ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Ebola virus diagnostic tool developed by physician who worked in Liberia
• Possible progress against Parkinson's and good news for stem cell therapies
• Cancer genes turned off in deadly brain cancer
• Researchers combine common genetic variants, other factors to improve breast cancer risk prediction
• Strength training still advisable in older age
• Science and medicine have 'publication pollution' problem, according to medical ethicist
• Passive exposure to bleach at home linked to higher childhood infection rate
• To improve bicycle safety, crash reports need to capture more data
• HIV spreads like internet malware and should be treated earlier
• Researchers dramatically improve ART adherence for minority persons living with HIV/AIDS
• Antibacterial enzymes to combat drug-resistant bacterial pathogens developed
• Strong grasp of immune response dynamics will enhance checkpoint blockade
• Potential chemoresistance after consuming fatty acid in fish, fish oil
• Allow NHS doctors to prescribe cheap, safe and effective sight loss drug, say experts

Ebola virus diagnostic tool developed by physician who worked in Liberia Posted: 03 Apr 2015 07:42 AM PDT An emergency medicine physician who treated Ebola-infected patients in Liberia last year used his field experience to create a tool to determine the likelihood that patients presenting with Ebola symptoms will actually carry the virus. Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has affected 24,000 persons during the current epidemic, which is the largest recorded outbreak of EVD in history. Over 10,000 people have died in West Africa, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Possible progress against Parkinson's and good news for stem cell therapies Posted: 03 Apr 2015 07:42 AM PDT Researchers have taken an important step toward using the implantation of stem cell-generated neurons as a treatment for Parkinson's disease. Using an FDA approved substance for treating cancer, they were able to grow dopamine-producing neurons derived from embryonic stem cells that remained healthy and functional for as long as 15 months after implantation into mice, restoring motor function without forming tumors.

Cancer genes turned off in deadly brain cancer Posted: 03 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT Scientists have identified a small RNA molecule that can suppress cancer-causing genes in mice with glioblastoma mulitforme, a deadly and incurable type of brain tumor. While standard chemotherapy drugs damage DNA to stop cancer cells from reproducing, the new method stops the source that creates those cancer cells. The approach could also potentially be used for gene silencing in other cancers and diseases of genetic origin.

Researchers combine common genetic variants, other factors to improve breast cancer risk prediction Posted: 03 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT Recent large-scale genomic analyses have uncovered dozens of common genetic variants that are associated with breast cancer. Each variant, however, contributes only a tiny amount to a person's overall risk of developing the disease. Now an international team of researchers has combined 77 of these common genetic variants into a single risk factor that can be used to improve the identification of women with an elevated risk of breast cancer. This factor, known as a polygenic risk score, was built from the genetic data of more than 67,000 women.

Strength training still advisable in older age Posted: 03 Apr 2015 04:34 AM PDT Many over-65-year-olds are frail, or in a preliminary stage of frailty. A new study aims to raise fitness levels and quality of life for older people whose nutritional condition is inadequate. The first results show that regular strength training is particularly beneficial for increasing hand strength, and thus enabling people to live independently, says a researcher.

Science and medicine have 'publication pollution' problem, according to medical ethicist Posted: 03 Apr 2015 04:34 AM PDT The scientific community is facing a 'pollution problem' in academic publishing, one that poses a serious threat to the "trustworthiness, utility, and value of science and medicine," according to one of the country's leading medical ethicists.

Passive exposure to bleach at home linked to higher childhood infection rate Posted: 02 Apr 2015 06:09 PM PDT Passive exposure to bleach in the home is linked to higher rates of childhood respiratory and other infections, suggests new research.

To improve bicycle safety, crash reports need to capture more data Posted: 02 Apr 2015 03:35 PM PDT American researchers are calling upon police in all states to improve their reporting of crashes involving vehicles and bicycles. Currently, details on crashes are handwritten by police on paper and there are few bicycle-relevant codes. The researchers call for police to use electronic tablets with options to gather more bicycle-specific data. Analysis of the data could lead to safer bicycle environments, encouraging more people to cycle.

HIV spreads like internet malware and should be treated earlier Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:17 PM PDT A new model for HIV progression finds that it spreads in a similar way to some computer worms and predicts that early treatment is key to staving off AIDS. HIV specialists and network security experts noticed that the spread of HIV through the body using two methods -- via the bloodstream and directly between cells -- was similar to how some computer worms spread through both the internet and local networks respectively to infect as many computers as possible.

Researchers dramatically improve ART adherence for minority persons living with HIV/AIDS Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:16 PM PDT Up to 60% of persons living with HIV (PLHA) in the U.S. are neither taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) nor well engaged in HIV primary care, with racial/ethnic minorities more likely to experience barriers to engagement along this HIV continuum of care than their White counterparts. In fact, only 30% of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the United States have achieved "viral suppression," the ultimate goal of HIV treatment. Indeed, PLHA poorly engaged in HIV primary care and/or who are not on ART are at elevated risk for a host of poor outcomes, including more frequent hospitalizations, lower quality of life, and even earlier mortality, and also run a greater risk of transmitting HIV to their partners. Further, poor engagement in HIV care and lack of ART initiation with good adherence are major drivers of high health care costs among PLHA.

Antibacterial enzymes to combat drug-resistant bacterial pathogens developed Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:15 PM PDT By engineering antibacterial enzymes, investigators are using novel strategies to target the prevalent drug-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. "Antibacterial enzymes, which kill via catalytic mechanisms, represent promising candidates in the fight against drug-resistant microbes," explained the lead researcher. "Staph infections in hospital settings are a serious problem that has gained widespread public attention, and there's an urgent need to address the threat of antibiotic resistance. Using molecular engineering, we are expanding the pool of antibacterial drug candidates and improving their performance."

Strong grasp of immune response dynamics will enhance checkpoint blockade Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:15 PM PDT Spreading the success of cancer immunotherapy beyond those patients currently enjoying powerful, long-term responses to treatment requires greater understanding of the immune response to tumors, two leaders in the field note in a new review.

Potential chemoresistance after consuming fatty acid in fish, fish oil Posted: 02 Apr 2015 09:13 AM PDT Researchers found that consuming the fish herring and mackerel, as well as three kinds of fish oils, raised blood levels of the fatty acid 16:4(n-3), which experiments in mice suggest may induce resistance to chemotherapy used to treat cancer.

Allow NHS doctors to prescribe cheap, safe and effective sight loss drug, say experts Posted: 02 Apr 2015 05:22 AM PDT NHS doctors should be allowed to prescribe a cheap, safe and effective drug for the degenerative eye disease, wet age related macular degeneration (AMD) -- a leading cause of blindness among older patients, says a new investigation.

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