Body | Page 2345 | Science Codex

The ribosome -- a new target for antiprion medicines

New research results from Uppsala University, Sweden, show that the key to treating neurodegenerative prion diseases such as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may lie in the ribosome, the protein synthesis machinery of the cell. The results were recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative diseases caused by misfolding of prion proteins. Examples of prion diseases are scrapie in sheep, mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in human.

Insecticide causes changes in honeybee genes, research finds

New research by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that exposure to a neonicotinoid insecticide causes changes to the genes of the honeybee.

The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, supports the recent decision taken by the European Commission to temporarily ban three neonicotinoids amid concerns that they could be linked to bee deaths.

Breakthrough: Sensors monitor cells at work

Stanford, CA—Transport proteins are responsible for moving materials such as nutrients and metabolic products through a cell's outer membrane, which seals and protects all living cells, to the cell's interior. These transported molecules include sugars, which can be used to fuel growth or to respond to chemical signals of activity or stress outside of the cell.

Poor planning skills found to contribute to income-achievement gap

Children from low-income families tend to do worse at school than their better-off peers. Now a new study of a large ethnically and socioeconomically diverse group of children from across the United States has identified poor planning skills as one reason for the income-achievement gap, which can emerge as early as kindergarten and continue through high school.

The study, by researchers at Cornell University, appears in the journal Child Development.

Genomes of cholera bacteria from Haiti confirm epidemic originated from single source

The strain of cholera that has sickened thousands in Haiti came from a single source and was not repeatedly introduced to the island over the past three years as some have thought, according to a new study published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Low levels of toxic proteins linked to brain diseases, study suggests

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's could be better understood thanks to insight into proteins linked to such conditions, a study suggests.

Scientists studying thread-like chains of protein – called amyloid fibres – have found that low levels of these proteins may cause more harm to health than high levels.

These rarely formed protein chains, which have been linked with dozens of diseases, are produced as a result of a genetic flaw or changes in body chemistry brought about by ageing.

Supersense: It's a snap for crocs

Previously misunderstood multi-sensory organs in the skin of crocodylians are sensitive to touch, heat, cold, and the chemicals in their environment, finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal EvoDevo. These sensors have no equivalent in any other vertebrate.

Long term night shifts linked to doubling of breast cancer risk

Shift work has been suggested as a risk factor for breast cancer, but there has been some doubt about the strength of the findings, largely because of issues around the assessment of exposure and the failure to capture the diversity of shift work patterns. Several previous studies have also been confined to nurses rather than the general population.

Salsalate Proves Effective for Type 2 Diabetes

Salsalate, a prodrug form of salicylate, may be an effective treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes but its efficacy and safety have not been tested using currently accepted regulatory practices.

Researchers randomly assigned 286 adult patients with established type 2 diabetes and inadequate glycemic control to take either placebo (n=140) or salsalate, 3.5 g/d (n=146) along with current therapies for 48 weeks. Of those patients, 283 were analyzed for changes in hemoglobin A1C level, anti-inflammatory effects, and adverse events.

Infectious disease research gets a boost from websites, blogs, and social media

While public health officials around the world are on alert about the pandemic potential of new disease threats, a team that includes Penn State University biologist Marcel Salathé is developing innovative new systems and techniques to track the spread of infectious diseases, with the help of news websites, blogs, and social media.

Controlling blood pressure, cholesterol may significantly cut heart disease risk

Simultaneously controlling your high blood pressure and high cholesterol may cut your risk for heart disease by half or more, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Yet fewer than one in three people achieve this goal.

Researchers also found:

Exercise-induced improvements in glycemic control and type 2 diabetes

Exercise-induced improvements in glycemic control are dependent on the pre-training glycemic level, and although moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can improve glycemic control, individuals with ambient hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) are more likely to be nonresponders, according to a research letter by Thomas P. J. Solomon, Ph.D. of the Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism, Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues.

Removing nerves connecting kidney to the brain shown to reduce high blood pressure

A new technique that involves removing the nerves connecting the kidney to the brain has shown to significantly reduce blood pressure and help lower the risk of stroke, heart and renal disease in patients. The procedure, which has very few side effects, has already shown promising results in hard-to-treat cases of high blood pressure.

Univ. of Maryland review finds mixed results for acupuncture to improve in vitro fertilization rates

Baltimore, MD – June 28, 2013. Acupuncture, when used as a complementary or adjuvant therapy forin vitro fertilization (IVF), may be beneficial depending on the baseline pregnancy rates of a fertility clinic, according to research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The analysis from the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine is published in the June 27 online edition of the journal Human Reproduction Update.

New forensic technique may help track illegal ivory

Nearly 25 years after an international ban was placed on ivory, African elephants are being slaughtered at a rate that could bring about their extinction this century. By allowing the trade of ivory acquired before 1989 to continue, the ban put the burden on law enforcement to distinguish between legal ivory and poached. Now, a new method for dating elephant tusks, described in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could make it easier to enforce the ivory ban and save the African elephant from extermination say researchers.