Body

WHAT:

The microbial communities, or microbiota, that naturally colonize the digestive tract in very young infants can affect their risk of later developing childhood allergies and asthma. Scientists now have identified a specific type of microbiota composition and corresponding metabolic environment in the neonatal gut that appears to influence immune cell populations and promote allergy and asthma development. The work was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Several large international groups of researchers report data that more than doubles the number of sites in the human genome tied to blood pressure regulation. One of the studies, by Johns Hopkins University scientists in collaboration with many other groups, turned up unexpected hints that biochemical signals controlling blood pressure may spring from within cells that line blood vessels themselves.

Using high-tech human heart models and mouse experiments, scientists at Johns Hopkins and Germany's University of Bonn have shown that beams of light could replace electric shocks in patients reeling from a deadly heart rhythm disorder.

The findings, published online Sept. 12 in the October 2016 edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, could pave the way for a new type of implantable defibrillators.

One of the hallmarks of cancer is a change in cellular metabolism, a series of chemical reactions so fundamental to life that their alteration makes cancer cells seem creepily malevolent.

Healthy cells take in blood sugar (glucose molecules), which they break down to extract energy. This happens in two phases--one phase that takes place in the cytoplasm and a subsequent phase that occurs inside cellular compartments called mitochondria.

HOUSTON - (Sept. 12, 2016) - Endovascular therapy for disabling strokes caused by a blockage in a more distal portion of a large vessel is effective and possibly superior to best medical management, according to a large multicenter retrospective study by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

The results were published today in JAMA Neurology, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the commercialization of transgenic, or "genetically modified", plants has stirred widespread controversy, much research remains focused on improving techniques to create such plants. As people familiar with the controversy likely know, transgenic technology allows breeders to add genes for desirable traits to valuable breeding materials. However, transgenic plants are also widely used in basic scientific research. The ability to add a single gene to a plant allows researchers to explore what that gene does, for instance.

It's no secret that the adolescent years can be challenging: young teens have a heightened sensitivity to perceived injustice and react against authority. And their newfound social conscience and desire for autonomy can motivate many of their decisions - even food choices.

For the first time, scientists know what happens to a virus' shape when it invades a host cell, thanks to an experiment by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Understanding how the virus shape changes could lead to more effective anti-viral therapies.

The experiment was designed to investigate how a virus' protein shell -- its capsid -- changes as it prepares to inject its genetic material into a cell. These altered virus particles are known as A-particles, or virus entry intermediates.

LA JOLLA, CA - September 12, 2016 - A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that "holes" in HIV's defensive sugar shield could be important in designing an HIV vaccine.

It appears that antibodies can target these holes, which are scattered in HIV's protective sugar or "glycan" shield, and the question is now whether these holes can be exploited to induce protective antibodies.

DENVER - The combined use of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) identified non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with rare or novel anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements, not otherwise identified by FISH alone, that showed response to crizotinib treatment.

Measuring blood levels of the recently discovered hormone irisin may improve diagnosis rates of teenagers with polycystic ovary syndrome, according to research presented today at the 55th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting. The findings may reduce the number of unnecessary treatments prescribed to otherwise healthy girls.

French children born between 1914 and 1916 whose fathers were killed or severely injured during the war lost approximately one year of adult life expectancy, according to research presented today at the 55th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology. The findings further our understanding of the long-term effects of maternal psychological stress on children.

Thiophene-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known to be useful as organic semiconductors due to their high charge transport properties. Scientists at Nagoya University have developed a short route to form various thiophene-fused PAHs by simply heating mono-functionalized PAHs with sulfur. This new method is expected to contribute towards the efficient development of novel thiophene-based electronic materials.

For the first time, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators have been able to identify in human cancers two characteristic patterns of DNA damage caused by ionising radiation. These fingerprint patterns may now enable doctors to identify which tumours have been caused by radiation, and investigate if they should be treated differently.

Published in Nature Communications today, the results will also help to explain how radiation can cause cancer.

Honeybees are hardwired to efficiently search the landscape enabling them to continue working for the greater good of their hives even when they are sick, according to new research co-authored by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

Radar technology has been used to show for the first time that bees remain nimble and able to search and respond to their environment even when they have infections or viruses.