Body

WHAT: New research from Stanford University scientists suggests that type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that develops in children and young adults, may not be due to bad genes but rather to good genes behaving badly.

A new study shows that monitoring levels of exhaled nitric oxide in adolescents with asthma and adjusting treatment accordingly does not improve the course of their disease.

The study was conducted by the Inner City Asthma Consortium (ICAC), which is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet reports the ICAC findings.

DURHAM, N.C. —Duke University Medical Center researchers have discovered genetic links between the nervous system and the immune system in a well-studied worm, and the findings could illuminate new approaches to human therapies.

For some time, researchers have theorized a direct link between the nervous and immune systems, such as stress messages that override the protective effects of antibodies, but the exact connection was unknown.

WASHINGTON -- Current measures to prevent and reduce marine debris are inadequate, and the problem will likely worsen, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. The United States and the international maritime community should adopt a goal of "zero discharge" of waste into the marine environment, and a system to assess the effectiveness of existing and future marine debris prevention and reduction actions should be implemented.

As America's Baby Boomers jog into the 21st century, joint pain from the most common form of arthritis continues to be a number one disabler. Until now, there has been no way to diagnose the disease until it reaches an advanced stage, after both irreversible joint damage and severe symptoms have already set in.

Weekly bouts of moderate aerobic exercise on a bike or treadmill, or a brisk walk, combined with some weightlifting, may cut down levels of fat in the liver by up to 40 percent in people with type 2 diabetes, a study by physical fitness experts at Johns Hopkins shows.

According to researchers, who will present their findings on Sept. 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, in Indianapolis, high liver fat levels are common among people with type 2 diabetes and contribute to heart disease risk.

GBC has very poor prognosis. Conventional surgery is considered the most effective treatment, but many cases are inoperable at the time of diagnosis. More recently, chemotherapy has shown activity in gallbladder cancer. However, no generally accepted standard chemotherapy for advanced, non-resectable cancer of the gallbladder or biliary tree has yet been established. In addition, more and more people pay close attention to the research of Chinese medicine for prevention and treatment of cancer recently.

Taurine is a potent antioxidant with hepatoprotective effects. Organelle based changes in hepatocytes after taurine treatment in experimental liver fibrosis were searched systematically and organelle injury scores decreased were found to decrease significantly. Moreover, ultrastructural and histopathological scores in both groups were in strong correlation.

Los Baños, Philippines – Declining agricultural productivity and continued growing demand have brought the world food situation to a crossroads. Failure to act now through a wholesale reinvestment in agriculture—including research into improved technologies, infrastructure development, and training and education of agricultural scientists and trainers—could lead to a long-term crisis that makes the price spikes of 2008 seem a mere blip.

Halothane is a volatile anesthetic, which was first introduced to clinical practice in 1956. In Iran, halothane is being used as the main anesthetic in more than 80% of hospitals. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of HH are being reported in Iran.

A research article to be published on September 14, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Eghtesadi-Araghi Payam from Shariati Hospital of Iran studied HH in Iran and its associated risk factors.

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in Japan. The prognosis is extremely poor because it is difficult to detect this disease in the early stage and also the postoperative incidence of recurrence is still high, and we have not had any effective treatment for inoperable patients. Recently, the chemoradiotherapy has been regarded as one of the standard therapy for locally advanced pancreatic cancer and it has improved the survival and presented a clinical benefit.

An international study of almost 2,000 people in Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Iran and China has shown that a low cost strategy to keep in contact with people who have previously attempted suicide, can reduce the risk of subsequent suicides.

Given that suicide is among the top three causes of deaths in 15 to 34-year-olds, the strategy has the potential to help reduce the economic and societal loss of young people in their most productive years of life.

Previous studies have shown the beneficial effect of rebamipide, a novel anti-ulcer drug, on experimental colitis. The permeabilities of rebamipide in different intestinal segments remained unknown.

Hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury remains a significant problem for hepatic surgical procedures and also remains a limitation of liver transplantation. It is important to reduce ischemia reperfusion injury. Oxygen free radicals, produced on reperfusion, play a critical role in the injury caused by ischemia-reperfusion. Reactive oxygen radicals lead to an inflammatory response and tissue damage by activating various mediators. It can also directly damage cellular components. Various agents, such as antioxidants and antiinflammatories, have been investigated to reduce the injury.

Three RND efflux systems had been identified in H pylori, namely hefABC, hefDEF, and hefGHI, each of which consisted of a translocase, an accessory protein. But the contribution of efflux proteins to antibiotic resistance is not well established. 27 putative translocases also had been identified in the H pylori 26695 genome, but only four putative H pylori OEPs or TolC homologs were identified. While they could not quantitate the operons expression levels of the efflux systems in multidrug resistance strains of H pylori.