Body

A novel mechanism has been identified in which Chlamydia trachomatis tricks host cells into taking up the bacteria. Researchers from University of California San Francisco, led by Joanne Engel, report their findings in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens on October 6th.

ATLANTA -- October 6, 2011 -- A new study finds liver cancer incidence rates continue to increase in some low-risk parts of the world such as North America, and are decreasing in some of the highest risk countries of Asia. Despite this, the incidence rates in Asian countries remain twice as high as those in Africa and more than four times as high as rates in North America. The study will be published in an upcoming issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention and appears early online.

AMHERST, Mass. -- New research based on post-hospital arrival data from U.S. trauma centers finds that even after adjusting for differences in injury severity, gun use, and other likely causes of race difference in death from assault, African-Americans have a significantly higher overall post-scene of injury mortality rate than whites. The study was conducted by Anthony R. Harris, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and colleagues and published in August by the Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection and Critical Care.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- In the face of climate change, animals have an advantage over plants: They can move. But a new study led by Brown University researchers shows that plants may have some tricks of their own.

Cambridge scientists have identified the cause of a rare, life-threatening form of hypoglycaemia. Their findings, which have the potential to lead to pharmaceutical treatments for the disorder, were published today, 07 October, in the journal Science.

Hypoglycaemia, usually characterised by too much insulin which results in too little sugar in the bloodstream, is fairly common, often affecting diabetic patients or individuals with disorders that cause insulin overproduction. Symptoms can include seizures and unconsciousness.

LA JOLLA, Calif., October 6, 2011 – In cancer, genes turn on and off at the wrong times, proteins aren't folded properly, and cellular growth and proliferation get out of control. Even a cancer cell's metabolism goes haywire, as it loses the ability to appropriately sense nutrients and use them to generate energy. One particular piece of cellular machinery that is known to malfunction in a number of cancers is a group of proteins called mTORC1.

Scientists have discovered how cells detect tissue damage and modify their repair properties accordingly. The findings, published today [6 October] in the journal Developmental Cell, could open up new opportunities for improving tissue repair in patients following illness or surgery.

The Wellcome Trust-funded study, led by biochemists at the University of Bristol, examined the signalling process in damaged tissue cells and identified the cellular mechanisms responsible for activating effective repair.

University of Exeter said: "Relationships between crickets are rather different from what we'd all assumed. Rather than being bullied by their mates, it seems that females are in fact being protected. We could even describe males as 'chivalrous'.

"Males and females on their own have similar predation rates, but when they are in pairs, males are killed much more frequently and females always survive to predator attacks.

Some male crickets will apparently put the lives of their mating partners ahead of their own. When a mated pair is out together, a male will allow a female priority access to the safety of a burrow, even though it means a dramatic increase in his own risk of being eaten. That's according to infrared video observations of a wild population of field crickets (Gryllus campestris) reported online on October 6 the Cell Press journal Current Biology.

HOUSTON -- (Oct. 7, 2011) – In children with genomic disorders, often a gamete – egg or sperm – has gone disastrously awry with either a duplication or deletion of genetic material that results in physical and neurological problems for the subsequent child.

Previous studies have identified a procedure called nonallelic homologous recombination, which occurs during meiosis or sexual cell division, as the event that most commonly occurs and results in this mistake in DNA.

PHILADELPHIA—Growing up just got more complicated. Thomas Jefferson University biochemistry researchers have shown for the first time that the receptor for a major insect molting hormone doesn't activate and repress genes as once thought. In fact, it only activates genes, and it is out-competed by a heme-binding receptor to repress the same genes during the larval to pupal transition in the fruit fly.

A chemical component of the marijuana plant could prevent the onset of pain associated with drugs used in chemo therapy, particularly in breast cancer patients, according to researchers at Temple University's School of Pharmacy.

The researchers published their findings, "Cannabidiol Prevents the Development of Cold andMechanical Allodynia in Paclitaxel-Treated Female C57Bl6 Mice," in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist has developed a partnership with colleagues in South Africa that is improving prospects for cattle breeders in that African nation--and could improve them for breeders around the world.

The latest results from an expedition to Mount Everest that looked at the body's response to low oxygen levels suggest that drugs or procedures that promote the body's production of a chemical compound called nitric oxide (NO) could improve the recovery of critically ill patients in intensive care.

A research alliance of Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), jointly with colleagues of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, have discovered a new metabolic pathway which makes malignant brain tumors (gliomas) more aggressive and weakens patients' immune systems. Using drugs to inhibit this metabolic pathway is a new approach in cancer treatment. The group's results have been published in the prestigious specialist journal Nature.