Body

HOUSTON – By reformulating the common cancer drug imatinib (Gleevec®), researchers have eliminated morphine tolerance in rats – an important step toward improving the effectiveness of chronic pain management in patients, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

BEND, Ore. – Researchers have found that parents of young children who anger easily and over-react are more likely to have toddlers who act out and become upset easily.

The research is an important step in understanding the complex link between genetics and home environment. In the study, researchers from Oregon State University, Oregon Social Learning Center, and other institutions collected data in 10 states from 361 families linked through adoption – and obtained genetic data from birth parents as well as the children.

A team of researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has generated a map over the effects of small drug-like molecules on PARP1 and other similar proteins in the body. This map may explain the mechanism behind putative side effects of the so-called PARP inhibitors, and can play an important role in the development of novel tailor-made cancer drugs. The study is presented in the journal Nature Biotechnology, and will hopefully contribute to new cancer therapies with fewer detrimental side effects.

With environmental threats on the rise and more than 120 countries now in favor of reforming international environmental governance, conditions are right to create a new, specialized global environmental agency, says one of the world's leading scientists.

Extending the smoking ban outside bars could help curb "social smoking" because this goes hand in hand with drinking, suggests a small qualitative study published online in Tobacco Control.

The international evidence suggests that while the prevalence of smoking per se has decreased, social smoking - smoking intermittently or only in given situations - has increased among young adults, say the authors.

STANFORD, Calif. — A towering $60,000 bill, a year of fierce, flu-like symptoms and a running risk of depression are among the possible costs of two new hepatitis C treatments. But according to Stanford University health policy researchers, they might be worth it.

NEW ORLEANS – New research suggests that mothers who experience migraine may be more likely to have a baby with colic than mothers without a history of migraine. Colic is defined as excessive crying in an otherwise healthy infant. The research was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The American Academy of Neurology is issuing an updated guideline that recommends monitoring the spinal cord during spinal surgery and certain chest surgeries to help prevent paralysis, or loss of muscle function, related to the surgeries. The guideline, which was developed with the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, is published in the February 21, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology and also in the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology.

A gene fusion research project led by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist delivers a one-two punch to Pierce's disease, a deadly threat to California's world-renowned wine industry.

The study is set for publication the week of Feb. 20 in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

MADISON – To better predict the future, Jack Williams is looking to the past.

"Environmental change is altering the composition and function of ecological communities," says the Bryson Professor of Climate, People, and the Environment in the University of Wisconsin–Madison geography department. Williams also directs the Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

Aggressive ovarian tumors begin as malignant cells kept in check by the immune system until, suddenly and unpredictably, they explode into metastatic cancer. New findings from scientists at The Wistar Institute demonstrate that ovarian tumors don't necessarily break "free" of the immune system, rather dendritic cells of the immune system seem to actively support the tumor's escape. The researchers show that it might be possible to restore the immune system by targeting a patient's own dendritic cells.

Boston, MA – Children in the U.S. whose activity choices, interests, and pretend play before age 11 fall outside those typically expressed by their biological sex face increased risk of being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused, and of suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first study to use a population-based sample to look at gender nonconformity as a risk factor for abuse.

Aggressive infections in hospitals are an increasing health problem worldwide. The development of bacterial resistance is alarming. Now a young Danish scientist has found a natural substance in a Chilean rainforest plant that effectively supports the effect of traditional treatment with antibiotics.

Heme oxygenase-1 is essential for the growth of blood vessels in the placenta and in establishing blood flow in the umbilical cord. Too little HO-1 can lead to a restriction in the growth of the fetus and even in fetal death and miscarriage. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Medical Gas Research has shown that low dose carbon monoxide therapy is able to restore placental function and prevent fetal death in mice, without any detrimental effects.

PITTSBURGH -- Policies regarding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) need to take biodiversity and regional attributes into account, according to Sandra Mitchell, professor and chair in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh Mitchell made her case in a presentation titled "GMOs and Policy in a Complex, Diverse World," delivered Feb.