Body

Even small amounts of physical activity will help reduce heart disease risk, and the benefit increases as the amount of activity increases, according to a quantitative review reported in Circulation, journal of the American Heart Association.

For a hormone, oxytocin is pretty famous. It's the "cuddle chemical"—the hormone that helps mothers bond with their babies. Salespeople can buy oxytocin spray on the internet, to make their clients trust them. It's known for promoting positive feelings, but more recent research has found that oxytocin can promote negative emotions, too. The authors of a new review article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, takes a look at what oxytocin is really doing.

While deformities of the lesser toes (all toes other than the big toe) can be very painful, there are numerous surgical and nonsurgical treatments for these conditions that are usually quite effective. A literature review published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS) shows that because lesser toe deformities are often treatable, and can be symptoms of other conditions, early assessment and treatment by an orthopaedic surgeon is important.

SINGAPORE – Stomach cancer is actually two distinct disease variations based on its genetic makeup, and each responds differently to chemotherapy, according to an international team of scientists led by researchers at Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School.

The finding, published in the Aug. 1, 2011, edition of the journal Gastroenterology, is the first large-scale genomic analysis of gastric cancer to confirm the two discrete tumor types.

ITHACA, N.Y. – Every year, millions of people contend with lower back and neck discomfort. With intent to ease their pain, Cornell University engineers in Ithaca and doctors at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have created a biologically based spinal implant that could someday spell relief for these countless sufferers.

Tissue deprived of oxygen (ischemia) is a serious health condition that can lead to damaged heart tissue following a heart attack and, in the case of peripheral arterial disease in limbs, amputation, particularly in diabetic patients.

Northwestern University researchers have developed a novel nanostructure that promotes the growth of new blood vessels and shows promise as a therapy for conditions where increased blood flow is needed to supply oxygen to tissue.

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have taken a step towards producing better vaccines against Bluetongue – an important disease of livestock - after successfully assembling the virus outside a cell. This research, published today (1 August 2011) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could provide scientists with the tools to develop vaccines with useful new properties.

Aging brings about a selective decline in the numbers and function of T cells – a type of white blood cell involved in the immune system's response to infection – and T cells that survive the longest may better protect against infections such as the flu, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. The finding may lead to targeting these cells with vaccinations that increase their number and improve protection against disease in older adults.

Irvine, Calif. — Young adults whose mothers experienced psychological trauma during their pregnancies show signs of accelerated aging, a UC Irvine-led study found.

The researchers discovered that this prenatal exposure to stress affected the development of chromosome regions that control cell aging processes. The study results, which appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to the importance of maternal health and well-being during pregnancy.

PHILADELPHIA—Taking a leukemia chemotherapy drug may help breast cancer patients who don't respond to tamoxifen overcome resistance to the widely-used drug, new research from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson< suggests.

Interestingly, researchers found that taxoxifen combined with dasatinib, a protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, reverses the chemo-resistance caused by cancer-associated fibroblasts in the surrounding tissue by normalizing glucose intake and reducing mitochondrial oxidative stress, the process that fuels the cancer cells.

Carbon-containing compounds are at the heart of organic chemistry, and carbon is the basis of all living matter. However, the so-called Suzuki reaction provides a simple means of creating carbon-carbon bonds to form compounds that can serve as the starting points for the synthesis of an infinite variety of organic molecules. A team of researchers led by chemist Professor Paul Knochel from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has recently developed a practical and general method for the synthesis of a class of intermediates that readily undergo the Suzuki reaction.

Bethesda, MD—Are you genetically predisposed to tuberculosis? Scientists may now be able to answer this question and doctors may be able to adjust their therapeutic approach based on what they learn. That's because new research presented in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) suggests that two frequent mutations in an immune system gene called TLR1 are responsible for cellular changes that ultimately make us less likely to resist the disease.

A working group of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) has issued a literature review of prospective controlled studies comparing the efficacy and safety of two minimally invasive techniques for vertebral augmentation after spine fracture: vertebroplasty (VP) and balloon kyphoplasty (BKP). The review also lists important recommendations to facilitate the comparison of future studies and highlights research questions still unresolved.

As many as one in ten elderly people in the US, registered with Medicare, do not stick to their prescribed medication because it is too expensive, according to Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov and colleagues from Harvard Medical School. Their work, funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute, shows that cost-related medication non-adherence - skipping pills to make the medicine last longer, and not filling in a prescription because it is too expensive - is common among this group, whether or not they suffer from cancer.

A quicker freeze-dry technique used to process salmon cubes could potentially be applied to add value to meat components considered to be less appealing, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researcher.