In a Perspective article in the Nov. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Fabio Cominelli, chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Virginia Health System reports that a dysregulated response by the innate immune system- the body’s initial, non-specific response to infection- may have more to do with the development of Crohn’s than acquired immunity, currently thought by many to be the most likely suspect.

Patients, physicians

A team led by a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine has developed vaccines that vastly reduce or eliminate dogs’ allergic reactions to three major food allergens: peanuts, milk and wheat. The vaccines’ benefits lasted at least three months.

The research, published in the Nov. 12 online edition of the journal Allergy and completed jointly with scientists at UC-San Francisco, UC-Davis and UC-Berkeley, is the first to reverse pre-existing food allergie

Putting on airs doesn’t cut it in the wasp world.

When wasps sporting the high-quality symbol of a blotchy face turned out to be wimps, they got harassed more than wasps whose abilities were honestly reflected by their faces, report researchers. It’s the first conclusive report that animals that don’t signal their qualities honestly receive social sanctions. Moreover, it’s the first report of such quality signals in insects. “It’s the most conclusive evid

Answers to these two questions are given by two recent studies on tooth development and evolution. Scientists at the University of Helsinki have identified the gene responsible for tooth enamel formation, which also explains the sharp incisors of rodents. The second study adds to our knowledge on evolution: the differences between teeth in various species, which have been utilised in evolution research, can be altered through one signalling molecule that regulates development. The research find

A study of a recently discovered microRNA gene reveals that its function is to regulate the secretion of insulin in the pancreas. The findings, which for the first time define a biological function for a mammalian microRNA gene, are published in the November 11 issue of Nature.

The discovery was made by a team of researchers from Rockefeller University, Lund University (Sweden), New York University, and Oxford University.

MicroRNA genes are a newly discovered large clas

Gene exchange between different plant species is made possible by their parasites, according to an Indiana University Bloomington report in this week’s Nature.

IUB biologists’ discovery that genes can move from plant parasites to plant hosts complements a report by University of Michigan and Smithsonian Institution scientists in the July 30 issue of Science that showed the opposite — that genes can move from plant hosts to plant parasites. Taken together, the findings establis

University of Pittsburgh researchers describe how the antigen-rich particles receive cozy welcome by recipient cells

Bubble-like nano-scale particles that are shed by dendritic cells may hold the key to achieving transplant tolerance – the long-term acceptance of transplanted organs without the need for drugs, suggests a study by University of Pittsburgh researchers published in the Nov. 15 issue of the journal Blood. The results provide some of the first information about what t

Some new generation COX-2 inhibitors may not allow heart attack patients to recover fully, research indicates.

Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a basic cellular process the body uses to balance pH in cells–also critical to recovery following a heart attack–is compromised by certain novel COX-2 inhibitors.

Bicarbonate transporters, enzymes critical to maintaining this delicate balance of bicarbonate across the cell membrane, are potently inhib

Fungi and animals, including humans, have a lot in common when it comes to the arrangement of genes that determine their sex, according to new work by Howard Hughes Medical Institute geneticists at the Duke University Medical Center.

Regions of the genome that determine the sexual identity of the infectious fungus Cryptococcus neoformans bear striking similarities to the human Y chromosome — the sex chromosome associated with male characteristics — the team found. The researchers

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have linked a stem-cell gene to a portion of one of the most common childhood brain cancers, opening the door to tailored therapies that block the gene’s tumor-promoting ability.

The gene, called Notch2, whose pathway is known to be an important factor in regulating brain stem-cell growth and survival, has been studied in fruit flies for almost a century. The research team at the Johns Hopkins Pathology Department and Kimmel Cancer Center found t

A progressive skin disease causing hair loss in adult humans was identified in laboratory mice, providing a genetic tool to study the disease known as alopecia areata (AA).

“Our mouse model has proven to be very useful as a preclinical model to test new treatments for alopecia areata before being used in humans,” states lead researcher, John P. Sundberg, D.V.M., Ph.D., of The Jackson Laboratory inBar Harbor, Maine. The study further provided the opportunity to use newly availabl

A study published in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1] today (Thursday 11 November), should help allay fears that removing anonymity from sperm donors might lead to problems for the children or for their biological fathers.

In the world’s first study to examine the feelings and experiences of adolescents who had been conceived through ’open-identity’ sperm donors, US researchers found that all but one of the 29 young people

Trials have raised questions on the current management and standard of care for advanced ovarian cancer (AOC). These controversies highlight implications for future clinical research and policy-making, as reviewed in an article published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.

According to the paper, ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in women though unfortunately, the disease is only diagnosed at advanced stages. This study, led

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. Pharmaceutical and surgical therapies for PD are available and can alleviate the symptoms and complications. Unfortunately, despite these therapies, the disease relentlessly progresses. A new study in the journal Value in Health presents a detailed overview of the current decision-analytic models used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of therapeutic options in Parkinson’s disease.

Lead author Uwe Sieb

If you frequently take over-the-counter pills or prescription medication to make your headaches go away, you might get relief—temporarily. But the frequent use of headache medications to make the pain of a headache disappear could trigger chronic daily headache (CDH), according to recent commentary appearing in Headache Currents. Numerous studies have highlighted similar conclusions about the overuse of medication, giving further weight to the expert opinions from Drs Fred Sheftell and Marcello Big

The closer hospitals adhere to national guidelines for treating potential heart attack patients, the greater the decline in their mortality rates, according to a analysis of treatment patterns at 315 U.S. hospitals by Duke Clinical Research Institute researchers.

The analysis is among the first of its kind to definitively link hospital’s improvement in use of guideline-recommended treatments with concomitant reductions in hospital death rates. These findings should provid