Body

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the causal agent of chronic gastritis, ulcer and gastric cancer. It has the potential to persist in the human stomach for decades, sometimes causing neither harm nor clinical symptoms. Nevertheless, on some occasions, depending on the host immune system and the strain causing the infection, the outcome can be very serious. To maintain the infection, the bacterium must adapt to survive the host defences. One way to accomplish this is to sequentially change the external proteins on the bacterial surface.

Jordi Casanova, professor at CSIC who heads a developmental biology group at IRB Barcelona, addresses the gene expression that leads to the formation of different parts of an organism. Revealing how respiratory tubes develop in Drosophila is relevant because the genes and mechanisms involved are very similar to those present in the mammalian respiratory and circulatory systems. "Our study explains the formation of the smallest tubes that develop to transport nutrients and oxygen to tissues", says Casanova.

A University of Adelaide forensic pathologist has sounded a worldwide warning of the potential lethal dangers of herbal medicines if taken in large quantities, injected, or combined with prescription drugs.

A paper by Professor Roger Byard published in the US-based Journal of Forensic Sciences outlines the highly toxic nature of many herbal substances, which a large percentage of users around the world mistakenly believe are safe.

Gastric cancer remains a significant problem globally. The relationship between intestinal metaplasia (IM) and gastric cancer has always been controversial. Generally IM is divided into subtypes on the basis of histochemical characteristics; however, this classification is confusing. A new classification of IM is needed in order to follow up patients selectively. A research team led by Prof Zhang of the Department of Pathology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University first proposed the classification of IM into SIM and AIM.

In a unique project to combat depleted fish supplies in Lake Victoria, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Makerere University in Kampala, have established 'boutique' fish farms in small villages around the Lake's shore in Uganda.

Predators

Local fishermen used to fish carp and perciform fish near the shores of the lake, as food for their families. But fifty years ago, the Nile Perch was introduced into Lake Victoria in order to increase local fisheries. The Nile Perch is a predator and it started to eat most of the other fish.

Amsterdam, February 9, 2010 – A new study (doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2010.01.002), published by Elsevier this month in Vaccine (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/vaccine) describes a new method that assesses the impact and cost-effectiveness of a range of vaccination options. The model was applied to the 2009 Influenza H1N1 outbreak and predicted accurately in real-time when the epidemic would peak and who should be prioritized for vaccination.

Women with breast cancer who take the antidepressant paroxetine at the same time as tamoxifen are at an increased risk of death, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.

However, the authors stress that their results should not lead patients to stop taking tamoxifen, and do not imply that paroxetine itself causes or influences the course of breast cancer. "This is simply a situation in which paroxetine impairs the effectiveness of tamoxifen," they explain.

DURHAM, N.C. – The biology of lung cancer differs from one patient to the next, depending on age and sex, according to scientists at Duke University Medical Center. The findings may help explain why certain groups of patients do better than others, even though they appear to have the same disease.

An analysis of genetic and clinical data for nearly 800 patients with non-small cell lung cancer has identified differences in genetic characteristics that are associated with age and sex specific patterns of increased or decreased recurrence-free survival, according to a study in the February 10 issue of JAMA.

Factors such as maternal high blood pressure and high hematocrit levels (the proportion of blood that consists of red blood cells) are associated with a greater likelihood of restricted fetal growth during the first trimester, with restricted growth linked to an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, according to a study in the February 10 issue of JAMA.

Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery can effectively treat obesity in adolescents and seems to offer a better alternative than gastric bypass surgery, but further study is needed to determine whether it's better than nonsurgical options, a UT Southwestern Medical Center surgeon writes in an editorial in the Feb. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers in Chicago and London have developed a method for controlling the properties of magnets that could be used to improve the storage capacity of next-generation computer hard drives.

Magnets that can readily switch their polarity are widely used in the computer industry for data storage, but they present an engineering challenge: A magnet's polarity must be easily switched when writing data to memory, but be difficult to switch when storing or reading it.

Reptiles are bred in captivity primarily for their skins, but some restaurants and population groups also want them for their meat. A study shows that eating these animals can have side effects that call into question the wisdom of eating this 'delicacy.'

It is widely known that genetic mutations cause disease. What are largely unknown are the mechanisms by which these mutations wreak havoc at the molecular level, giving rise to clinically observable symptoms in patients. Now a new study using bioinformatics, led by scientists at the Buck Institute for Age Research, reports the ability to predict the molecular cause of many inherited genetic diseases. These predictions involve tens of thousands of genetic disease-causing mutations and have led to the creation of a web-based tool available to academic researchers who study disease.

Feeling stressed? Try chamomile! This 'traditional' remedy has been around for years, but how much truth is there behind this old wives' tale?

In an evaluation for Faculty of 1000, Michael Van Ameringen and Beth Patterson draw attention to the first randomized controlled trial of chamomile for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

The study, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, reports that "chamomile extract therapy was found to be efficacious for mild-moderate GAD".