Body

Sophia Antipolis, 4 February 2014. A report that will be published tomorrow provides strong evidence that the symptoms of depressive disorder are causally associated with the risk of coronary heart disease, and as such should be considered a potentially modifiable risk factor for the occurrence of CHD.

The findings, from the Whitehall II study of more than 10,000 civil servants in the UK, are published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.(1)

New insights into how the cells in our bodies divide could improve our knowledge of a condition linked to cancer, a study suggests.

Errors in the cell division process – which allows us to grow and stay healthy – can lead to a genetic disorder called aneuploidy, which is also associated with birth defects and infertility.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have pinpointed the key role played by a protein in ensuring that cells separate correctly.

1a. ACIP Releases 2014 Adult Immunization Schedule

February 03, 2014, OAKLAND, Calif. —Tests that require patients to collect a single stool sample at home and then send it to a lab for analysis will detect about 79 percent of colorectal cancers, according to a new evidence review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The review of 19 studies examining eight different fecal immunochemical tests, know as "FITs", also finds that the tests will correctly identify about 94 percent of patients who do not have cancers of the rectum or colon.

A new study, co-authored by a Harvard scientist, offers the first-ever evidence that fetal sex can affect the amount of milk cows produce, a finding that could have major economic implications for U.S. dairy farmers.

The study, which examined 2.4 million lactations by nearly 1.5 million dairy cows in the U.S., found that cows which gestated back-to-back daughters produce as much as 1,000 pounds more milk than those that give birth to sons over the first two lactations. The study is described in a February 3 paper in PLOS ONE.

Adoption of new guidelines recommending screening mammography every two years for women ages 50 to 74 would result in breast cancer screening that is equally effective, while saving the United States $4.3 billion a year in health care costs, according to a study led by UC San Francisco.

The study compares three possible mammography screening strategies with a model of current U.S. screening practices.

The article appears on February 4, 2014 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

One of the hopes for victory against cancer hinges on naturally-occurring proteins whose job is to make their host cell die.

Since their natural role is to stop unhealthy cell proliferation, the idea is that one or more of these proteins could be harnessed to stop the growth of tumors.

Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center have discovered a new signaling pathway in sterile inflammation that could impact the treatment of diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Their findings offer insight into the role that activation of interferon-regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), a protein that functions as a transcriptional activator of a variety of target genes, plays in the production of chemokines and the recruitment of mononuclear cells to sites of sterile inflammation.

While the origin of life remains mysterious, scientists are finding more and more evidence that material created in space and delivered to Earth by comet and meteor impacts could have given a boost to the start of life. Some meteorites supply molecules that can be used as building blocks to make certain kinds of larger molecules that are critical for life.

Previous studies have shown the certain pesticides can increase the risk for developing Parkinson's disease. Now, UCLA researchers have now found that the strength of that risk depends on an individual's genetic makeup, which in the most pesticide-exposed populations could increase the chances of developing the debilitating disease by two- to six-fold.

MINNEAPOLIS – New research shows how pesticides may increase the risk of Parkinson's disease and that people with certain gene variants may be more susceptible to the disease. The research is published in the February 4, 2014, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

CHICAGO – Many U.S. adults consume more added sugar (added in processing or preparing of foods, not naturally occurring as in fruits and fruit juices) than expert panels recommend for a healthy diet, and consumption of added sugar was associated with increased risk for death from cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Genetic testing of embryos for a fatal inherited neurodegenerative disorder allowed a woman to selectively implant two mutation-free embryos and conceive healthy twins, what researchers call the first case of in vitro fertilization (IVF) with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to prevent genetic prion disease in children, according to a case report by Alice Uflacker, M.D., of Duke University, Durham, N.C., and colleagues.

Nearly half of HIV-infected teenagers and young adults forego timely treatment, delaying care until their disease has advanced, which puts them at risk for dangerous infections and long-term complications, according to a study led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

BOSTON (Feb. 3, 2014) —The first comprehensive, large-scale cohort study of the long-term survival of children treated for low-grade gliomas, the most common pediatric brain tumor, finds that almost 90 percent are alive 20 years later and that few die from the tumor as adults. However, children who received radiation as part of their treatment had significantly lower long-term survival rates than children who were not radiated, researchers from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center report.