Physicians at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have reported encouraging short-term outcomes in fetal surgery for the birth defect spina bifida. Among the benefits were a reduced need for a shunt to divert excess fluid from the brain, the reversal of a potentially devastating neurologic condition called hindbrain herniation, and better-than-expected neurologic function in the infants’ legs.

Mark Johnson, M.D., and colleagues from Children’s Hospital’s Center for F

Resistance exercise may directly reset the body clocks in skeletal muscle, according to research published in Genome Biology this week. This result may partly explain how exercising early in the day helps jet-lagged bodies readjust to their new time zone.

Many processes in the body vary in a 24-hour rhythm called the circadian rhythm. These rhythms are controlled by molecular clocks, in organs such as the liver, in tissues such as skeletal muscle, and in the hypothalamus, a part of the brai

Researchers from Hong Kong have warned that women should be cautious about using the herbal remedy ginseng in the early stages of pregnancy.

They have found evidence that ginsenoside Rb1 – one of the principal active components of ginseng – can cause abnormalities in rat embryos.

Their research is published today (Thursday 25 September) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1].

Dr Louis Chan and colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong K

A protein fragment that was previously found in melanomas has now been detected in highly aggressive brain tumors called gliomas that take the lives of about 15,000 Americans each year.

This peptide, which the immune system recognizes as an antigen, or foreign invader, appears to be a target for anti-tumor immune therapy, according to studies conducted by researchers at Cedars-Sinai’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and the National Cancer Institute. It also may be useful as a marke

Hereditary Alzheimer’s disease has been shown to be the result of mutations in certain specific genes. Other cases of Alzheimer’s are also assumed to be traceable to the influence of a number of still unidentified genes. It is probable that these genes are located in a large area on chromosome 10q, which contains more than 100 genes.

Working with researchers in Gothenburg and Los Angeles, scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden have now narrowed down the area of interest

Yet study finds that even with greater efficiency, supply of organs will not meet transplant demand

Last year, fewer than 6,200 people in the United States donated organs though more than 80,000 waited for organ transplantations. Each day, an average of 17 people die while waiting for a transplant.

Even though the need for transplantable organs far outweighs the supply, the number of organs donated could be more than doubled–saving thousands of lives every year–if the proc

Survival figures for cancer in Europe show large differences between countries – more than can reasonably be accounted for by artefact, bias or chance, according to the authors of the EUROCARE-3 study “Cancer survival in Europe at the end of the 20th century”.

A preview of some highlights of the study, which was co-ordinated by the Epidemiology Unit of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy and is due to be published by Annals of Oncology shortly – was presented today (Thursday 25 Septe

Malignant cells are dependent on novel activated form of molecular chaperone

A newly identified biochemical difference between malignant cells and normal cells points to a novel molecular target for the development of selective anti-cancer drugs, according to research published today in the journal Nature by scientists from Conforma Therapeutics. Conforma scientists have shown that Heat-Shock Protein 90 (Hsp90), a molecular “chaperone” that maintains the stability and functional shape

MRC geneservice announced today [24th September, 2003] the availability in the UK of a major new tool which will revolutionise proteomics, and hasten the characterisation of the proteins coded by each gene. Dr Marc Vidal and his team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, USA have produced clones from Open Reading Frames (ORFs) of genes – protein-encoding nucleotide sequences – from the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Whilst much is known about the sequence of genes, understanding what

For those who delight in eating Mediterranean anchovies, the taste of inshore varieties has long been preferred to that of the open-sea kind. An IRD researcher has shown that this organoleptic difference coincides with a real biological distinction. In the Mediterranean Sea there is not just one species of European anchovy but two, each occupying its own habitat.

Correspondence analysis was performed of all existing genetic data obtained between 1980 and 1996 concerning anchovies from the M

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in western society. It is estimated that 20% of the world’s adult population suffers from hypertension. Recently, some functional foods have received considerable attention for their effectiveness in both the prevention and the treatment of hypertension. This is among others due to the presence of food derived bioactive peptides with potent

New evidence about the breast cancer drug anastrozole (Arimidex) shows that the incidence of a major side-effect – bone fractures – appears to stabilise after reaching a peak at two years of treatment, easing some of the concerns about the drug.

This finding is the latest to come from evidence provided by the world’s largest international study of breast cancer treatment, the ATAC[1] trial, which compared the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole with breast cancer’s current gold standa

Preventing mitochondria from turning ugly may postpone Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s diseases

Anyone visiting a nursing home has seen the horror of humans surviving beyond their brains’ ability to make sense of their surroundings.

That loss of discrimination is caused by neurons killed by malfunctions in mitochondria – the submicron-sized power packs found in every animal cell.

These malfunctions are the most immediate cause of afflictions like Parkin

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are more likely to survive if they have chemotherapy after surgery than if they have surgery alone, said a scientist at ECCO 12 The European Cancer Conference in Copenhagen today (Tuesday 23 September). Dr. Bengt Bergman, of the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Göteborg, Sweden, said that results from the International Adjuvant Lung Cancer Trial (IALT), which involved 1,867 patients in 33 countries, were sufficiently strong to recommend changing the st

Post-operative chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) looks like an attractive proposition to prevent the cancer recurring, said Professor Nick Thatcher, of the Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK at the ECCO-12 conference in Copenhagen today (Tuesday 23 September). But the recent IALT study, which is said to demonstrate a survival advantage for patients given adjuvant treatment, was statistically unreliable and needed to be taken in context, he said.

“A large body of evidence – 1

Drugs that treat diabetes may also be effective against some cancers. In today’s Journal of Biology, researchers at the University of Dundee report the discovery of an unexpected link between diabetes and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, a hereditary disease that increases the risk of suffering from cancer. The Dundee team were looking for a protein that activates AMPK, an enzyme that reduces blood glucose levels and is a target for drugs commonly used in treating Type 2 diabetes. They