Body

Underinsured African-Americans had worse breast cancer survival outcomes than underinsured non-Hispanic whites, according to a study published online June 23rd in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A new animal model of atherosclerosis has allowed researchers to identify a host of genes turned on or off during the initial stages of the process, before a plaque appears in the affected blood vessel.

The results were published June 15 in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.

BOSTON -- A central tenet of molecular biology, as proposed in 1970 by Francis Crick and James Watson, holds that genetic information is transferred from DNA to functional proteins by way of messenger RNA (mRNA). This suggests that mRNA has but a single role, that being to encode for proteins. A cancer genetics team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) suggests there is much more to RNA than meets the eye.

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found why patients with a variant form of xeroderma pigmentosum (XPV), an inherited genetic disorder characterized by extreme sensitivity to the sun, are more susceptible to skin cancers than the general population. The data are published in the current issue of the journal Nature. Their finding sets the stage for research into therapies that would help protect people with XPV from developing skin cancers.

DALLAS – June 23, 2010 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have pinpointed a set of biological mechanisms through which estrogen confers its beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, independent of the hormone's actions on cancer. Their investigation suggests that drugs targeting a specific subpopulation of estrogen receptors found outside the cell nucleus might activate the cardiovascular benefits of estrogen without increasing cancer risk.

It turns out that the mutation makes part of the channel more rigid, altering its dynamics in a way that makes it easier to toggle it open. This is the first time, says Cui, that protein dynamics have been implicated in the functioning of an ion channel.

Ion channels

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- While radiation has therapeutic uses, too much radiation is damaging to cells. The most important acute side effect of radiation poisoning is damage to the bone marrow. The bone marrow produces all the normal blood cells, and therefore a high dose of radiation can lead to low blood counts of red cells, platelets and white blood cells. Humans that receive a lethal dose of radiation as in the setting of an accidental exposure die of bone marrow failure.

PITTSBURGH, June 23 – Traditional methods for assessing patients after cardiac arrest may be underestimating their chances for survival and good outcomes, according to a new study by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers now available online in the journal Resuscitation.

Exciting headlines about the cancer-preventing potential of berries, red wine, and other foods are in the news almost every day. An article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine, highlights the researchers trying to make medicines based on substances in those foods and turn their potential into reality.

Chicken litter is much more valuable as a fertilizer than previously thought, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study showing its newfound advantages over conventional fertilizers.

OTTAWA, CANADA — The rapidly growing polio outbreak in Tajikistan raises serious concerns that the disease could spread to other regions in the world, states an editorial http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.100831 in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca. It is imperative that health agencies attempt to limit further spread by ensuring high vaccination rates.

The separation of Neardenthal and Homo sapiens might have occurred at least one million years ago, more than 500,000 years earlier than previously believed, according to new DNA-based analyses, says a doctoral thesis conducted at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana)associated with the University of Granada. The researchers analyzed the teeth of almost all species of hominids that have existed during the past 4 million years.

A new study of 1,960 White-Americans and 368 Black-Americans with objectively diagnosed venous thromboembolism (VTE) showed that, compared to Whites, Blacks had a significantly higher proportion with pulmonary embolism (PE), including idiopathic PE among Black women, and a significantly higher proportion of Blacks with VTE were women (71% vs 61% for Whites) The study is published today in the American Journal of Hematology.