Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have shown that surgery combined with inserting heated chemotherapy drugs directly into the abdomen can improve survival rates and quality of life in patients with several cancers that historically have a poor prognosis.

Results of four separate studies are being presented at the Society of Oncology Surgeons national meeting March 3-5 in Atlanta. The types of cancer reported at the meeting that have been treated with a c

UCLA AIDS Institute study

A UCLA AIDS Institute study has discovered that two chemical compounds may help the immune systems of HIV-infected persons fight the disease without invasive gene therapy. Presented March 5 at the 2005 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS, the new research demonstrates that the new chemicals activate telomerase — a protein that boosts immune cells’ ability to divide, enabling them to continue destroying HIV-infected cells.

“The immune cells that

Uncoupling the clock

A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis is giving the VIP treatment to laboratory mice in hopes of unraveling more clues about our biological clock. VIP is not “very important person,” but vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), a neuropeptide originally found in the gut, that is also made by a specialized group of neurons in the brain.

Erik Herzog, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, has discover

New light on a complex mechanism

A cluster of brain cells less than half the size of a pencil eraser tells you when to wake up, when to be hungry and when it’s time to go to sleep. The same cells also cause you to be disoriented after you’ve flown across multiple time zones. The human circadian clock, comprised of about 20,000 time-keeping cells, has mystified scientists since it was pinpointed in the brain about 30 years ago. Now, a researcher at the University of Calgar

A paper to be published in the journal Biology of Reproduction offers evidence that a protein circulating in the blood of mammals delivers the dietary micronutrient selenium to germ cells, enabling these cells to develop into normal sperm.

Previously, the function of this protein, selenoprotein P, was unknown, although it was believed to play a role as an antioxidant and to transport selenium throughout the body.

Dietary selenium is essential for normal sperm developmen

A Finnish innovation has resulted in a patent for the first method for removing lactose from food without affecting flavour.

In other lactose-free products, enzymes are used to dissolve the lactose, leaving traces of the substance, which can affect lactose-intolerant consumers.

The traditional method also changes the taste of milk products, making them sweeter. The new Valio milk is completely lactose-free and “Tastes the same as regular milk,” says Valio Research Manager

The Interim Board of Directors of the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) announces the completion of the amalgamation of the former European Society of Anaesthesiologists (ESA), the former European Academy of Anaesthesiology (EAA) and the former Confederation of European National Societies of Anaesthesiologists (CENSA) into the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA). For the first time, a single body exists to represent European anaesthesiologists, and to promote the highest clinical an

A dissertation from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden shows that 1.3 percent of those waiting for a bypass operation die waiting. Many more patients would survive if high risk cases were given top priority.

Diseases of the coronary artery are the most common cause of death in the world. Surgery of the coronary artery, bypass operations, reduce the risk of death in the majority of patients and has become one of the most common major surgical interventions. In

Mayo Clinic epidemiologists have found that the systemic inflammation characterizing rheumatoid arthritis may be to blame for the increased risk of cardiovascular death in patients with the disease.

“We believe that inflammation is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease among rheumatoid arthritis patients,” says Hilal Maradit Kremers, M.D., lead study investigator and research associate in the Mayo Clinic Department of Health Sciences Research.

Rheumatoid art

Duke University Medical Center investigators have found a strong association between depression and the incidence of irregular and rapid beating of the heart’s main pumping chambers in patients who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. This finding is important, the researchers said, because this heart beat irregularity, known as ventricular tachycardia, can be a precursor of sudden cardiac death .

Interestingly, the researchers found this association between depression an

Does having a low socioeconomic status (SES) lead to depression or does depression lead a person into poverty? According to a study that examined a database of 34,000 patients with two or more psychiatric hospitalizations in Massachusetts during 1994-2000, unemployment, poverty and housing unaffordability were correlated with a risk of mental illness. This finding is reported on in the current issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Three drugs, each of which works in a different way, are used in anti-platelet therapy to help prevent restenosis (the reclogging of blood vessels after they have been cleared with percutaneous coronary intervention or PCI) or thrombosis (obstruction of an artery or vein by a blood clot). The use of these platelet inhibitory drugs — cilostazol, clopidogrel and aspirin — has resulted in a significant reduction of thrombotic complications in the primary and secondary prevention of heart attacks.

A new study explains how a diet high in oily fish like salmon and mackerel improves inflammatory conditions, particularly in combination with low doses of aspirin. In a study in the March 7 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Arita and colleagues identify an anti-inflammatory lipid in humans that is derived from an essential fatty acid in fish oil.

Fatty fish contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids–diet-derived essential fatty acids known to benefit patients with cardiov

Researchers at Columbia University have received more than $3 million in funding from the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation to conduct research on spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neuromuscular disease that is the leading genetic killer of infants and toddlers. The funding will enable the institution to significantly expand its already substantial SMA research.

With an estimated 55,000 people afflicted with the disease in the United States, Europe and Japan, spinal muscular at

The hydrothermal vents were miles from where anyone could have imagined. One massive seafloor vent was an unheard of 18 stories tall. And all were creamy white and gray, suggesting a very different composition than vent systems studied since the 1970s.

Scientists who named the spot Lost City knew they were looking at something never seen before when the field was serendipitously discovered in December 2000 during a National Science Foundation expedition to the mid-Atlantic.

Discovery offers hope for treatment of dyslexia

A gene which is likely to be one of the causes of dyslexia in children has been discovered by researchers at Cardiff University.
They believe the major finding will give researchers a better understanding of what causes the brain disorder which disrupts reading and writing skills.

It is now hoped that follow-up research will also lead to the discovery of treatments which could help children susceptible to dyslexia. The