Body

CORVALLIS, Ore. – New research has found that a mother's poor nutrition during pregnancy and nursing can cause problems for her offspring's ability to process medications, even well into adulthood.

The results of the study, by Oregon State University researchers, suggest that in the future physicians prescribing drugs ranging from Tylenol to cancer chemotherapies may need to factor birth weight along with body weight into dosing decisions for their patients.

Hanoi, Vietnam (November 10, 2010)—One of the world's largest global scientific partnerships for sustainable agricultural development has launched a bold new research initiative that aims to dramatically improve the ability of rice farmers to feed growing populations in some of the world's poorest nations. The efforts of the Global Rice Science Partnership, or GRiSP, are expected to lift 150 million people out of poverty by 2035 and prevent the emission of greenhouse gases by an amount equivalent to more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

An Australian research team from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland has identified a new risk factor for developing breast cancer. This has been published online in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

The risk factor involves a modification (DNA methylation) to the BRCA1 gene. BRCA1 is known for its involvement in breast and ovarian cancer. Women with mutations in this gene, which inactivates its function, are predisposed to these diseases.

Dendritic cells, known to be the prime movers of the body's immune response, are still notoriously difficult to study in humans. Samples, which come primarily from bone marrow or lymphoid tissue, are simply too difficult to obtain. But new research at Rockefeller University has shown scientists a way to study "authentic" dendritic cells from mouse monocytes, which are abundant in the blood, a much more accessible source in humans. The discovery, published Oct.

Couples who score well on a simple test of numeracy ability accumulate more wealth by middle age than couples who score poorly on such a test, according to a new study of married couples in the United States.

Researchers found that when both spouses answered three numeracy-related questions correctly, family wealth averaged $1.7 million, while among couples where neither spouse answered any questions correctly the average household wealth was $200,000. Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts, and are skills typically learned during school.

Researchers at the University of Derby and colleagues at the University of Cambridge believe they have found which species has the largest testicles in relation to body weight on the planet – and why!

Yet the research team also discovered that large testes did not necessarily relate to a larger amount of sperm produced – which goes against traditional thinking in the science world.

An analysis of nationally representative data suggests that being obese in adolescence increases the risk of being severely obese in adulthood, with the risk higher in women, and highest for black women, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA.

PHILADELPHIA — Men with history of fracture and comorbidities are at an increased risk of fracture after long-term use of androgen deprivation therapy, and initiating this therapy should be carefully considered in older men with localized prostate cancer.

In addition, the longer duration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) use and history of orchiectomy (removal of the testicles to stop testosterone production, which prostate cancer needs to continue to grow) are also associated with an increased risk of fracture among men with prostate cancer.

PHILADELPHIA — Ninety percent of children who lived in a house where an adult smoked had evidence of tobacco-related carcinogens in their urine, according to research presented at the Ninth AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held here from Nov 7-10, 2010.

The average amount of tobacco metabolites in children aged one month to 10 years old was 8 percent of what is found in a smoker, said the lead researcher Janet L. Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Minnesota.

PHILADELPHIA — Researchers have further established that long-term use of statins is unlikely to substantially increase or decrease overall cancer risk, according to study results presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Nov. 7-10, 2010, in Philadelphia.

DNA methylation plays an important role in many processes such as animal development, X-chromosome inactivation, and carcinogenesis. Understanding the mechanisms and functions of DNA methylation and how it varies from tissue to tissue and between individuals will have profound implications for human health and disease. A team of Chinese researchers decoded the essentially complete methylome (an inventory of all the bases that are methylated) of the human genome using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

In a study of more than 9,600 adolescent and young adult women in the Baltimore area, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found that fewer than 30 percent of those eligible to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer actually chose to get it. And only about a third of those who began receiving the vaccine completed the three doses recommended for maximum protection.

"We are now trying to get a better understanding of exactly how the chemical compasses work and determining the molecular nature of the poles that coordinate their orientations," said Professor Enrico Coen of the John Innes Centre.

Philadelphia – Nov. 9, 2010 – New research shows a gene-based test for lung cancer risk can help identify which smokers are most likely to benefit from CT screening for lung cancer, according to results of a study presented today at the American Association of Cancer Research's Ninth Annual Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.