Body

CHAPEL HILL – To prevent the rejection of newly transplanted organs and cells, patients must take medicines that weaken their entire immune systems. Such potentially life-saving treatments can, paradoxically, leave those receiving them susceptible to life-threatening infections.

Now researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered what seems to trigger the immune system to attack transplanted cells in the first place.

There are two species of lice that infest humans: pubic lice, Pthirus pubis, and human head and body lice, Pediculus humanus. A new article in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology suggests one explanation for the separation of the two species.

Researchers at University College London and St George's, University of London measured recent exposure to tobacco smoke in non-smoking middle-aged men taking part in the British Regional Heart Study by measuring the levels of cotinine - a compound carried in the blood - at two time points 20 years apart. A blood cotinine level above 0.7ng/mL is associated with a 40% increase in the risk of a heart attack (2), and other studies have suggested that even a level of 0.2ng/mL may increase the risk (3).

Parents of children with genetic conditions may avoid the need to choose whether to undergo pre-natal testing or to abort future pregnancies by simply avoiding subsequent pregnancy altogether, a study has found.

Parents are 'choosing not to choose', researcher Dr Susan Kelly, who is based at the Egenis research centre at the University of Exeter, suggests, in a 'reflection of deep-seated ambivalence' about the options and the limitations of new reproductive technologies.

STANFORD, Calif. —Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a much-needed way to monitor and find treatments for a mysterious and devastating group of metabolic diseases that arise from mutations in cells' fuel-burning mechanism.

A novel blood test could bring a breakthrough in the battle against the dangerous hepatitis-C virus. This procedure offers a considerably cheaper alternative to the normal commercial tests, whilst maintaining equal sensitivity. So now, for the first time, poorer countries will also have the opportunity to monitor their entire blood banks for the hepatitis C virus using optimum methods. This procedure has been developed by researchers at Bonn University and the Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg.

Darwin had his finches, Morgan had his fruit flies, and scientists today have cichlid fishes to trace the biological origins of jaws and teeth. In this week's issue of the journal PLoS Biology, researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, report they have deduced a network of dental genes in cichlids that likely was present to build the first tooth some half a billion years ago.

MADISON — The ability to empathize with others is partially determined by genes, according to new research on mice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

LIVERPOOL, UK – 11 February 2009: In a study of more than 3,000 patients, researchers at the University of Liverpool have found that one in seven admitted to hospital experience adverse drug reactions to medical treatment.

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of hospital admissions, but recent data on ADRs that develop following hospital treatment is lacking. To further understanding of the clinical characteristics of ADRs, researchers at Liverpool assessed drug reactions of patients on 12 hospital wards over a six-month period.

Building on plant virus research started more than 20 years ago, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis and his a colleague at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis have discovered a technology that reduces infection by the virus that causes Rice Tungro Disease, a limiting factor of rice production in Asia.

Dr. Harvey Pass of the NYU Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center is one of the authors of a research study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology which shows for the first time that a microRNA-based diagnostic test can objectively identify squamous lung cancer with 96% sensitivity.

Patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who continue on maintenance rituximab therapy after chemotherapy have better overall survival than patients who do not receive this treatment, according to a meta-analysis of randomized trials in the February 10 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A surgical technique known as targeted muscle reinnervation appears to enable patients with arm amputations to have improved control of functions with an artificial arm, according to a study in the February 11 issue of JAMA.

Only 2 of 15 Medicare programs designed to improve care and costs for patients with chronic illnesses resulted in reduced hospital admissions, and none of the programs generated net savings, according to a study in the February 11 issue of JAMA.

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who participated in an education program to limit their intake of phosphorus-containing food additives lowered their blood levels of the chemical, according to a study in the February 11 issue of JAMA.