Treatment for spinal cord injury leading to paralysis continues to stymie physicians but a clinical trial at the Indiana University School of Medicine reported in the January issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery – Spine may point researchers in a positive direction.

Ten patients with complete motor and sensory spinal cord injury were implanted with an experimental device designed to regenerate nerve fibers, promoting some degree of functional recovery. The device, an oscillating

Monitoring and managing asthma important for healthy mother and baby

The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) is issuing the first new guidelines in more than a decade for managing asthma during pregnancy. The report reflects new medications that have emerged and updates treatment recommendations for pregnant women with asthma based on a systematic review of data on the safety of asthma medications during pregnancy. An executive summary (“Quick Reference”)

Dr. Roger Brent, President and Director of Research at the Molecular Sciences Institute (“MSI”), announced today the release of a new approach to simulation of intracellular biochemical networks in the January edition of Nature Biotechnology.

The research article, entitled “Automatic generation of cellular reaction networks with Moleculizer 1.0,” describes MSI’s discrete stochastic event simulator, which keeps track of the thousands of complex species formed from pathway protei

Stem cell transplants have become the standard of care for Patients with relapsed lymphoma, but not for Patients who suffer from both this disease and HIV. A new study showing that this treatment is a viable option for select Patients with HIV-associated lymphoma will be published in the January 15, 2005, issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Because of the immunodeficiency associated with HIV, HIV-positive Patients are more likely to deve

They’re the third type of mammal shown to have this skill

Mammals other than humans can distinguish between different speech patterns. Neuroscientists in Barcelona report that rats, like humans (newborn and adult) and Tamarin monkeys, can extract regular patterns in language from speech (prosodic) cues. The report appears in the January issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

Salton Sea find shares ’gene-jumping’ history with its oceanic relatives

Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered a form of blue-green algae that lives independently in California’s Salton Sea, using near-infrared light for photosynthesis, according to an article published in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“This new strain of Acaryochloris is unique because it is able to live on its own,” says UO

Groundbreaking research project may help boost vaccine development

In an innovative project with implications for malaria vaccine development, scientists have used genomics, proteomics and gene expression studies to trace how malaria parasites evolve on a molecular level as they move between their hosts and insect vectors.
That focus on the parasites’ complex life cycle is helping researchers understand when different genes switch on and off as the pathogens metamorphose th

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is one of the most common fatal diseases worldwide. In Germany alone, there are about 3-5 million patients affected. COPD includes both chronic obstructive bronchitis and emphysema. Both represent irreversible changes of the central and lower respiratory tract which are accompanied by coughing, mucus production and difficulty in breathing.

The increased production of mucus is induced by the immigration of neutrophilic granulocytes a

US researchers have uncovered reasons why the Mediterranean diet, with its high intake of oleic acid-rich olive oil, seems to protect against breast cancer. They have also found evidence that oleic acid may have a future role in treatment. The findings are reported today (Monday 10 January) in Annals of Oncology[1].

The researchers have demonstrated in a series of laboratory experiments on breast cancer cell lines that oleic acid dramatically cuts the levels of an oncogene called

Real exercise capacity wasn’t improved for men or women, young or old by either acute or long-term ascorbic acid ingestion; earlier studies had showed reduced oxidative stress indicating possibility of exercise boost

Orange juice or other sources of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), may (or may not) benefit you in terms of health and exercise, but contrary to what many people thought previously, ascorbic acid doesn’t seem to help physical exercise performance. And in terms of su

Promising new evidence for the optimal use of biologic therapies

A major cause of pain and disability, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is also potentially the most treatable form of chronic arthritis. Researchers, doctors, and patients agree that a group of drugs called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) can effectively reduce joint pain and stiffness. Yet, even when prescribed early and aggressively, DMARDs alone do not guarantee the desired outcome: the rapid and prolonged su

Smaller lymph nodes commonly seen on abdominal CT scans in “healthy” people are not clinically significant and require no further imaging, a new study confirms. The study was performed because there is no standard as to what should be done about these patients so they often undergo additional testing to rule out inflammation, cancer or other diseases.

Researchers examined CT scans of 120 patients treated in the emergency room following blunt abdominal trauma that had no history of

A discovery by a Mayo Clinic research team may pave the way for the creation of new drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) lung disease, which affects an estimated 500,000 patients in the United States. Currently, there are no effective treatments for RA lung disease.

In a paper that appears in today’s online version of the Jan. 13 edition of Arthritis & Rheumatism, the researchers report that RA lung disease may operate much differently from other forms of lung disease. If f

Cancer researchers at Jefferson Medical College and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that zinc treatment may help prevent esophageal and oral cancers in those individuals at high risk.

Oral and esophageal cancers are associated with nutritional zinc deficiency, and a rise in the expression of the enzyme COX-2 is connected with these cancers. Louise Fong, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical

The same heightened electrical activity that indicates an adult taking a treadmill test isn’t getting enough oxygen to his heart is now being measured during labor to see if it can better identify babies in serious distress who need immediate delivery. The Medical College of Georgia in Augusta is the lead site in the nation to help determine whether monitoring ST segment activity during labor reduces the number of babies born with hypoxic brain damage as well as unnecessary Caesarean secti

The American Council for Headache Education (ACHE) launches its new Patient Education Page (PEP) in the journal, Headache. The page is a public service of ACHE, the patient education affiliate of the American Headache Society (AHS) and includes concise information that is useful for both patients and physicians. January’s page covers Menstrual Migraine: What You Should Know.

This first patient handout outlines migraine definitions, what to do, and various therapies that women ca