Body

Highlights

• Vancomycin was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic in dialysis patients for treating certain bloodstream infections, but cefazolin was 38% better than vancomycin at preventing hospitalizations and deaths from these infections.
• Cefazolin was also 48% better at preventing sepsis.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans develop bloodstream infections every year.

Highlights

• The blood levels of certain abnormal proteins and the antibodies that attack them rise according to the severity of one of the most common diseases of the kidney.
• The findings may help in the diagnosis and management of the disease, called IgA nephropathy.

IgA nephropathy can lead to high blood pressure, swelling and, in some cases, kidney failure.

In uncertain environments, organisms not only react to signals, but also use molecular processes to make guesses about the future, according to a study by Markus Arnoldini et al. from ETH Zurich and Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. The authors report that if environmental signals are unreliable, organisms are expected to evolve the ability to take random decisions about adapting to cope with adverse situations.

The cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a member of the herpesvirus family. Although most people carry CMV for life, it hardly ever makes them sick. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and from the USA have now unveiled long term consequences of the on-going presence of CMV: Later in life, more and more cells of the immune system concentrate on CMV, and as a result, the response against other viruses is weakened. These research results help to explain why the elderly are often more prone to infectious diseases than young people.

Black people who survived strokes caused by bleeding in the brain were more likely than whites to have high blood pressure a year later – increasing their risk of another stroke, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

LOS ANGELES — Research from the University of Southern California (USC) and Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) found that cooking red meats at high temperatures, especially pan-fried red meats, may increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer by as much as 40 percent.

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, August 16, 2012 – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers revealed that a majority of children suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) treated with montelukast, a drug approved for asthma or hay fever, showed significant improvement in respiratory disturbance and adenoid size, according to a new study published in Pediatrics Journal.

To speed up the process of identifying threatened and endangered plant species, a team of New York Botanical Garden scientists has developed a streamlined method for evaluating the conservation status of large numbers of plant species, using information from plant research collections and Geographic Information Systems technology.

• Tiny fragments of proteins called peptides potentially offer an effective, safer, way to prevent or treat cancer.
• These two studies examine a peptide vaccine and a peptide therapeutic together and with a common chemotherapy drug in breast-cancer models.
• The two agents delayed cancer onset and progression when given together and in combination with the chemotherapy drug.

WASHINGTON – Blacks who survived a stroke caused by bleeding in the brain had higher blood pressure than whites a year later, according to a study published today in the journal Stroke. The finding might help explain why blacks have a greater risk of suffering a second stroke than whites.

What if a key factor ultimately behind a cancer was not a genetic defect but ecological?

Ecologists have long known that when some major change disturbs an environment in some way, ecosystem structure is likely to change dramatically. Further, this shift in interconnected species' diversity, abundances, and relationships can in turn have a transforming effect on health of the whole landscape – causing a rich woodland or grassland to become permanently degraded, for example – as the ecosystem becomes unstable and then breaks down the environment.

Washington, D.C. — A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Lin Wang has observed a new form of very hard carbon clusters, which are unusual in their mix of crystalline and disordered structure. The material is capable of indenting diamond. This finding has potential applications for a range of mechanical, electronic, and electrochemical uses. The work is published in Science on Aug. 17.

When it comes to protecting endangered species, the power of the people is key, an analysis of listings under the U.S. Endangered Species Act finds.

The journal Science is publishing the analysis comparing listings of "endangered" and "threatened" species initiated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that administers the Endangered Species Act, to those initiated by citizen petition.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified a type of E. coli bacteria that may encourage the development of colon cancer.

The Liverpool team had previously shown that people with colon cancer and with the inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, have high numbers of a sticky type of E. coli in their colons.

Researchers have discovered molecular and protein signatures that predict rapid onset of liver damage in hepatitis C patients following a liver transplant. The markers appeared soon after transplant and well before clinical evidence of liver damage.