Body

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island Hospital researchers have identified components in Clostridium difficile (C. diff) that may lead to new diagnostic tools, and ultimately more timely and effective treatment for this often fatal infection. C. diff is a spore-forming bacterium that causes severe diarrhea and is responsible for 14,000 deaths annually in the U.S. The study is published online in advance of print in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

PHILADELPHIA - A team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has found that moderate to severe hot flashes continue, on average, for nearly five years after menopause, and more than a third of women experience moderate/severe hot flashes for 10 years or more after menopause. Current guidelines recommend that hormone therapy, the primary medical treatment for hot flashes, not continue for more than 5 years.

For a cancer cell, it pays to have a group of eccentric friends.

Like X-Men characters, a group of cancer cells with diverse physical traits is safer, because it takes different strategies to attack each member.

The more diverse the group, the better the chances are for individual cells to survive and join forces as a cohesive tumor.

URBANA, Ill. – Could the quality of your attachment to your parents affect your own child's risk for obesity? A new University of Illinois study says it can.

In a study published in the January 31, 2014 issue of Science, an international team led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report doubling the number of known causes for the neurodegenerative disorder known as hereditary spastic paraplegia. HSP is characterized by progressive stiffness and contraction of the lower limbs and is associated with epilepsy, cognitive impairment, blindness and other neurological features.

Scientists have identified a way some viruses protect themselves from the immune system's efforts to stop infections, a finding that may make new approaches to treating viral infections possible.

Viruses have well-known strategies for slipping past the immune system. These include faking or stealing a molecular identification badge that prevents a cell from recognizing a virus.

MIAMI – (Jan. 29, 2014) – A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science investigated how several species of coastal sharks respond to stress from catch-and-release fishing. The results revealed that each of the shark species responded differently. Hammerhead sharks were by far the most vulnerable to fighting on a fishing line.

PHILADELPHIA — Substances called adjuvants that enhance the body's immune response are critical to getting the most out of vaccines. These boosters stimulate the regular production of antibodies -- caused by foreign substances in the body -- toxins, bacteria, foreign blood cells, and the cells of transplanted organs.

But, biologists think that vaccine adjuvants could be much better: The currently available licensed adjuvants are poor inducers of T helper cells and even worse at inciting killer T cells that clear viruses, as well as eradicate cancer cells.

Barcelona, Thursday 30 January, 2014.- A joint study published in Cell by the teams headed by Miquel Coll at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Institute of Molecular Biology of CSIC, both in Barcelona, and Dolf Weijers at the University of Wageningen, in the Netherlands, unravels the mystery behind how the plant hormones called auxins activate multiple vital plant functions through various gene transcription factors.

When it comes to life's stressors, most people would put caregiving at the top of the list.But according to Peter Vitaliano, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Washington (UW), there never have been data actually showing caregiving causes psychological distress. So he, and other researchers at the UW conducted a study of about 1,228 female twins, some were caregivers, and some were not. The results were somewhat surprising.

Increasing numbers of children and adolescents are being given antipsychotic drugs in Germany, as Christian Bachmann and colleagues found out in a study published in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111(3): 25 – 40). The authors used routine insurance data of the Barmer GEK statutory health insurance company to analyze antipsychotic prescriptions for this age group from 2005 to 2012.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Consider the last time you dealt with an airline service mishap: a bag lost in transit, a flight delayed or canceled, or an overbooked plane. Are you more or less likely to make a formal complaint about service quality if you're flying on a long-established "network" carrier or a newer, budget-friendly airline?

According to a new MIT study, passengers of low-cost upstarts tend to complain less, even though the quality of service may be the same as more expensive airlines.

EUGENE, Ore. -- University of Oregon biologists say they have opened the window on the natural process of bone regeneration in zebra fish, and that the insights they gained could be used to advance therapies for bone fractures and disease.

In a paper placed online in advance of print in the Feb. 13 issue of the journal Cell Reports, the UO team shows that two molecular pathways work in concert to allow adult zebra fish to perfectly replace bones lost upon fin amputation.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and in Lithuania have used a NIST-developed laboratory model of a simplified cell membrane to accurately detect and measure a protein associated with a serious gynecological disease, bacterial vaginosis (BV), at extraordinarily low concentrations. The work illustrates how the artificial membrane could be used to improve disease diagnosis.

Monkeys are important for modeling diseases because of their close similarities to humans, but past efforts to precisely modify genes in primates have failed. In a study published by Cell Press January 30th in the journal Cell, researchers achieved precise gene modification in monkeys for the first time using an efficient and reliable approach known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The study opens promising new avenues for the development of more effective treatments for a range of human diseases.