Body

HOUSTON - A two-drug combination destroys precancerous colon polyps with no effect on normal tissue, opening a new potential avenue for chemoprevention of colon cancer, a team of scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have identified a new strategy for treating type 2 diabetes, identifying a cellular pathway that fails when people become obese. By activating this pathway artificially, they were able to normalize blood glucose levels in severely obese and diabetic mice. Their findings will be published online by Nature Medicine on March 28.

A preliminary study by New Zealand company Plant & Food Research shows that natural chemicals from blackcurrants may help breathing in some types of asthma.

Researchers found a compound from a New Zealand blackcurrant may reduce lung inflammation with a multi-action assault in allergy-induced asthma. The compound was found in laboratory experiments to enhance the natural defence mechanisms in lung tissue by both suppressing inflammation-causing reactions and minimising inflammation.

The findings are published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

NORFOLK, VA. –- A new minimally invasive surgery to correct a chest wall deformity -- often known as pigeon chest -- was demonstrated Friday at an international conference attended by surgeons from the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Puerto Rico, Germany, Spain and Russia.

A new mechanism explaining how tumors escape the body's natural immune surveillance has recently been discovered at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. The study shows how tumors can create a tolerant microenviroment and avoid attack by the immune system by mimicking key features of lymph nodes. The discovery, published in Science and in Science Express, online March 25, 2010, underscores the role of the lymphatic system in cancer and may open up new possibilities for cancer treatment.

A new test developed by Japanese scientists may revolutionize how and when physicians diagnose Alzheimer's disease. According to a research report published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), the new test measures proteins in the spinal fluid known to be one of the main causes of brain degeneration and memory impairment in Alzheimer's patients: high molecular weight A-Beta oligomers.

Colonoscopy in children is a highly specialized procedure which is not often performed in the Chinese population. Data of its safety and diagnostic yield in Chinese children is scarce. One of the most common indications for colonoscopy in children of western countries is investigation and follow-up assessment for inflammatory bowel disease which is uncommon in Chinese children. It has recently been reported that there is increasing occurrence of childhood inflammatory bowel disease in western countries. It is, however, unknown whether a similar increase happens in Chinese children.

AMES, Iowa -- A new study from Iowa State University's Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC) may give men a way to combat high cholesterol without drugs -- if they don't mind sprinkling some flaxseed into their daily diet.

Among seniors, women and patients with diabetes and dementia are the most likely to fall into the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan "donut hole" — the gap occurring after beneficiaries reach their annual coverage limit and before catastrophic coverage kicks in — according to new research published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Barcelona, Spain: Treatment with beta-blockers can help reduce the spread of cancer in patients with breast tumours, a researcher will tell the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7) in Barcelona today (Friday). In a controlled study, Dr. Des Powe, a senior healthcare research scientist at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK, and his team found that the group of patients treated with beta-blockers showed a significant reduction in metastasis and better survival.

Barcelona, Spain: Trends indicate that survival is improving in patients with metastatic breast cancer, especially in those patients whose tumours are described as being HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2) positive, a surgical oncologist will say today (Friday 26 March) at the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7).

Barcelona, Spain: Two studies to be presented at the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7) in Barcelona today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday), shed light on the treatment options facing women carrying the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations which predispose them to breast cancer.

Insights into the genomics of the human nucleolus have been revealed in a study by researchers from the University of Regensburg and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany and the Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe in Spain. The research, published March 26 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, sheds new light on the functional organization of human genetic material.

Hamilton, ON (March 25, 2010) – For many years it's been known that the fever, achiness and other symptoms you feel during the flu are triggered by a viral molecule that travels through the body acting like a toxin.

But what scientists haven't understood is how this molecule – known as double-stranded RNA – is recognized and taken up by cells.