Scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) have made the unexpected discovery that significant differences can exist in the overall content of DNA and genes contained in individual genomes. These findings, which point to possible new explanations for individual uniqueness as well as why disease develops, are published in the September 2004 issue of the scientific journal Nature Genetics (available online August 1

Independent research groups have discovered novel therapeutic targets in the battle of the bulge

Independent research groups have discovered novel therapeutic targets in the battle of the bulge. By altering the expression of a single — albeit different – gene, Drs. Roger Davis (UMASS Medical School, USA) and Ying-Hue Lee (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) have succeeded in creating two different strains of transgenic mice that don’t gain weight, even when fed fat-laden, high calorie die

Herbivores’ fear of predators influences vegetation growth, ecologists state
The 1995 reintroduction of wolves in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park has led to increased growth of willow and cottonwood in the park by causing fear responses in elk and other ungulates, according to William J. Ripple and Robert L. Beschta of Oregon State University in Corvallis. Ripple and Beschta, writing in the August 2004 issue of BioScience, argue that fear of predation when wolves are present

New York City’s late summer/early fall 2000 mosquito spraying session, designed as an effort to minimize the spread of West Nile virus, did not increase the number of people seeking emergency care for asthma-related problems, according to a study published today in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The study found no correlation between the application of sumithrin—a pyrethroid pesticide—in the 162 residential zip codes sprayed between July and S

Encouraging trends in the long term success of total ankle replacement were reported in a study presented at the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society’s (AOFAS) annual summer meeting today.

This study, conducted by Charles Saltzman MD, a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Engineering from the University of Iowa, found total ankle replacement to be an option for patients with severe arthritis. Similar to hip and knee replacement surgeries, total ankle replacement involves removing th

Data presented here today at the Academy 2004 meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology demonstrate that tacrolimus ointment is more effective than pimecrolimus cream in the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with atopic dermatitis (AD).

Overall results also revealed that in the same patient populations, both treatments have similar safety profiles including no statistical difference with regard to burning and stinging. These findings were presented by Alan Fleischer, M.

Men who try hypnosis to help them quit smoking are more likely to be successful than women who use the same treatment, according to new research.

A review of 18 studies of hypnosis-based smoking cessation programs found that about 30 percent of men who used such a treatment successfully quit smoking, compared to 23 percent of women.

But the reasons may have more to do with gender differences in quitting smoking in general than reasons associated with hypnosis, said Joseph Gre

A Mayo Clinic research team is focusing on a hormone previously identified in the venom of the green mamba snake for the role it may play in a dangerous blood vessel narrowing in stroke patients that can lead to a second stroke, reduced blood flow and brain damage.

Called “cerebral vasospasm,” this common complication of stroke occurs in approximately one-third of patients who experience a ruptured brain blood vessel. Its cause is not known. By discovering a possible role for this

High-risk prostate cancer patients who undergo a combination of hormonal therapy, radioactive seed implant (also called brachytherapy) and external beam radiation therapy are shown to have an increased chance of cancer cure, according to a new study published in the August 1, 2004, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

Historically, high-risk prostate cancer

Surgeons at the Cedars-Sinai Institute for Spinal Disorders describe in the August 1 issue of the journal Spine a minimally invasive approach that enables them to perform fusion surgery on the difficult-to-access upper lumbar region of the spine with a reduced risk of serious complications.

“Compared to previous options, this new approach is safer with respect to major blood vessels and abdominal organs,” said John J. Regan, M.D., co-director of the Institute. “The majority of patients expe

A hormone that is important in the control of blood pressure may also inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells, say scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, writing in the new issue of the journal Carcinogenesis.

Patricia E. Gallagher, Ph.D., and E. Ann Tallant, Ph.D., said the hormone, called angiotensin-(1-7), “may represent a novel chemotherapeutic and chemopreventive treatment for lung cancer.”

Their studies found that angiotensin-(1-7) significantly

Carbohydrate microarray technology shows strength in exploring novel immunologic targets

Researchers in New York City and Guangzhou, China applied the rapidly-developing carbohydrate microarray technology to study an inactivated SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) vaccine and discovered autoimmunogenic activity of this newly identified human viral pathogen.

Using glycan microarrays, the researchers characterized the carbohydrate binding activity of SARS-CoV neutralizing antibodies e

OHSU researchers publish new findings, recommendations for clinicians
Every minute of every day, Bill McClellan hears an incessant hissing or ringing noise that fluctuates between a faint low-pitched static to a piercing high-pitched ring.

If he manages to fall asleep amid the cacophony, he awakens a few hours later to the same intolerable din. His resulting sleep deprivation makes it difficult to concentrate and his attention span is short. He can’t stand to drive because

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), the use of electrodes to heat and destroy abnormal tissue, is a promising technique to safely and effectively treat patients with inoperable lung tumors, say researchers from the IRCCS Hospital of Oncology in Bari, Italy.

In a study that focused on 18 patients with lung tumors ineligible for surgery, forty nodules were treated by lung RFA. Upon regular follow-up, no relapse was detected in 94% of the patients.

According to Cosmo Gadaleta, MD,

MRI reveals that greater trochanteric fractures of the hip that are diagnosed as isolated on X-ray are frequently underestimated and are neither isolated nor minor, say a pair of researchers from Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.

Frieda Feldman, MD, and Ronald B. Staron, MD, analyzed 37 patients over the age of fifty who had fallen and fractured their hip. All patients were diagnosed on X-ray as having greater trochanteric fractures, an injury to one of the bony protrusions

Mayo Clinic and British researchers have developed a new approach to cancer vaccines that purposely kills healthy skin cells to target the immune system against tumors. The new approach has eradicated skin cancer tumors in mice. The approach and results challenge conventional thinking on the creation of cancer vaccines. Their report on the “heat shock” vaccine therapy appears in the August issue of Nature Biotechnology, Results are promising because multiple rounds of treatment eradicated skin cancer