Body

Chevy Chase, MD— A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that early, prolonged treatment with the diabetes drug metformin may prevent or delay the development of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in adolescence.

PCOS affects 7 to 10 percent of women of childbearing age and is the most common cause of infertility, affecting an estimated 5 to 6 million women in the United States, according to The Hormone Foundation.

A team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has developed a way to uncover the evolution of human cancer cells, determining the order in which mutations emerge in them as they wend their way from a normal, healthy state into invasive, malignant masses.

The work may give doctors a new way to design diagnostics for detecting the signs of early cancers, when they are generally more treatable than in their later stages.

Research carried out by scientists from the Peninsula Medical School at the University of Exeter and the National University of Singapore has analysed the complex 'cross talk' between hydrogen sulphide (H2S ) and nitric oxide (NO), both gasses that occur naturally in the body, and found that the interaction may offer potential strategies in the management of heart failure.

The research is published in the leading international journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling.

Researchers looked at changes in the behaviour of bluetongue – a viral disease of cattle and sheep - from the 1960s to the present day, as well as what could happen to the transmission of the virus 40 years into the future. They found, for the first time, that an outbreak of a disease could be explained by changes to the climate.

That axiom of sustainability — "recycle and reuse" — could help ease concerns about a reliable supply of substances, indispensible for a modern technological society, that are produced almost exclusively in the Peoples' Republic of China. That's the conclusion of a study on these so-called "rare earth" elements in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of a rapid and accurate test to tell the difference between bacterial and viral infections. Those common afflictions often have similar symptoms but vastly different treatments — antibiotics work for bacterial infections but not for viruses. The report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry.

RENO, Nev. – While research using human embryonic stem cells has roused political controversy for almost two decades, little has been done to scientifically assess American attitudes on the subject. New research from the University of Nevada, Reno provides decision-makers with a much clearer picture of how their constituents truly feel about the subject.

Atmospheric aerosol particles (otherwise known as Particulate Matter) have been masking the true rate of greenhouse gas induced global warming during the industrial period. New investigations show that the aerosol cooling effect will be strongly reduced by 2030, as air pollution abatements are implemented worldwide and the presently available advanced control technologies are utilized. These actions would increase the global mean temperature by ca. 1 degree Celsius.

June 29, 2011 (Toronto) - The recurrence of an employee's medical leave of absence from work tends to happen much sooner with a mental health leave than a physical one, a Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) study shows.

Most workers who take a mental health leave from their jobs do not have another disability leave for at least two years, according to a new study from CAMH. In contrast, most who have had a physical health disability leave have almost four years before a second episode.

Biobanks are repositories for tissue samples, usually in the form of blood or saliva or leftover tissue from surgical procedures. These samples are collected and used for future research, including genetic research. They may be linked to personal health information regarding the sample donor. People who are eligible to donate these samples and researchers who want to use them face important questions with respect to whether and how informed consent should be obtained for sample and health information collection and use.

Though we all depend on reading people's faces, each of us sees others' faces a bit differently. Some of us may gaze deeply into another's eyes, while others seem more reserved. At one end of this spectrum people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) look less at other people's faces, and have trouble understanding others people's feelings. New research published in BioMed Central's open-access journal Molecular Autism has found variations of the cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) gene that alter the amount of time people spend looking at happy faces.

New research has shown that happier orang-utans live longer which may shed light on the evolution of happiness in humans.

Dr. Alexander Weiss and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Arizona, who are presenting their paper published in Royal Society journal Biology Letters at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow on Sunday the 3rd of July, used an innovative approach to assessing happiness by asking keepers who work with orang-utans to answer questions on the animals' behalf.

Obesity is an important contributor to premature death in women who have never smoked, especially among women in low income groups, finds research published on bmj.com today.

While established research has shown clearly that smoking is linked to premature death and health inequalities, it is not known which causes of death are related to the social position of women who have never smoked, says the paper.

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (28 JUNE 2011)—The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Anacor Pharmaceuticals, and SCYNEXIS Inc. today announced the successful completion of pre-clinical studies for the first new oral drug candidate discovered specifically to combat human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness. An article released today in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, reveals the initial successful results of pre-clinical studies of the new compound, which will soon advance to Phase I human clinical trials.

The traffic of genes among populations may help living things better adapt to climate change, especially when genes flow among groups most affected by warming, according to a UC Davis study of the Sierra Nevada cutleaved monkeyflower. The results were published online June 27 by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings have implications for conservation strategies, said Sharon Strauss, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis and an author of the study.