Body

Increased daily exercise can prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease in obese women, but getting started and maintaining new habits is a challenge. A new study by researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that extra support and encouragement can help more women to exercise to and from work.

In a research article published in this week's PLoS Medicine, Ann Killary (from the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center) and colleagues describe a new gene called DEAR1 that is genetically altered by mutation and deletion in breast tumors, and that may provide a new breast cancer prognostic marker.

A decade after the conclusion of a schistosomiasis control program in Mali, prevalence of the disease had regressed to pre-intervention levels, according to a study published May 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

The researchers, led by Dr Archie Clements at the University of Queensland, found that clusters of schistosomiasis infections occurred generally in the same, original areas ten years after the end of a donor-funded control program, conducted between 1982 and 1992.

Zinc supplementation can be ineffective in the treatment of diarrhea. A randomised controlled trial published in the open access journal BMC Medicine has shown that supplementation with either zinc or zinc and copper is no more effective than placebo.

Results of a study in mice by researchers at the University of California, San Diego strongly suggest that the protein kinase JNK1 plays a key role in the development of retinopathy in premature infants. Their findings, reported online the week of May 4-9 in advance of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may lead to an effective way to treat the leading cause of childhood blindness in industrialized countries using JNK1 inhibitors.

An international team of scientists has determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy. The team's results one day could be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems, such as those that convert solar energy to electrical energy. A research paper about the discovery will be published on 4 May 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

LOS ANGELES – (May 4, 2009) – Researchers seeking to understand the causes of a rare genetic lysosomal storage disease, Sanfilippo syndrome type B, were surprised to find protein aggregates, known as neurofibrillary tangles, that are usually seen in Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, according to a study published May 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

CHAPEL HILL – Adverse reactions to drugs represent one of the leading causes of death in the United States. But there may be a way to predict who is most likely to suffer a toxic side effect to a drug before they have even taken it.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alzheimer's disease patients who develop delirium, a sudden state of severe confusion and disorientation, are significantly more likely to experience rapid cognitive decline than Alzheimer's patients who didn't experience delirium, according to research published in the May 5, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

CHICAGO – "Childhood vaccination represents one of the most successful public health interventions ever," write Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Samir S. Shah, M.D., M.S.C.E., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, in an editorial in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a theme issue on vaccines. "Diseases that once killed thousands of children each year have been virtually eliminated."

CHICAGO – Children who are consistently victimized by peers appear more likely to develop psychotic symptoms in early adolescence, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

CHICAGO – Children adopted from countries such as Russia, China and Guatemala may not be protected against polio, measles or other diseases despite records indicating they have been immunized, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a theme issue on vaccines.

Bethesda, MD (May 4, 2009) – Moderate calorie restriction causes temporal changes in the liver and skeletal muscle metabolism, whereas moderate weight loss affects muscle, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. In addition, researchers found that short-term calorie restriction (CR) with a low-carbohydrate diet caused a greater change in liver fat content and metabolic function than short-term CR with a high-carbohydrate diet.

As the swine flu continues its global spread, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have discovered important clues about why influenza is more severe in some people than it is in others. In their research study published online in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org), the scientists show that the influenza virus can actually paralyze the immune systems of otherwise healthy individuals, leading to severe secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia.

Berkeley -- A panel of experts and citizens convened to review recent studies on the link between DDT and human health expressed concern that the current practice of spraying the pesticide indoors to fight malaria is leading to unprecedented - and insufficiently monitored - levels of exposure to it.