A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows, for the first time, an association between coronary heart disease and oral health in women. Recent results have also shown that serological factors, might provide insight into the reported epidemiological association between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Western industrialized world. Classic risk factors such as smoking, obesity and high blood lipids do not ex

Scientists have developed a new system that uses basic information about the ecology of “vector” borne diseases – malaria, Lyme disease or some of the new emerging diseases such as Avian flu – to mathematically predict how they might change, spread and pose new risks to human health.

The approach, developed by researchers from Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, could become enormously valuable to agencies that are trying to understand what a disease might d

Findings in science advance understanding of intestinal cholesterol pathway and action of Zetia, a cholesterol absorption inhibitor complementary to statin therapy

In a major advance in understanding the intestinal pathway for cholesterol absorption and the mechanism of action for ZETIATM (ezetimibe), scientists at Schering-Plough Research Institute (SPRI) have identified and characterized a long sought protein critical to intestinal cholesterol absorption. In an article published in

Malaria, which infects 600 million people in the world and leads annually to 2 million deaths, is the most widespread of infectious diseases. The pathological agent is a microscopic parasite of the Plasmodium genus which develops inside the host’s erythrocytes.

Plasmodia go through a series of asexual reproduction cycles before a transition takes place from asexual stages to production of sexual cells, the gametocytes or pre-gametes, in the host blood. The females of Anopheles, the mosquito

The evolution of a particular gene could be the reason why a certain worm might better tolerate a salty environment than its relatives, new research suggests.

The findings show that the excretory cells of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans – a widely studied nematode used in genetics research — express a specific gene that seems to help the species tolerate a high-salt environment. The findings are reported in the current online edition of Nature Genetics.

Related Caenorhabditis speci

UCSF researchers have made a notable advance in the effort to illuminate the existence of adult stem cells in the human brain, identifying a ribbon of stem cells that potentially could be used to develop strategies for regenerating damaged brain tissue – and that could offer new insight into the most common type of brain tumor.

The study, conducted by investigators in the UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, is the cover story in the Feb. 19 issue of Nature.

The researchers co

Water is simple, right? It is a simple, stable molecule – two hydrogen atoms strongly bonded to an oxygen atom. It is common in the universe, existing at a wide range of temperatures. As a liquid, it has interesting properties that allow it to dissolve many substances. It is basic to life, and it makes up most of your body.

However, a vigorous argument about some fundamental physical properties of this ubiquitous substance has been raging for over half a century. Now, a new finding to be pu

Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have discovered a molecular “switch” that guides the development of the eye in a fish called medaka. The interaction of two proteins determines whether cells divide or specialize at a key moment as the eye forms. Researchers are keenly interested in such switches because the decision to replicate or differentiate is crucial to many processes, from the proper growth of embryos to the development of cancer. The story appears

Every winter inevitably brings with it the flu season, but kids don’t inevitably have to contract the flu, according to an article in the March 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. The report, which reviews the results of multiple studies on the effects of influenza vaccine on children, indicates that “killed” influenza vaccine is a safe and effective method to reduce the rate of influenza in children as young as 6 months old.

Killed or split-virus influenza v

MGH studies add to understanding of tumor physiology, suggest treatment strategies

A growing tumor needs an increased blood supply for its proliferating cells. But the implications of tumor-related angiogenesis – the growth of new blood vessels – are much more complex than many investigators have realized. Although these new vessels are required to nourish the tumor itself, they are disorganized and abnormal and can actually block therapeutic agents from reaching malignant cells.

A compound currently used to treat patients with severe sepsis also protects brain cells in an unexpected way, say researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the Feb. 19 issue of the journal Neuron.

Doctors currently use a modified version of activated protein C or APC to reduce inflammation or increase blood flow in patients with severe sepsis, and last year neuroscientist Berislav Zlokovic, M.D., Ph.D., led a team that showed that the compound also protects the cells tha

Discovery suggests that a ’live virus’ vaccine may offer best defense against avian flu

Researchers at the University of Rochester have identified a protein in the immune system that appears to play a crucial role in protecting against deadly forms of influenza, and may be particularly important in protecting against emerging flu viruses like the avian flu. The researchers believe that a vaccine made with a live but weakened strain of flu virus – such as the inhaled flu vaccine intro

A new imaging technique used by a group of researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere has revealed a previously unknown cellular structure in the retinas of mice. The structure is the site for an important part of the retinoid cycle, a chemical process critical to vision, the scientists said. Results of their study, which took more than three years, appeared in the Feb. 2 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.

Dubbed a retinosome, the newly discovered organelle houses retinyl

Cells that produce insulin have been unexpectedly found in the fat, liver and bone marrow of diabetic mice, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in a report that appeared today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“In fact, the appearance of insulin-producing cells occurs in both type 1 (juvenile) and type 2 (adult-onset) diabetic mice,” said Dr. Lawrence Chan, chief of the BCM endocrinology section and professor in the department of medicine and molecular

A group of researchers from The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) has identified a small synthetic molecule that can control the fate of embryonic stem cells.

This compound, called cardiogenol C, causes mouse embryonic stem cells to selectively differentiate into “cardiomyocytes,” or heart muscle cells, an important step on the road to developing new therapies for repairing damage

Two-pronged approach synergizes growth

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have advanced a decades-old quest to get injured nerves to regenerate. By combining two strategies – activating nerve cells’ natural growth state and using gene therapy to mute the effects of growth-inhibiting factors – they achieved about three times more regeneration of nerve fibers than previously attained.

The study involved the optic nerve, which connects nerve c