In the quest to repair damaged DNA – a process believed crucial in combating ailments ranging from cancer to aging – antioxidant has been the Holy Grail. But findings published this week in Nature suggest oxidation isn’t always the enemy.

Scientists at Michigan State University, along with colleagues in England, have uncloaked a mechanism that uses oxygen to repair DNA – until now an unlikely part of the restorative recipe. Their work is published in the Sept. 12 issue of the British sc

Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, or HAART, is the standard of care for HIV/AIDS patients and has prolonged the lives of countless persons with the disease. HAART has been associated, however, with the emergence of lipodystrophy syndromes. In this month’s issue of the journal Mitochondrion*, researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., report that protease inhibitors, a component

Working with guinea pigs, Johns Hopkins scientists have created what is believed to be the first biologic pacemaker for the heart, paving the way for a genetically engineered alternative to implanted electronic pacemakers. The advance, reported in the Sept. 12 issue of Nature, uses gene therapy to convert a small fraction of guinea pigs’ heart muscle cells into specialized “pacing” cells.

“We now can envision a day when it will be possible to recreate an individual’s pacemaker cel

Cornell University entomologists have unlocked an evolutionary secret to how insects evolve into new species. The discovery has major implications for the control of insect populations through disruption of mating, suggesting that over time current eradication methods could become ineffective, similar to the way insects develop pesticide resistance.

The researchers, led by Wendell L. Roelofs, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Insect Biochemistry at Cornell, made the discovery while exami

DNA has an oscillating double-helix structure. This oscillating means that the DNA molecules conduct electricity much less well than was previously thought. Ultrafast cameras were one of the devices the researchers from Amsterdam used to demonstrate this.

It turns out the DNA does not have a rigid regular structure as stated in textbooks. In reality the double helix of DNA forms a very dynamic chaotic system. The rigid structure in textbooks should be regarded as the average position of many

Patients who have recently undergone an operation experience less breathing problems after being given a cocktail of vitamins C and E. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center following experiments with patients and healthy volunteers.

During the first two to three days after a major abdominal operation, most patients have frequent episodes of airway obstruction and hypoxaemia. This can lead to an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure, w

Developing countries stand to profit most from advances in genome science, write Samuel Broder, Stephen Hoffman and Peter Hotez in this month’s issue of EMBO reports (EMBO reports September, 2002 pp 806–812). They claim that biotechnology coupled with genomics might emerge as the key technology in the 21st century for improving global health and probably even avoiding major political conflicts and wars.

The authors warn that we must no longer view the diseases of the developing world in

Raw garlic consumption may help limit the damage done to the heart after surgery because if its natural antioxidant properties, according to a new study published in BMC Pharmacology.

After a heart attack it is important to restore the flow of blood to the heart so that damage to the heart muscle can be minimised. However, the return of blood flow can paradoxically cause further damage, so called “ischemic-reperfusion injury, due to the release of free radicals. Free radicals cause oxidativ

Pilot project for stroke victims to begin this fall

A Queen’s neuroscientist’s invention to help understand the role of the brain in arm and leg movement will dramatically improve the assessment and rehabilitation of stroke and spinal cord victims. It will also help lay the groundwork for development of neural prostheses that can re-activate paralyzed limbs.

Dr. Stephen Scott’s unique mathematical model, combined with his new experimental device, KINARM (Kines

Another piece of the complex puzzle of how inflammation is involved in heart attacks and strokes has been discovered by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

Their findings demonstrate that C-reactive protein (CRP) binds to oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL), implicating the interaction of CRP and oxidized LDL as a potential trigger for the cascade of events leading to atherosclerosis. This form of artery disease is characterized by the buildup

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh are using immune cells harvested from blood donors to help fight an unusual cancer which can affect transplant patients. And their findings, published recently in The Lancet show that the therapy has proved effective in a number of cases. The treatment proved successful last year in saving the life of a four-year-old boy from Birmingham, who developed the cancer— post-transplant lympho-proliferative disease— following a liver and bowel transplant.

The inflammatory myopathies comprise three different entities: polymyositis, inclusion body myositis and dermatomyositis. People in all age groups can be affected by major muscle weakness and pain, and show evidence of muscle fiber breakdown in the serum. Autoimmune pathogenetic mechanisms have been identified in each inflammatory myopathy, but the antigen(s) recognized by the autoreactive inflammatory cells and the factors eliciting the aberrant immune responses remain unknown. Currently, patients a

The week after Carlton Harris underwent a novel therapy at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center to destroy three cancerous liver tumors, he was back at the gym huffing, puffing, lifting and sweating. Not even a single stitch to show for his trouble, Harris wore only a small bandage to cover the three tiny holes — the size of a snake-bite — where wire probes entered his skin and literally burned away the cancerous tumors inside his liver.

So simple is the new procedure — called radiofrequ

A Surrey scientist claims to have an answer to what is often considered to be the hardest problem in science (sometimes just known as the “Hard Problem”): why we are aware.

Johnjoe McFadden, Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey, has previously proposed that consciousness is generated by the brain’s electromagnetic field, the cemi field. The cemi field theory – that our thoughts are electric fields in the brain – has generated a lot of interest both in the UK and across

A skin test can detect a tissue disorder that may increase the risk of intracranial aneurysm, which can lead to stroke, according to a pilot study published in the September Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers found defects in the structural matrix of skin tissue in 33 percent of study patients with intracranial aneurysms. Aneurysms are weakened sections of blood vessels that balloon out from the artery wall. When they rupture, they can cause a type of stroke known

Major breakthrough could lead to successful treatment of viral cancers, without side-effects. Yorkshire Cancer Research funded researchers at the University of York have made a major cancer breakthrough. Using a new technique called RNA interference, they have successfully killed human cervical cancer cells grown in culture without causing damage to healthy cells. The discovery could have major implications, potentially leading to the successful treatment of cancers caused by viral