Body

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a parasite protein that has all the makings of a microbial glass jaw: it's essential, it's vulnerable and humans have nothing like it, meaning scientists can take pharmacological swings at it with minimal fear of collateral damage.

The protein, calcium dependent protein kinase 1 (CDPK1), is made by Toxoplasma gondii, the toxoplasmosis parasite; cryptosporidium, which causes diarrhea; plasmodium, which causes malaria; and other similar parasites known as apicomplexans.

Atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world, has been shown to affect reproduction of fish, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study.

"Concentrations of atrazine commonly found in agricultural streams and rivers caused reduced reproduction and spawning, as well as tissue abnormalities in laboratory studies with fish," said USGS scientist Donald Tillitt, the lead author of the study published in Aquatic Toxicology.

Chicago -- International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA) will officially release its third landmark report -- "From Promise to Product: Advancing Rectal Microbicide Research and Advocacy" -- at the 2010 International Microbicides Conference in Pittsburgh, PA taking place May 22-25, 2010.

Older adults increase their chances of falling by not taking their medications as directed, according to an article in the latest edition of the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological and Medical Sciences (Volume 65A, Number 5). This new information comes from a recent study of Boston-area residents over age 70, which found that those who sometimes neglected their medications experienced a 50 percent increased rate of falls compared with those who did not.

New Rochelle, NY, May 19, 2010—Living wills often do not represent a patient's actual treatment preferences when faced with real end-of-life circumstances and should be redesigned to guide more realistic advance decision-making, according to a study published in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.,(www.liebertpub.com).

Bats can distinguish between the calls of their own and different species with their echolocation calls, report scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen. This applies even for species closely related and ecologically similar with overlap of call frequency bands (The American Naturalist online, May 11th 2010).

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that male topi antelopes deceive their female counterparts in order to increase their chances of mating.

Washington, DC – The probiotic yogurt-like drink DanActive reduced the rate of common sicknesses such as ear infections, sinusitis, the flu and diarrhea in daycare children, say researchers who studied the drink in the largest known probiotic clinical trial to be conducted in the United States. An additional finding, however, showed no reduction in the number school days missed. The study led by Daniel Merenstein of Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUSOM), was funded by The Dannon Company, Inc., and published today online in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have found that Stat5, a signaling protein previously found to be key to survival of prostate cancer, is also involved in metastasis.

Their study, published in the online edition of Endocrine-Related Cancer, demonstrates in both laboratory and animal models that nuclear Stat5 over-expression leads to a deadly spread of the cancer. They add that their work with mice was unique in that it was the first time Stat5 was associated with prostate cancer metastasis processes in an animal model.

Researchers at the Centre for Cooperative Research in Bioscience, CIC bioGUNE, in collaboration with the Universidad de Kentucky (USA), have discovered a new way to control the stability of certain types of prions (the pathogen agents responsible for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or TSEs) by means of selecting certain proteins. This gives the opportunity to control prion disease in deer, which has become an epidemic in the USA and Canada. The discovery was published last week in the prestigious scientific journal Science.

Spanish researchers have employed for the first time adult cells extracted from a human heart to turn stem cells from adipose tissue into cardiac myocytes. In other words, they achieved to "reprogram" adult stem cells, which might improve treatments for heart disease therapeutical.

HACKENSACK, N.J. (May 19, 2010) — A Phase I clinical trial of SNS-032, one of the first in a new class of drugs that inhibit cyclin-dependent kinases, demonstrated the drug's safety and potential clinical action against advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Cyclin-dependent kinases are enzymatic proteins that are integrally involved in cellular metabolism, renewal and signaling, and are thought to play key roles in the growth of cancers.

Breathing polluted air increases stress on the heart's regulation capacity, up to six hours after inhalation of combustion-related small particles called PM2.5, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

Stress on the heart from exposure to high levels of PM2.5 may contribute to cardiovascular disease, said Duanping Liao, professor of public health sciences.

ATS 2010, NEW ORLEANS— A new preclinical model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may lead to improved research and ultimately better therapies for this life-threatening problem, according to its developers, researchers at the University of South Alabama.

The researchers modified a recently developed rat model of severe PAH and found that the model can mimic the plexiform lesion, the signature lesion of PAH.

Their results will be presented at the ATS 2010 International Conference in New Orleans.