الجمعة، 11 نوفمبر 2011

ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News


Parkinsonian worms may hold the key to identifying drugs for Parkinson's disease

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 04:19 PM PST

Researchers have devised a simple test, using dopamine-deficient worms, for identifying drugs that may help people with Parkinson's disease.

Woodsmoke from cooking fires linked to pneumonia, cognitive impacts

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 04:19 PM PST

Researchers have found a dramatic one-third reduction in severe pneumonia diagnoses among children in homes with smoke-reducing chimneys on their cookstoves. Reducing wood smoke could have a major impact on the burden of pneumonia, the leading cause of child mortality in the world, the researchers said. A separate pilot study also found a link between prenatal maternal exposure to woodsmoke and poorer performance in markers for IQ at ages six and seven.

Effects of 'mini stroke' can shorten life expectancy

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 04:19 PM PST

Having a transient ischemic attack (TIA), or "mini stroke," could lower your life expectancy, according to new research. Survival rates after TIA were 20 percent lower than expected nine years later, compared to the general population. The long-term effects of TIA were most serious for patients older than 65 and for patients with previous history of stroke and heart problems.

Volunteering, helping others decreases substance use in rural teens, study finds

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 12:17 PM PST

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 report the highest rates of substance use and dependence, according to the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use & Health. A new study found that rural adolescents who engage in prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering and helping others, are less likely to use substances as young adults.

U.S. National School Lunch Program improves health of children in low-income households, study suggests

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:21 AM PST

A recent study confirmed that the U.S. National School Lunch Program (NSLP) improves the health outcomes of children who reside in low-income households. The study of nearly 2,700 NSLP children found that the NSLP reduces the prevalence of food insecurity by 3.8 percent, poor general health by 29 percent, and the rate of obesity by at least 17 percent in its participants.

Why do neurons die in Parkinson's disease? Study of hereditary Parkinson’s finds that mitochondria can’t be cleared out when damaged

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:21 AM PST

Current thinking about Parkinson's disease is that it's a disorder of mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles inside cells, causing neurons in the brain's substantia nigra to die or become impaired. A study now shows that genetic mutations causing a hereditary form of Parkinson's disease cause mitochondria to run amok inside the cell, leaving the cell without a brake to stop them.

Attention and awareness uncoupled: Brain imaging experiments uncouple two apparently intimately connected mental processes

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:20 AM PST

In everyday life, attention and awareness appear tightly interwoven. Attending to the scissors on the right side of your desk, you become aware of their attributes, for example the red handles. Vice versa, the red handles could attract your attention to the scissors. However, a number of behavioural observations have recently led scientists to postulate that attention and awareness are fundamentally different processes and not necessarily connected. A new study provides the first experimental evidence that the primary visual cortex, the entrance stage to cortical visual processing, is modulated only by attention and not by awareness.

Scientists defuse the 'Vietnam time bomb': How bacterial pathogen causes deadly tropical disease melioidosis

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:20 AM PST

A key mechanism by which a bacterial pathogen causes the deadly tropical disease melioidosis has been discovered by an international team of scientists.

Acupuncture can prevent radiation-induced chronic dry mouth, study finds

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 10:01 AM PST

When given alongside radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, acupuncture has shown for the first time to reduce the debilitating side effect of xerostomia, according to new research.

Elderly lose ability to distinguish between odors, researcher finds; Smells blend together, pose hazards

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 10:01 AM PST

Scientists studying the effect of aging on smell, have found that those 60 and over have more difficulty distinguishing between odors, putting them at risk from dangerous chemicals and poor nutrition.

More fiber, but not necessarily less fat, good for teen diets

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 10:00 AM PST

A diet high in fiber – but not necessarily one low in saturated fat or cholesterol – is tied to a lower risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes in teenagers, according to new findings.

New target identified to stop the spread of breast cancer

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:59 AM PST

A new potential target to slow breast cancer tumor progression and metastasis has been identified.

First large-scale study of pain reveals risk factors

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:59 AM PST

Researchers have developed a comprehensive set of clinical characteristics that they say will lead to the ability to identify individuals at risk for developing painful jaw conditions.

Flexible rack systems sort molecules

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:58 AM PST

Researchers have developed a flexible and efficient new process for the separation of enantiomers. Enantiomer separation is indispensable for the production of many pharmaceuticals. In their process, the scientists use porous molecular frameworks that are assembled in layers on solid substrates using a specifically developed method.

Scientists discover how to design drugs that could target particular nerve cells

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:58 AM PST

The future of drug design lies in developing therapies that can target specific cellular processes without causing adverse reactions in other areas of the nervous system. Scientists have now discovered how to design drugs to target specific areas of the brain.

Psychologists increase understanding of how the brain perceives shades of gray

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:57 AM PST

Peoples' eyes, nerves and brains translate light into electrochemical signals and then into an experience of the world around them. A close look shows that even seemingly simple tasks, like keeping a stable perception of an object's color in different lighting conditions or distinguishing black and white objects, is, in fact, very challenging. By way of a novel experiment, psychologists have now provided new insight into how the brain tackles this problem.

Knocking out key protein in mice boosts insulin sensitivity

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:57 AM PST

By knocking out a key regulatory protein, scientists have dramatically boosted insulin sensitivity in lab mice, an achievement that opens a new door for drug development and the treatment of diabetes.

Combination 'epigenetic' therapy may restore anti-cancer gene activity in late-stage lung cancer patients

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 06:49 AM PST

A new type of therapy aimed at reversing the gene-silencing that promotes cancer-cell growth has shown promising results in a small clinical trial. Forty-five late-stage lung cancer patients who received a two-drug combination designed to restore anti-cancer gene activity survived about two months longer than the expected four months, and two patients showed complete or near-complete responses despite having progressive disease after multiple standard therapies.

Kawasaki disease linked to wind currents: First evidence that long-range wind transport of an infectious agent might result in human disease

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 06:48 AM PST

Kawasaki Disease (KD) is a severe childhood disease that many parents, even some doctors, mistake for an inconsequential viral infection. In fact, if not diagnosed or treated in time, it can lead to irreversible heart damage. After 50 years of research, including genetic studies, scientists have been unable to pinpoint the cause of the disease. Now, surprising findings suggest that KD cases are linked to large-scale wind currents that track from Asia to Japan and also traverse the North Pacific.

Biological clock controls activation of skin stem cells

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 06:23 AM PST

A new study reveals the role of the daily biological clock (circadian rhythms) in the regenerative capacity of skin stem cells. Disruption of this rhythm results in premature tissue aging and a greater predisposition to the development of skin tumors. The proper reestablishment of the biological clock increases the long-term regenerative capacity of the tissue and decreases the probability of developing tumors.

Cangrelor provides effective maintenance of platelet inhibition without major bleeding for patients who require bypass surgery, results show

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 04:43 PM PST

Data from the BRIDGE clinical trial demonstrate that intravenous use of the drug cangrelor was effective at maintaining platelet inhibition in patients on thienopyridines who required bypass surgery.

Tailored therapy for anti-platelet drugs using a novel point-of-care genetic test provides improved response to medications compared to current standard of care

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 04:43 PM PST

A clinical trial of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and stable angina showed that a strategy of rapid genotyping followed by selective administration of prasugrel to carriers of a common genetic variant (CYP2C19*2) resulted in a decreased rate of high on-treatment platelet reactivity (platelet non-responder rate) compared to standard therapy.

Clinical trial comparing prasugrel to clopidogrel following percuataneous coronary intervention is ended early due to overall low rate of primary endpoint clinical events

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:13 PM PST

A clinical trial comparing prasugrel to clopidogrel for patients with high on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity (HCPR) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was ended early due to relatively few occurrences of cardiac death or myocardial infarction -- the primary endpoint -- at six month follow up.

Non-adherence to dual antiplatelet therapy following percutaneous coronary intervention results in higher rates of ischemic and bleeding events

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:13 PM PST

Non-adherence to antiplatelet therapy – which prevents blood clots following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) -- was associated with higher rates of both ischemic and bleeding events at 30 days.

Risk of late stent thrombosis continues for up to seven years in patients with first generation drug-eluting stents; risk factors identified

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:13 PM PST

The risk of late stent thrombosis (ST) in the first generation of drug-eluting stents continues for up to seven years after implantation, and certain types of patients, including smokers and those who are younger, are at higher risk, according to results of the DESERT registry.

Patients with acute coronary syndrome and/or diabetes who show poor response to dual antiplatelet therapy as measured by platelet function testing are at greater risk of stent thrombosis after percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stents

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:12 PM PST

The relationship of platelet responsiveness to antiplatelet medications; and, the correlation of poor response, and overall platelet aggregation while on dual antiplatelet therapy to the risk of drug-eluting stent thrombosis after 30 days was examined in ADAPT-DES, the largest registry to date to fully examine these relationships.

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