textile circles or been included in the advertising messages of manufacturers as frequently over recent months as the term nanotechnology. As there is no uniform definition of the term as yet and there is no distinction between this and conventional textile finishing, insecurity amongst retailers and consumers has increased as the number of advertised active principles an

A critical lock and key mechanism that allows the final step in the completion of new blood vessel formation has been identified by a University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine team in research that promises to lead to a new way to halt tumor growth by cutting off the tumor blood supply.

The research team led by Judith Varner, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSD and a member of the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, made the surprising

A new experimental drug may be effective against a certain form of leukemia resistant to current treatments, research at UT Southwestern Medical Center shows.

“This novel anti-leukemia drug that we have been working on shows considerable promise for going into the clinic,” said Dr. Robert Ilaria Jr., associate professor of internal medicine and molecular biology and senior author of the study that will appear in an upcoming issue of Blood. The study is available online.

Research performed at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has revealed that oxygen therapy aimed at helping mice with acute lung inflammation breathe paradoxically worsened their illness. The researchers say excess oxygen appears to thwart a natural process that limits lung tissue damage. They overcame this deleterious side effect, however, by adding an inhaled anti-inflammatory drug to the oxygen therapy.

A paper published in this week’s Journal of Clinical Oncology says Transforming Growth Factor Beta Receptor 1*6A (TGFBR1*6A) – a mutated gene present in nearly one in eight people and the most commonly inherited cancer susceptibility gene identified so far – might be responsible for a significant proportion of familial colorectal cancers. The study, published by researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, sa

Simple blood test in the near future possible

For the first time, physicians at University Health Network and University of Toronto have identified a small subset of genes that can predict whether a patient with chronic Hepatitis C will be able to respond to current treatments. These genes could also become the basis of a simple new test in the future to predict which patients will respond to therapy.

The study, published in the May issue of the American Gastroenterolog

RNA-guided RNA pseudouridylation in archaea

Pseudouridylation is one of the most abundant forms of post-transcriptional RNA modification in eukaryotes and archaea, and plays a key role in the generation and correct functioning of cellular RNAs. The modifications are made by a complex of proteins directed to target sites by integral non-coding guide RNAs.

Drs. Michael and Rebecca Terns and colleagues have effectively reconstituted the archaeal modification guide ribonucleop

Substantial risks to native fish stocks argue for evaluation of dangers

The substantial risk to salmon stocks posed by salmon that escape from net-pen farms argues for risk assessments of all types of marine fish farming, according to an article published in BioScience. Rosamond Naylor of Stanford University and nine coauthors conclude in their article that without a firm policy mandate for risk assessment of escaping farm fish, aquaculture will “almost certainly lead to extensiv

Do you – like millions of full-time workers – surf TV channels, play video games or boot up the computer in what little free time you have? If so, there’s a good chance you’re skimping on heart-healthy physical activities, scientists report at the American Heart Association’s 45th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

In their study of nearly 4,500 men and women, a subset of full-time workers who spent more of their down time engaged in seden