Body

La Jolla, CA-A multicellular green alga, Volvox carteri, may have finally unlocked the secrets behind the evolution of different sexes. A team led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has shown that the genetic region that determines sex in Volvox has changed dramatically relative to that of the closely related unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

A new switch that enables Salmonella bacteria to sabotage host cells is revealed in a study published today in the journal Science.

The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London, say that the new finding could ultimately lead to drugs that interfere with the switch in order to combat Salmonella and possibly other bacterial infections.

In humans, Salmonella causes diseases ranging from gastroenteritis to typhoid fever. It also causes similar diseases in livestock.

Vienna, Austria, Thursday 15 April: Doctors could soon be prescribing a dose of dark chocolate to help patients suffering from liver cirrhosis and from dangerously high blood pressure in their abdomen, according to new research presented today at the International Liver CongressTM 2010, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Liver in Vienna, Austria.

Hershey, Pa. -- The routine use of a screening urine dipstick to diagnose chronic kidney disease in healthy children is not a cost-effective test, confirm Penn State College of Medicine researchers, who validated an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendation.

A research team has tested the utility of the short version of WHO-DAS II, a tool to assess within five minutes disability in patients with depression, "which in the case of primary care is even more practicable than the long version of the instrument." In Spain, more than 10% of the population suffer from severe depression.

PITTSBURGH, April 15 – Certain genetic variations may be linked to higher rates of tooth decay and aggressive periodontitis, according to two recently published papers by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine and their collaborators.

New Rochelle, NY, April 15, 2010—A new technique for reprogramming human adult cells could greatly improve the safety and efficiency of producing patient-specific stem cells for use in a range of therapeutic applications to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissues. A description of this innovative strategy is published in the peer-reviewed journal Cellular Reprogramming, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online.

Quebec City, April 15, 2010–Researchers from Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine and the CHUQ Research Center have proven that it is possible to repair the defective gene responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The team, led by Professor Jacques P. Tremblay, is presenting its new therapeutic approach in an article published today in the online version of the scientific journal Gene Therapy.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have identified childhood cancer survivors who are at increased risk for deteriorating lung health, in part due to the lifesaving bone marrow transplants they underwent years earlier.

Philadelphia, PA, April 15, 2010 - The March 2010 issue of Clinics in Perinatology (www.perinatology.theclinics.com), published by Elsevier, provides Neonatologists and Maternal-Fetal-Medicine specialists with the tools and concepts necessary to understand Quality Improvement (QI) methodology and to initiate QI projects within their own practices and neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

Results of a study presented today at the at the International Liver CongressTM 2010 reveals the effects of a new drug for the treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis, and shows further evaluation is necessary.

INT-747 is a novel derivative of a human bile acid CDCA (that binds to the farnesoid-X receptor). In patients with PBC, addition of INT-747 to UDCA resulted in a significant amelioration of liver enzymes compared to placebo.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — April 15, 2010 — Fido's wet licks might hold more than love. They could provide the DNA keys to findings new treatments for rare cancers and other diseases in both dogs and human patients.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) have created the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium, a program designed to study naturally occurring cancers in dogs to better understand why both pets and people get sick.

The new T. rex has ferociously large teeth lining a single jaw. But its length is less than 2 inches. Tyrannobdella rex, which means tyrant leech king, is a new species of blood sucker that lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon. Although its regular host remains unknown, it was discovered three years ago in Perú when a 44.5 millimeter leech was plucked from the nose of a girl who had recently been bathing in a river. The new species, described in PLoS ONE, has led to revising the group of leeches that has a habit of feeding from body orifices of mammals.

Thinner girls may be at higher risk of breast cancer. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research found that girls who were leaner at age seven were at higher risk of cancer later in life.

Urologists are failing to pick up and treat Chlamydia infection in young men, say UK researchers in a letter published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Yet Chlamydia trachomatis is the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection in Europe and the commonest cause of inflammation of the testicle and the epididymis (involved in sperm manufacture), a condition known as epididymo-orchitis.

If chlamdyial infection goes untreated, it can cause infertility.