For the 350 million people chronically infected with HBV, the two therapeutic approaches currently available are immunomodulatory agents and antiviral chemotherapy. The first therapeutic agent was interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), whose dual mode of action includes both antiviral and immunomodulatory effects. Unfortunately, extended IFN-alpha treatment is effective in no more than 15-25% of patients, and is associated with a wide spectrum of adverse reactions, although these limitations will be parti

Fewer than half of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer had received a screening procedure at least six months prior to their diagnosis, according to a new study. Researchers writing in the February 15, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, further say almost 94 percent of colorectal cancer patients had either not undergone a colonoscopy at all, or not until having the procedure that led to their diagnosis.

Professional societies un

Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is the most common developmental forebrain anomaly in humans and is caused by the failure of the embryonic forebrain (the prosencephalon) to sufficiently divide into the two lobes of the cerebral hemispheres. The result is a single-lobed brain structure and severe skull and facial defects. About 1 in 250 pregnancies miscarries as a result of severe HPE. In less severe cases, about one in 16,000 babies is born with minor brain developmental and facial deformities that may

Winter colds can give you a blocked up nose that stops you smelling chimney smoke, roasting chestnuts, warming winter puddings and the other seasonal scents. Now researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have not only discovered how air moves through the nose bringing you those smells but their work may lead to new ways of unblocking it and helping you to breathe more easily. They have even found that the airflow through the human nose is more compli

Mums to be have known for some time that what they eat when pregnant affects their unborn child but now scientists believe that the diet of our mothers during pregnancy may even affect our predisposition to illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure in late life.

Studies with animals have shown a link between diet and the life long health of offspring but experiments with pregnant women or unborn children is clearly not possible. Researchers funded by the B

Chemical byproducts of dry cleaning and silicon chip production are dechlorinated by the microbe dehalococcoides ethenogenes

Scientists have deciphered the genome sequence of a microbe that can be used to clean up pollution by chlorinated solvents – a major category of groundwater contaminants that are often left as byproducts of dry cleaning or industrial production.

The study of the DNA sequence of Dehalococcoides ethenogenes, which appears in the January 7 issue of Scien

People with more copies of a gene that helps to fight HIV are less likely to become infected with the virus or to develop AIDS than those of the same geographical ancestry, such as European Americans, who have fewer copies of the gene, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings help to explain why some people are more prone to HIV/AIDS than others.

Scientists beli

The explosion of data from microbial genome sequencing has sparked intense new interest in the field of systems microbiology. Systems microbiology treats microorganisms or microbial communities as a whole, integrating fundamental biological knowledge with genomics and other data to create an integrated picture of how a microbial cell or community operates.

According to a new report, “Systems Microbiology: Beyond Microbial Genomics,” released by the American Academy of Microbio

Scientists are taking the first steps to find out how a gene that is mutated in many cancer cells functions in healthy cells.

The researchers hope that learning how this gene, called Rb, operates in health cells will give them a better idea of how cancer develops and progresses. While mutations in Rb, are linked to several types of cancer including the childhood disease retinoblastoma, Rb normally keeps cell division in check. That means Rb is a tumor suppressor gene, which keeps

Discovery in Texas has medical implications

It was a transforming moment. Researchers could barely believe their eyes. A molecular blob of a protein reshaped itself into a molecular Pacman in order to free new viruses from the inside of a bacterial cell. It’s the sort of thing where your graduate student tells you the results of an experiment and you say, ’You must have made a mistake,’ said Dr. Ryland Young, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station biochemist. But then, a good scie

It is now significantly easier to search long stretches of DNA for genetic changes associated with disease, thanks to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The researchers developed a method called direct genomic selection that accelerates the transition between family or population-based studies of disease inheritance patterns and identification of genetic variations that may contribute to disease. That transition normally slows down dramatically wh

University of Florida stem cell scientists reported today (Jan. 3) that they have prevented blindness in mice afflicted with a condition similar to one that robs thousands of diabetic Americans of their eyesight each year.

Writing in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers describe for the first time the link between a protein known as SDF-1 and retinopathy, a complication of diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans.

Peter W. Atkinson, a University of California, Riverside professor of entomology and member of the university’s Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, is part of a team that has linked the movement of small pieces of DNA, known as transposable elements, to a process called V(D)J recombination that produces the genetic diversity responsible for the production of antibodies. This will help scientists understand the mixing and matching of DNA in organisms and the role this mixing plays in healthy

Researchers at Stanford University have made new discoveries that shed light on two inherited neurodegenerative disorders that are caused by inability of the body to transport sialic acid out of cellular compartments. The findings focus on how different mutations in one transporter molecule can cause a wide spectrum of symptoms in Salla Disease and infantile sialic acid storage disease (ISSD).

The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the January 14 issue of the Journ

MIT biologists report a potential way to decrease the dose of chemotherapeutic agents needed to tackle cancer, a feat that would reduce these agents’ toxic side effects.

What makes cancer cells unique is that they divide at a faster rate than ordinary cells, which makes them susceptible to the action of chemotherapeutic agents. But although chemotherapy is an effective treatment against fast-growing tumors, it is also associated with numerous toxic side effects because it is

Additional imaging tests help spare critical vessels, preserve sexual function

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center are using innovative planning techniques to help men with prostate cancer avoid erectile dysfunction after radiation treatment.

By using MRI scans in addition to CT scans, radiation oncologists can identify the blood vessels that control erectile function and plan treatment to target the prostate more precisely, sparing those