Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have figured out a key molecular step by which a cancer cell can unhook itself from the mesh weave of other cancer cells in a tumor, and move away to a different part of the body – the process, known as metastasis, that makes cancer so dangerous.

Describing what they call a critical “molecular switch” – detailed in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Cell Biology – the researchers say the door is now

Animal study sheds light on effects of hospital drugs

Chronic use of opiate drugs may alter brain neurons to make animal brains more sensitive to stress, according to a new study. If the research proves applicable to humans, the findings may help explain how hospital patients who have received morphine may be susceptible to stress disorder, attention problems and sleep disturbances. The effects on the brain may also contribute to better understanding of drug addiction.

The

Cannabinoid receptor necessary, but can’t be overloaded, mouse model shows

Marijuana use may increase the risk of ectopic (tubal) pregnancies, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported this week. The researchers studied CB1, a “cannabinoid” receptor that binds the main active chemical for marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

In pregnant mice that lacked the gene for the receptor, or in which the receptor was blocked, the embryo failed to go

Pregnant women are at higher risk for the occurrence or worsening of restless legs syndrome (RLS), a movement disorder that affects up to 10 percent of the general population, according to a study reported in the September 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers in Milan, Italy, recently concluded a large and detailed epidemiological study on RLS during pregnancy and six months postpartum that demonstrates at least one in four

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a pair of rapid-fire tests for botulinum toxin, a feat that could underpin new technologies to thwart bioterrorism and spur the development of agents to blunt the toxic action of the world’s most poisonous substance.

Writing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Wisconsin group, led by UW-Madison physiologist Edwin R. Chapman, describes the development of two assays for

Research has shown that the drug tamoxifen citrate not only helps prevent recurrence of breast cancer, but it also can keep the deadly disease from occurring in the first place in some women.

But a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study indicates it’s unlikely that tamoxifen will ever be given widely to women to prevent breast cancer. That’s because the drug would avert only a maximum of 6 percent to 8.3 percent of breast tumors in eligible women, UNC School

Doctors and researchers have discovered that it is possible to reduce excessive drinking among Accident & Emergency (A&E) casualties through simple interventions such as offering appointments with alcohol health workers.

According to research, published yesterday in The Lancet, the team discovered that by offering patients in A&E who had been drinking excessively the chance to visit an alcohol health worker, it was possible to reduce excessive drinking, and limit subsequent furthe

The first large scale comparative study of the mental health of assisted living residents has found a higher rate than expected of a range of mental health problems in this rapidly growing population.

The study which, appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, reports that two thirds of 2100 assisted living residents studied exhibited mental health problem indicators. Half suffered from dementia and a quarter exhibited indicators of depression.

Among men without heart disease but who have significant cardiac risk factors, a poor performance on an exercise treadmill test is associated with more than doubling of the risk for a heart attack or other coronary heart disease event, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Exercise treadmill testing is not generally recommended as routine screening for people with no history or symptoms of heart disease. This is the first study to evaluat

A specially adapted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner can help physicians remove brain tumors and all of the residual cancer during one surgical procedure, according to a study published in the October issue of the journal Radiology. Using intraoperative MR-guidance, surgical strategy was changed in one out of four cases.

“Imaging during surgery provides intraoperative quality control. It presents valuable information during the procedure that allows the surgeon an opportu

In the midst of crammed slums in the Nicaraguan district of Matagalpa, aid workers are hunting house-to-house for hidden killers, their search guided by high-resolution satellite imagery supplied through an ESA-backed project.

Their targets are blood-sucking reduviid insects, generally known as ’kissing bugs’ because they emerge from their hiding places each night to bite human skin where it is thinnest – around the mouth and eyes. Growing up to five centimetres long, the kissing bug

In what may be a first step toward expanding the arsenal against HIV, UC Irvine researchers have successfully targeted an HIV protein that has eluded existing therapies.

Researchers targeted Nef, a protein responsible for accelerating the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Nef was targeted with small molecules synthesized by the researchers – molecules that disrupted Nef’s interaction with other proteins. The technique used for identifying the synthetic mo

Stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood, then given intravenously along with a drug known to temporarily breach the brain’s protective barrier, can dramatically reduce stroke size and damage, Medical College of Georgia and University of South Florida researchers say.

“What we found was interesting, phenomenal really,” says Dr. Cesario V. Borlongan, neuroscientist and lead author of the study published in the October issue of the American Heart Association journal, Stroke.

Implications include developing materials that both detect and kill biological agents

University of Pittsburgh researchers have synthesized a simple molecule that not only produces perfectly uniform, self-assembled nanotubes but creates what they report as the first “nanocarpet,” whereby these nanotubes organize themselves into an expanse of upright clusters that when magnified a million times resemble the fibers of a shag rug. Moreover, unlike other nanotube structures, these tubes

Yale researchers demonstrate the crucial role of a membrane lipid called phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns (4,5)P2) in the communication of information between synapses in the brain, according to a study published this week in Nature.

“This study is the first to show that lowering the levels of this lipid in nerve terminals affects the efficiency of neurotransmission,” said senior author, Pietro De Camilli, Eugene Higgins Professor of Cell Biology and a Howard Hughes Me

For the second time in two years, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a new type of regulatory T cell that reduces asthma and airway inflammation in mice, bolstering the theory that a deficiency of such cells is a prime cause of the breathing disorder as well as allergies.

The team’s research not only provides a detailed profile of these newfound cells but also sheds light on how such cells are related to other T cells and suggests that there