Body

Scripps Research Institute scientists have discovered a basic mechanism that can enable developing cancer cells to sustain abnormal growth. The finding is expected to lead to the targeting of this mechanism with drugs and diagnostic techniques.

Nature sees to it that we do not have "too much choler" (bile) in our body. A delicately equilibrated regulation system ensures that there is always exactly the right amount of bile in the gallbladder. When we are hungry, our body releases a hormone called cortisol, which is a glucocorticoid. Hepatic cells receive this hormone signal through their cortisol receptors (glucocorticoid receptors) and respond by filling the gallbladder with bile in preparation of the imminent food intake. Directly upon eating a meal, bile is secreted into the intestine.

OAKLAND, Calif. – Exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors anti-depressants in early pregnancy may modestly increase risk of autism spectrum disorders, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the current issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. However the researchers cautioned that the number of children exposed prenatally to SSRIs was low and that further studies are needed to validate these results

Speaking ahead of a United Nations High Level Meeting on non-communicable diseases, Professor Francesco Cappuccio from Warwick Medical School argues that lowering dietary salt intake has the potential to save millions of lives globally by substantially reducing levels of heart disease and strokes.

New research by Professor Cappuccio revealed this week in the BMJ shows that in the UK, a reduction of 3g salt intake per day would prevent up to 8,000 stroke deaths and up to 12,000 coronary heart disease deaths per year in the UK.

Stem cell researchers at UCLA have uncovered for the first time why adult human cardiac myocytes — specialized muscle cells in the heart — have lost their ability to proliferate, perhaps explaining why the human heart has little regenerative capacity. The study, done in cell lines and mice, may lead to methods of reprogramming a patient's own cardiac myocytes within the heart itself to create new muscle to repair damage, said Dr.

In a cancer treatment breakthrough 20 years in the making, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine have shown sustained remissions of up to a year among a small group of advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells.

California's pregnant women lead the world in banned chemicals used in flame retardants, a result of California flammability regulations in furniture.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were added to consumer products like electronics and foam in furniture beginning in the 1970s because of a few cases of couches catching fire. The chemicals slow ignition and the rate at which a fire grows, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But tests indicate that these chemicals may cause liver, thyroid, and neurodevelopmental toxicity, according to the EPA.

Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago, but those drugs are useless against viral infections like influenza, the common cold, and deadly hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.

In a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.

High levels of 'bad' cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) are a risk factor for developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) — a disease of the major arterial blood vessels that is one of the major causes of heart attack and stroke. Although the use of statins and the adoption of lifestyle changes to reduce LDL cholesterol levels have decreased the incidence of and mortality from ASCVD, many individuals fail to reach target levels of LDL cholesterol. Researchers are therefore seeking new targets for LDL cholesterol–lowering therapeutics.

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have linked a master molecule of the immune system, gamma-interferon, to the pathology of asthma, in a study of mice. This somewhat surprising finding — the key immune molecule has often been assumed to steer the immune system in a different direction from the cluster of allergic disorders to which asthma belongs — could lead to new treatments for the disease.

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Paleontologists have discovered a group of more than 20 polar dinosaur tracks on the coast of Victoria, Australia, offering a rare glimpse into animal behavior during the last period of pronounced global warming, about 105 million years ago.

The discovery, reported in the journal Alcheringa, is the largest and best collection of polar dinosaur tracks ever found in the Southern Hemisphere.

NASA-funded researchers say they have evidence that some building blocks of DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for life, found in meteorites were likely created in space. The research gives support to the theory that a "kit" of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by meteorite and comet impacts assisted the origin of life.

A new study into the causes of leakage in one of the heart's most complex valve structures could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

An estimated 1.6 million Americans suffer moderate to severe leakage through their tricuspid valve, a complex structure that closes off the heart's right ventricle from the right atrium. Most people have at least some leakage in the valve, but what causes the problem is not well understood.

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Combining the expertise of several different labs, University of Iowa researchers have found a new genetic cause of the blinding eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and, in the process, discovered an entirely new version of the message that codes for the affected protein.

August 9th, 2011, Shenzhen, China - Inner Mongolia Agricultural University (IMAU) and BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, jointly announced the complete sequencing of genomes of four important representative species in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. They are Mongolian sheep, Alxa Bactrian Camel, Mongolian horse, and Mongolian cattle.