Of course, not the crab itself, but its hepatopancreas, which is a gland performing functions of both liver and pancreas. And not an entire hepatopancreas, but only some of its enzymes isolated by the Moscow scientists supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE).

Doctor of chemical sciences Galina Rudenskaya from the Moscow State University and her colleagues from small enterprise TRINITA have made an im

Studies of postmortem brains of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed a 31 percent greater than average number of nerve cells in the portion of the thalamus involved with emotional regulation. Researchers also discovered that this portion of the thalamus is physically larger than normal in people with MDD. Located in the center of the brain, the thalamus is involved with many different brain functions, including relaying information from other parts of the brain to the cereb

The medicine cabinet may seem like a strange place to look for a way to get high. But a growing number of teenagers are doing just that, raiding their parents’ pill bottles or buying prescription drugs illegally through Internet pharmacies and dealers.

From potent painkillers to humble cough syrups, the same medicines that can help patients can also be misused to produce a high feeling. And they can hurt teens or hook them into addiction just as easily as other illicit drugs.

Pare

How best to detect and manage bowel cancer is the subject of the latest issue of effective health care.

Colorectal (bowel) cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in England and Wales. Early detection and good management result in improved survival rates.

Improvements have been made in the provision of services and treatment of colorectal cancers, but wide variations still exist across the country. There are still patients who fit the NHS ‘two-week wait’ criteria who

Consumers must be afforded better protection against interventions falsely claiming to reverse or retard the aging process, according to an article published by legal and medical professionals in the June issue of The Gerontologist (Vol. 44, No. 3).

The team of researchers, based at Case Western Reserve University, urge professional organizations to undertake a sustained program of specific educational efforts to designed to sort out the “helpful, the harmful, the fraudulent, and the harmle

European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin today rejected stories in several media claiming he had called for genetic testing of all newborn babies in Europe. Mr Busquin said: “I have never advocated any such point of view. It is not the role nor the intention of the Commission to ask EU Member States to impose universal genetic screening of babies. Genetic testing is a matter of free choice and of ethical rules being decided by EU Member States. The Commission does not regulate ethics. I cert

Scientists in the Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research have restored the sight of blind zebrafish whose eyes failed to develop due to a genetic mutation. The findings, published this week in Developmental Biology, are exciting first steps on a long road to understanding eye diseases in humans.

Dr. Breandan Kennedy and his colleagues at the University of Washington, Seattle and the Hubrecht Laboratory in Utrecht, Netherlands first identified a family of eyeless fish. They th

Children in developing countries are being put at unnecessary risk of disease and death as they are fed alternatives to breast milk. According to a study published in BMC Medicine today, the amount of breastfeeding taking place falls a long way short of recommended levels. In 2001 the World Health Organization (WHO) passed a resolution recommending that infants under six months of age were fed exclusively on breast milk, in part to protect them from malnutrition, pneumonia and waterborne dis

Individuals who suffer from severe depression have more nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls emotion, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found

Studies of postmortem brains of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed a 31 percent greater than average number of nerve cells in the portion of the thalamus involved with emotional regulation. Researchers also discovered that this portion of the thalamus is physically larger than

For the second year in a row, researchers found no deaths due to heatstroke among young U.S. football players during the 2003 season, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows.

Between 1995 and 2001, 21 players died from heatstroke, an average of three a year, said Dr. Frederick Mueller, professor and chair of exercise and sport science in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.

“Again this year we have good news to report because we have been concerned ab

Three-dimensional MDCT angiography can be used in place of conventional angiography to image the extremities in nearly any case where conventional angiography is indicated, a new study suggests.

The study included 40 patients who underwent extremity MDCT angiography for a wide range of diseases, including traumatic injuries, musculoskeletal masses, and atherosclerotic disease, said lead author Dr. Musturay Karcaaltincaba of Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey. Diagnost

16-MDCT is showing promise in detecting coronary artery atherosclerosis and could, in the near future, serve as an alternative to electron beam CT, a technique that is effective but not widely available, a new study shows.

The study of 100 patients at Hiroshima University in Japan found that 16-MDCT and electron beam CT were almost equivalent in detecting coronary artery calcifications and coronary artery calcium scoring. Calcium scoring is the “quantification of total calcium burden in th

Fetal MRI allows more detailed and conclusive prenatal evaluation of the upper lip than sonography alone, allowing for better diagnosis of cleft lip and palate in fetuses, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Children’s Hospital in Boston, MA.

According to the article, cleft lip and palate is the most common facial malformation in newborns, affecting about 1 in 700 births worldwide, and there are a number of benefits to the

Children who undergo chemotherapy and survive acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) endure a 200-fold increase in the frequency of somatic mutations in their DNA, researchers from the University of Vermont Medical School reported in the July 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research. The alterations in the children’s gene sequence remain embedded within their chromosomes and may pose elevated risk for development of second malignancies and other diseases later in life, cautioned Barry A. Finette, M.D., Ph.D

The surprising finding that people with cystic fibrosis (CF) produce too little airway mucus – rather than too much, as it commonly believed – could lead to more effective treatments for the genetic disorder, say researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “It has always been thought, but never proven, that CF causes the body to produce too much abnormally thick mucus that accumulates in the lungs and intestines,” said Bruce Rubin, M.D., professor of pediatrics. “However, we have now shown th

Protein changes shape to let salts and other solutes in and out of the cell through a process called ’gating’ in order to keep tension on the membrane steady

New findings about a protein that keeps cells alive by opening and closing pores within a cell’s membrane may open the door to the development of new antibiotics. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas are studying a protein, called MscL, found in the membrane of the single-cell bacterium Escherichia coli. The