DALLAS – April 2, 2013 – Patients with type 2 diabetes who consume a diet identical to the strict regimen followed after bariatric surgery are just as likely to see a reduction in blood glucose levels as those who undergo surgery, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Body
Coronary heart disease (CHD) increases with BMI, as well as with age, finds an article published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. The research from the Million Women Study indicates that increased weight increases risk of CHD equivalent to that caused by getting older.
Older patients with higher blood levels of individual and total omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3-PUFAs) have lower mortality than their peers, especially coronary heart disease-related death.
Boston, MA – Older adults who have higher levels of blood omega-3 levels—fatty acids found almost exclusively in fatty fish and seafood—may be able to lower their overall mortality risk by as much as 27% and their mortality risk from heart disease by about 35%, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Washington. Researchers found that older adults who had the highest blood levels of the fatty acids found in fish lived, on average, 2.2 years longer than those with lower levels.
BETHESDA, Md. (April 1, 2013)—Almost four million people die each year from household air pollution (HAP) caused by exposure to the combustion of biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, crop residues, and dung), kerosene, or coal. These individuals are among the tens of millions who rely on such products to cook their meals, heat their rooms, and light their homes. Those in lower and middle income countries are among the hardest hit by the effects of HAP exposure, which also causes childhood respiratory infection, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease.
LA JOLLA, Calif., April 1, 2013 – Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have identified how an enzyme called PKCζ suppresses prostate tumor formation. The finding, which also describes a molecular chain of events that controls cell growth and metastasis, could lead to novel ways to control disease progression.
Akron, Ohio, April 1, 2013 — Geckos' ability to stick to trees and leaves during rainforest downpours has fascinated scientists for decades, leading a group of University of Akron researchers to solve the mystery.
They discovered that wet, hydrophobic (water-repellent) surfaces like those of leaves and tree trunks secure a gecko's grip similar to the way dry surfaces do. The finding brings UA integrated bioscience doctoral candidate Alyssa Stark and her research colleagues closer to developing a synthetic adhesive that sticks when wet.
MINNEAPOLIS – Risk prediction tools that estimate future risk of heart disease and stroke may be more useful predictors of future decline in cognitive abilities, or memory and thinking, than a dementia risk score, according to a new study published in the April 2, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A randomized controlled trial finds that 12 weeks of physical plus mental activity in inactive older adults with cognitive complaints was associated with significant improvement in cognitive function but there was no difference between intervention and control groups, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
New Haven, Conn. — Loop diuretics, more commonly known as water pills, are the most widely prescribed heart failure medications, but few studies had extensively compared their effectiveness until Yale School of Medicine researchers examined three approved loop diuretics and found that even though one of them might offer more benefit, it is rarely prescribed.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – April 1, 2013 – Using the same strategy that a common virus employs to evade the human immune system, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine have modified adult stem cells to increase their survival – with the goal of giving the cells time to exert their natural healing abilities.
Highly expressed in various cancers and known for its cytoprotective properties, TRAP1 protein has been identified as a potential target for antitumor treatments. As a result of the research conducted by Len Neckers, from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA, and Didier Picard, from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, this outlook is now being called into question.
HOUSTON - (April 1, 2013) – Mutations in a protein called SPOP (speckle-type POZ protein) disarm it, allowing another protein called steroid receptor coactivator-3 (SRC-3) to encourage the proliferation and spread of prostate cancer cells, said researchers led by those at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(TORONTO, Canada – April 1, 2013) – A team of international cancer researchers led by Dr. Mathieu Lupien at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, has identified the signalling pathway that is over-activated in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer cells that are resistant to hormone therapies such as tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors or fulvestrant.
The most common genetic cause of both ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and FTD (frontotemporal dementia) was recently identified as an alteration in the gene C9orf72. But how the mutation causes neurodegenerative disease appeared mysterious.
Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have demonstrated that this ALS/FTD mutation may be harmful because it creates an "RNA sponge," soaking up an important regulatory protein that binds RNA.
The results were published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Early Edition.