Body

Importantly, the scientists found out that treatment of obese mice with this GLP-1/Glucagon co-agonist improves metabolism and body weight associated with restored function of the weight lowering hormone leptin, even in the continued presence of a high-fat, high-sugar diet. The results are published in the current issue of the official journal of the American Diabetes Association 'Diabetes'. The adipocyte hormone leptin plays a key role in the physiology of energy and glucose metabolism.

An international study has developed a refined method to identify people at risk for certain inherited cancer as a result of Lynch syndrome.

The gene that has provided spring barley with resistance to powdery mildew for over 30 years increases susceptibility to newly-important disease Ramularia leaf spot.

Scientists confirm the trade-off in a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Botany. Since 1980, the mlo gene has transformed mildew from the most important disease of barley to an occasional nuisance in wetter areas of the UK.

BOSTON - January 15, 2013 - About 33 percent of people with type 2 diabetes suffer kidney damage that progresses to end stage renal disease (ESRD), at which point they require either dialysis or kidney transplantation. Scientists have thought that this kidney disease is driven by damage to the glomeruli, blood vessels in the kidney, which spill the protein albumin into the urine. Current treatments targeting the resulting "albuminuria" do not prevent kidney failure.

A Cologne working group involving Prof. Carsten Münker and Dr. Elis Hoffmann and their student Sebastian Viehmann (working with Prof. Michael Bau from the Jacobs University Bremen) have managed for the first time to determine the isotope composition of the rare trace elements Hafnium and Neodymium in 2,700 million year-old seawater by using high purity chemical sediments from Temagami Banded Iron Formation (Canada) as an archive.

Amazonian biodiversity has been studied for hundreds of years. Early explorers of Amazonian plants and animals included renowned naturalists of the stature of Alexander von Humboldt and A. R. Wallace. Despite this long history of exploration, new studies are resulting in the discovery of a large number of new species. The key of these discoveries lies in the use of advanced new tools for species detection.

Researchers at the Nanoscience Center (NSC) of University of Jyväskylä in Finland have developed a novel method to study enterovirus structures and their functions. The method will help to obtain new information on trafficking of viruses in cells and tissues as well as on the mechanisms of virus opening inside cells. This new information is important for example for developing new antiviral drugs and vaccines. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 13, 2014.

The brakes of your car fail suddenly and on your path are five people who will certainly be hit and killed. You can steer, but if you do another pedestrian will find himself on your course. Just one. What do you do: do you take action and kill one person or do you do nothing and cause five people to die? This is an example of a "moral dilemma", the type of problem cognitive psychologists use for studying the cerebral foundations of moral behaviour.

Living organisms have adapted to the day-night cycle and, in most cases, they have evolved a "circadian clock". Its effects are not completely known yet but its functioning has been shown to have important metabolic consequences for the body. Disruption of normal circadian rhythms can have deleterious effects on health; for example lack of sleep is linked with obesity, and the time of feeding was shown to affect the ability to control body weight.

Americans are being exposed to significantly lower levels of some phthalates that were banned from children's articles in 2008, but exposures to other forms of these chemicals are rising steeply, according to a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco.

Phthalates, which are used to soften plastic, can be found in nail polish, fragrances, plastics and building materials, as well as the food supply. An accumulating body of scientific evidence suggests they can disrupt the endocrine system, which secretes hormones, and may have serious long-term health consequences.

A study of marine life in the temperate coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean shows a reversal of competitive dominance among species of algae, suggesting that increased ocean acidification caused by global climate change is altering biodiversity.

Defensins, as their name implies, are small proteins found in plants and animals that help ward off viral, bacterial or fungal pests. One fascinating question of invertebrate evolution is how these proteins evolved into venoms to attack their prey.

Based on structural similarity, it was proposed that scorpion toxins and antimicrobial invertebrate defensins could have a common ancestor. To address how a nontoxic proteindevelops into a toxin, authors Zhu, et. al. studied the evolution of scorpion venom-derived neurotoxins, known as α-KTxs.

A new study published in the scientific journal Addiction by the Pan American Health Organization, a branch of the World Health Organization, has measured the number and pattern of deaths caused by alcohol consumption in 16 North and Latin American countries. The study reveals that between 2007 and 2009, alcohol was a 'necessary' cause of death (i.e., death would not have occurred in the absence of alcohol consumption) in an average of 79,456 cases per year. Liver disease was the main culprit in most countries.

It seems paradoxical that a preference for which of two houses to buy could depend on another, inferior, house – but researchers at the University of Bristol have identified that seemingly irrelevant alternatives can, and should, influence choices. Even more remarkable is the finding that optimal choices can violate the principle of transitivity: it can be best to choose A from A or B, and choose B from B or C, but choose C from A or C.

Infants of expectant mothers who take antidepressant drugs, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), during late pregnancy are at an increased risk for persistent pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs) finds a study published on bmj.com today.