ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Research in worms provides a model to study how the human microbiome influences disease
• Avoiding over-the-counter heartburn medications could save cancer patients' lives
• This is your brain on (legal) cannabis: Researchers seek answers
• Heart attack risk doubled for people with less education
• New graphene-based system could help us see electrical signaling in heart and nerve cells
• Social anxiety disorders? Cognitive therapy most effective treatment
• Method enables machine learning from unwieldy data sets
• Link found between HIV treatment, neuronal degeneration
• Zika-linked birth defects more extensive than previously thought, research finds
• There's an 'ome' for that
• Stem cell 'living bandage' for knee injuries trialed in humans
• Teens' use of e-cigarettes rising, according to surgeon general report
• New finding reveals battle behind gene expression
• Predicting throat cancer recurrence with a blood test
• One gene mutation, two diseases, many insights into human heart function
• Many early-onset colon cancers are caused by genetic mutations passed through families
• Alzheimer's: Proteomics gives clues toward alternatives to amyloid
• Gene editing takes on new roles
• Hormonal contraception is safer than expected for women with diabetes
• Land use affects spread of schistosomiasis-carrying snails in Asia
• Repurposed drugs may offer improved treatments for fatal genetic disorders
• Attractive drug candidate identified to target glioma brain tumors
• Inherited mutations in three genes predict for aggressive prostate cancer

Research in worms provides a model to study how the human microbiome influences disease Posted: 16 Dec 2016 09:16 AM PST The human microbiome appears to play a significant role in health and disease, but the mechanisms of how it does so is not well understood. Researchers have used the nematode C. elegans to decipher how specific bacterial signals influence a host, whether the host is a worm or a human. It reveals for the first time how bacterial genes modify worm biology, with implications for future study of the human microbiome.

Avoiding over-the-counter heartburn medications could save cancer patients' lives Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:56 AM PST Something as seemingly harmless as a heartburn pill could lead cancer patients to take a turn for the worse. A new study has discovered that proton pump inhibitors, which are very common medications for heartburn and gastrointestinal bleeding, decrease effects of capecitabine, a type of chemotherapy usually prescribed to gastric cancer patients.

This is your brain on (legal) cannabis: Researchers seek answers Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:55 AM PST For those suffering depression or anxiety, using cannabis for relief may not be the long-term answer, say researchers.

Heart attack risk doubled for people with less education Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:55 AM PST People who leave school without a school certificate are more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those with a university degree, according to groundbreaking new research from the largest ongoing study of healthy aging in the Southern Hemisphere.

New graphene-based system could help us see electrical signaling in heart and nerve cells Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:55 AM PST Scientists have enlisted the exotic properties of graphene to function like the film of an incredibly sensitive camera system in visually mapping tiny electric fields. They hope to enlist the new method to image electrical signaling networks in our hearts and brains.

Social anxiety disorders? Cognitive therapy most effective treatment Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:55 AM PST Social phobia is the most common anxiety disorder of our time. But the current treatment regimen for patients with this diagnosis has not proven very effective. Researchers spent 10 years studying alternative treatments to find that cognitive therapy works best for social anxiety disorders.

Method enables machine learning from unwieldy data sets Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:55 AM PST A new algorithm that makes the selection of diverse subsets much more practical has now been presented by researchers.

Link found between HIV treatment, neuronal degeneration Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:54 AM PST Certain protease inhibitors, among the most effective HIV drugs, lead to the production of the peptide beta amyloid, often associated with Alzheimer's disease, and may be the cause of cognitive problems, report researchers.

Zika-linked birth defects more extensive than previously thought, research finds Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:46 AM PST Zika-linked abnormalities that occur in human fetuses are more extensive and severe than previously thought, with 46 percent of 125 pregnancies among Zika-infected women resulting in birth defects in newborns or ending in fetal death, researchers report.

There's an 'ome' for that Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:44 AM PST The genome was just the beginning. Rapid advances in technology and computational tools are allowing researchers to categorize many aspects of the biological world.

Stem cell 'living bandage' for knee injuries trialed in humans Posted: 16 Dec 2016 08:43 AM PST A 'living bandage' made from stem cells, which could revolutionize the treatment and prognosis of a common sporting knee injury, has been trialed in humans for the first time.

Teens' use of e-cigarettes rising, according to surgeon general report Posted: 15 Dec 2016 04:19 PM PST The United States Surgeon General recently issued a report that adolescents' use of electronic cigarettes has more than tripled since 2011. As recently as 2010, e-cigarettes were rare, but in 2015, 40 percent of high school students said they had used e-cigarettes at least once.

New finding reveals battle behind gene expression Posted: 15 Dec 2016 02:53 PM PST The complex process regulating gene expression is often compared to following a recipe. Miss a genetic ingredient, or add it in the wrong order, and you could have a disaster on your hands.

Predicting throat cancer recurrence with a blood test Posted: 15 Dec 2016 02:53 PM PST Researchers found that patients whose oropharyngeal cancer recurred had higher levels of antibodies for two proteins, E6 and E7, which are found in HPV-fueled cancers. The finding suggests a potential blood-based marker that could predict when cancer is likely to return.

One gene mutation, two diseases, many insights into human heart function Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:35 AM PST Scientists have linked a single gene mutation to two types of heart disease: one causes a hole in the heart of infants, and the other causes heart failure. Using cells donated by a family with the mutation, the researchers gained insight into congenital heart disease, human heart development, and healthy heart function.

Many early-onset colon cancers are caused by genetic mutations passed through families Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:34 AM PST One in every six colorectal cancer patients (16 percent) diagnosed under age 50 has at least one inherited genetic mutation that increases his or her cancer risk and many of these mutations could go undetected with the current screening approach, according to initial data from a statewide colorectal cancer screening study.

Alzheimer's: Proteomics gives clues toward alternatives to amyloid Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:33 AM PST In Alzheimer's research, one particular protein looms large: plaque-forming amyloid-beta. Yet plaques can accumulate decades before symptoms appear, and clinical trials aimed at controlling amyloid-beta have mostly flopped so far. Scientists are using proteomics to look for alternative mechanisms and treatment strategies.

Gene editing takes on new roles Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:33 AM PST A new combined method may finally give scientists a tool fine enough to probe life's most nuanced processes.

Hormonal contraception is safer than expected for women with diabetes Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:33 AM PST Strokes and heart attacks are rare for women with diabetes who use hormonal contraception, with the safest options being intrauterine devices (IUDs) and under-the-skin implants, new research shows.

Land use affects spread of schistosomiasis-carrying snails in Asia Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:32 AM PST To help inspire new ways of stopping the spread of schistosomiasis, researchers have studied the dispersal patterns of the snails that carry the infection. Irrigation channels and other land use patterns, they found, affect the likelihood of the snails spreading between neighboring areas.

Repurposed drugs may offer improved treatments for fatal genetic disorders Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:32 AM PST Researchers believe they have identified a potential new means of treating some of the most severe genetic diseases of childhood, according to a new study.

Attractive drug candidate identified to target glioma brain tumors Posted: 15 Dec 2016 11:18 AM PST Researchers have identified a biomarker enzyme associated with aggressive glioma brain tumors, and have revealed the regulatory mechanism for that enzyme. In a new study, they demonstrate potent efficacy, using a mouse model of glioma, for a small molecule inhibitor they have developed.

Inherited mutations in three genes predict for aggressive prostate cancer Posted: 15 Dec 2016 09:59 AM PST A new study of three genes associated with the development of prostate cancer found that men with inherited mutations in these genes are more likely to develop aggressive forms of the disease and die from prostate cancer at an earlier age than those without the mutations. The findings affirm previous studies and could have important implications in screening and treatment protocols for prostate cancer.

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