Body

New Orleans, LA – Research led by Liwei Chen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that there is an association between sugary drinks and blood pressure and that by cutting daily consumption of sugary drinks by just one serving a day, people can lower their blood pressure. The research is published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new study by researchers from five institutions including the University of Florida introduces the first method to directly measure body temperatures of extinct vertebrates and help reconstruct temperatures of ancient environments.

PASADENA, Calif.— Was Tyrannosaurus rex cold-blooded? Did birds regulate their body temperatures before or after they began to grow feathers? Why would evolution favor warm-bloodedness when it has such a high energy cost?

Durham, N.C. – A research team led by scientists from the Duke University Medical Center has developed a way to simultaneously look at the effects of 125 mutations occurring on 14 different genes. They used zebrafish as a model to analyze the function of every known mutation in an inherited syndrome called BBS, Bardet-Biedl Syndrome.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Future pandemics of seasonal flu, H1N1 and other drug-resistant viruses may be thwarted by a potent, immune-boosting payload that is effectively delivered to cells by gold nanorods, report scientists at the University at Buffalo and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The work is published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many standard antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs block the enzymes that snip the kinks and knots out of DNA – DNA tangles are lethal to cells – but the drugs are increasingly encountering resistant bacteria and tumors.

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine for the first time have determined that bone marrow cells play a critical role in fighting respiratory viruses, making the bone marrow a potential therapeutic target, especially in people with compromised immune systems. They have found that during infections of the respiratory tract, cells produced by the bone marrow are instructed by proteins to migrate to the lungs to help fight infection. The data are published in the current issue of Cell Host & Microbe.

Tampa, FL (May 24, 2010) --- A new animal study has found that high levels of the B-vitamin folate (folic acid) prevented heart birth defects induced by alcohol exposure in early pregnancy, a condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome.

A study published online on May 24th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org) suggests that boosting the abundance of one of the body's own proteins might be more effective than antibiotic treatment at fighting off a common meningitis-causing bacterium (E. coli K1).

PITTSBURGH, May 23 – Their scientific methods may have been quite different, but their conclusions were not. In asking whether drug resistance could be a problem if antiretroviral (ARV) drugs become a mainstay for HIV prevention, the two studies – one involving a mathematical model and the other assays of cells and tissue – arrived at the same answer. Resistance could happen if people who are unknowingly already infected use the approach.

Anti-aging supplements made up of mixtures might be better than single compounds at preventing decline in physical function, according to researchers at the University of Florida's Institute on Aging. In addition, it appears that such so-called neutraceuticals should be taken before very old age for benefits such as improvement in physical function.

The findings from rat studies, published last week in the journal PLoS One, have implications for how dietary supplementation can be used effectively in humans.

Some cut flowers and potted plants are better than others at fending off the aging process, known as senescence. To help tomorrow's blooms stay fresh longer, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant physiologist Cai-Zhong Jiang is investigating the gene-controlled mechanisms of plants' aging.

Such probing may eventually reveal how to modify flowers' aging-linked genes, or the proteins that are products of those genes.

Jiang is with the ARS Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit at Davis, Calif.

A DNA-vaccine that restricts the supply of blood to tumours has been developed by scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. The vaccine slows the growth of breast cancer tumours in mice.

If a cancer tumour is to become larger than a few millimetres it must be able to stimulate the formation of new blood vessels, in order to secure the supply of oxygen and nutrients. Drugs that prevent the growth of blood vessels are thus a potential treatment alternative for tumours.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists have caught male topi antelopes in the act of faking fear in front of females in heat as a way to improve their chances of having sex.

The male antelopes, observed in southwest Kenya, send a false signal that a predator is nearby only when females in heat are in their territories. When the females react to the signal, they remain in the territory long enough for some males to fit in a quick mating opportunity.