Body

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 8, 2013) — Biologists reported today in Nature that they have identified two pathways through which chromosomes are rearranged in mammalian cells. These types of changes are associated with some cancers and inherited disorders in people.

NEW YORK, September 8, 2013 — For the first time, a genetic link specific to risk of childhood leukemia has been identified, according to a team of researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, University of Washington, and other institutions. The discovery was reported online today in the journal Nature Genetics.

Barcelona, Spain: Virtual observation of patients taking their prescribed TB medication, could prove an effective technique for ensuring patients effectively complete their course of treatment.

The research will be presented today (8 September 2013) at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress.

Barcelona, Spain: Results of a new study suggest that three new diagnostic tests could each be used to successfully diagnose drug resistance in tuberculosis (TB) patients in a quarter of the time taken by the current method.

The research, presented today (8 September 2013) at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Barcelona, has provided evidence that each test could be used as an effective alternative to standard testing, increasing the possibilities open to clinicians.

'Eat less salt' is a mantra of our health-conscious times and is seen as an important step in reducing heart disease and hypertension.

Too much salt in the diet – and specifically sodium – is widely acknowledged as a major risk factor for high blood pressure however, scientists have found that salt's other oft-overlooked constituent chloride might also play an important role.

A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow has revealed that low chloride levels in the blood is an independent indicator of mortality risk in people with hypertension.

Barcelona, Spain: Living close to a busy road is associated with a higher risk of death in people with bronchiectasis.

A new study, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress in Barcelona today (8 September 2013), has added to the growing body of evidence demonstrating the damaging effects of road-side pollution.

Barcelona, Spain: First trial to compare e-cigarettes with nicotine patches shows comparable success in helping smokers to quit.

The first ever trial to compare e-cigarettes with nicotine patches has found that both methods result in comparable success in quitting, with roughly similar proportions of smokers who used either method remaining abstinent from smoking for six months after a 13 week course of patches or e-cigarettes.

A severe hereditary bleeding disorder was described in a large family from east Texas in 2001.

The affected family members routinely had bruising, nosebleeds, massive blood loss following injury or surgery, and often required blood transfusions. Routine tests for functional components of the blood coagulation pathway did not reveal any obvious defects.

Genomic sequencing revealed a mutation in the gene encoding coagulation factor 5 (FV), but it was not considered to contribute to disease, since clotting assays were normal.

Patients that receive kidney transplants have an increased risk of an invasive form of skin cancer.

It is unclear if donor tissue contributes to cancer formation. In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Philippe Ratajczak and colleagues at INSERM demonstrate that donor tissue can lead to caner formation in transplant recipients.

They examined tumor cells and transplant tissues from a small sample of kidney transplant patients that had subsequently developed skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

An assistant professor with the Virginia Tech - Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering has developed a flexible microneedle patch that allows drugs to be delivered directly and fully through the skin. The new patch can quicken drug delivery time while cutting waste, and can likely minimize side-effects in some cases, notable in vaccinations and cancer therapy.

DNA is the blueprint for life. Could it also become the template for making a new generation of computer chips based not on silicon, but on an experimental material known as graphene?

That's the theory behind a process that Stanford chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao reveals in Nature Communications.

Orphaned chimpanzees are less socially competent than chimpanzees who were reared by their mother. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, observed that orphaned chimpanzees frequently engaged in social play, but their play bouts were much shorter and resulted in aggression more often. Apparently, chimpanzee mothers endow their offspring with important social skills.

London -- Long-term confinement is not a humane option for the control of feral and stray or abandoned cat populations, according to new guidelines issued by the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) in its Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery published by SAGE.

Since its discovery in the early 1990s, the protein STAT1 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 1) has been found to be central in passing signals across immune cells, ensuring that our bodies react quickly and appropriately to threats from viruses or other pathogens. Animals without STAT1 are also prone to develop cancer, suggesting that STAT1 is somehow involved in protection against malignant cells.

Research into the rise in obesity associated with the burgeoning industrial and service sectors in low- and middle-income countries found that education is a key factor in reducing the negative impact on women's health.

The study, conducted by researchers at UCL and published in the journal BMC Public Health, found that women with no formal education who were working in sedentary occupations were twice as likely to be 'centrally obese' – defined by measuring waist circumference – compared to women with no education working in agriculture.