McMaster researcher investigates why influenza epidemics happen in the winter

Flu season is on its way to homes across Canada. But the question of why influenza epidemics take place in the few cold months of winter remains unanswered. Is it the change in the weather? The return to school? Or increased viral production under winter conditions?

The answer to the increase of flu cases may be extremely minute seasonal changes, says David Earn of the Department of Mathematics &

Many pediatricians know their patients use complementary and alternative therapies (CAM) to improve their health, yet most do not feel comfortable discussing or recommending these therapies, according to a study published in the November issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics.

The study was conducted by Kathi J. Kemper, M.D., a pediatrician at Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Pediatricians surveyed cited lack of knowledge about CAM

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified a Lyme disease receptor called TROSPA that is used by disease agents to invade ticks.

Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease in the United States, is caused by spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which also cause arthritis in humans. The purpose of the study, published November 12 in the journal Cell, was to identify how Lyme disease pathogens survive inside ticks.

“We identified a receptor inside t

A new approach to outwit resistance to antibiotics has been discovered by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

By inserting a naturally occurring molecule into an antibiotic-resistant bacterium, the team was able to gradually destroy the machinery responsible for the resistance. “Multidrug-resistant bacteria are now ubiquitous in both hospital settings and the larger community,” wrote Paul J. Hergenrother, a professor of chemistry, in a pape

While nosing around the Quaternary mammal collection at the Provincial Museum of Alberta two years ago, Paul Matheus, a paleontologist with the Alaska Quaternary Center, came across a brown bear fossil that seemed out of place. The fossil had been collected by Jim Burns, curator of Quaternary mammals at the PMA a few years earlier near Edmonton, Alberta, in gravels that date to before the last ice age (older than 24,000 years). If this was true, Matheus thought, it could be a very important f

A team of Stanford University researchers led by Richard Myers, Ph.D., in collaboration with Chris Amemiya, Ph.D., of the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle, campaign in the December issue of Genome Research for deciphering the genetic code of a “living fossil” fish, the coelacanth.

The genomic sequence of this large “hollow-spined” fish, which populates deep-sea volcanic caves, could hold valuable clues for biologists studying the evolution of vertebrate species. Coelacanth

Mast cells are immune cells known mostly for their unwanted effects: they cause the wheezing of asthma, the itching of eczema, the sneezing and runny nose of hay fever and, in extreme cases, the life-threatening shock of anaphylaxis. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that these cells also have some very beneficial effects.

Stephen Galli, MD, the Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD, Professor and chair of pathology, and his colleagues have shown for th

Protein may help immune system fend off virus

UCLA scientists have shown that a protein called telomerase prevents the premature aging of the immune cells that fight HIV, enabling the cells to divide indefinitely and prolong their defense against infection. Published Nov. 15 in the Journal of Immunology, the research suggests a future therapy for boosting the weakened immune systems of HIV-positive people.

Every cell contains a tiny cellular clock called a telomere, wh

Marine invertebrate called sea cucumber resembles vegetable cucumber by not only shape, but also by some metabolites. The substances produced by the animal can affect the growth of the plant. This study was conducted by Russian biochemists and supported by the RFBR.

Sea cucumbers are cucumber-shaped echinoderms of the genus Cucumaria (Latin designation for vegetable cucumber sounds similar – Cucumis) having a flexible body with tentacles surrounding the mouth. Very recently, the Ru

A team of researchers have developed a new method of predicting the number of drug users in the population by looking at the number of recorded overdose deaths among drug users.

In research published today in the American Journal of Epidemiology a team of researchers from Imperial College London, the Health Protection Agency, Medical Research Council and GlaxoSmithKline analysed the numbers of opiate and injecting drug users who had overdoses, to see if it was possible to mode

Scientists say that low carbohydrate diets, like the Atkins and South Beach Diets, may actually be the best option for men who want to slim. New research, published this week in the Open Access journal, Nutrition & Metabolism, shows that over 70% of men lost more weight and fat on a low carbohydrate diet, despite eating more calories.

Jeff Volek and colleagues, from the University of Connecticut, also show for the first time that a low carbohydrate diet is much more effective in

Researchers working with Florida red tide discovered two new compounds that may treat mucus build-up associated with cystic fibrosis and similar lung diseases. Preliminary studies show these compounds improve the flow of mucus through the respiratory tract, allowing airways to clear more quickly and efficiently.

“These compounds are excellent candidates for the development of an entirely new class of drugs targeted for the treatment of mucociliary disease,” said Kenneth Olden, Ph.

Health educators and dietitians ought to be more precise the next time they advise Americans that “vegetables and fruit are good for you,” according to a study by a nutritional expert at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

That’s because a person who likes vegetables tends to have different food tastes and social habits from a person who prefers fruits. Lumping the two groups together may undercut the effectiveness of “better-health” educational campaigns that seek to

Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery can effectively control gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms in morbidly obese patients who had previous antireflux surgery, with the additional benefit of weight loss and improvement of co-morbidities, according to a study published in the November issue of the journal Obesity Surgery.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study found that gastric bypass is feasible and effective in controlling GERD in patients who had p

NorayBio, a bioinformatics company located at the Bizkaia Technological Park (Basque Country) and specialising in developing software for the biosciences, has launched a new software for cancer research on to the market – BITIA, primarily aimed at research centres and cancer wards in hospitals.

BITIA aims to help oncologists to answer the question that has been around for some time: Why is it that two patients with very similar pathology profiles respond in distinct ways to treat

Men using the female estrogen hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches as treatment for advanced prostate cancer suffer fewer side effects than with other treatments, according to a new study reported in the latest issue of the Journal of Urology (December 2004). Scientists at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and Imperial College London have already shown that HRT patches have considerable potential as prostate cancer therapy. For the first time they have additionally shown that this therapy