Body

The current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, which has claimed more than 2000 lives, has highlighted the need for a deeper understanding of the molecular biology of the virus that could be critical in the development of vaccines or antiviral drugs to treat or prevent Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have discovered a new target for drugs that could prevent the deaths of thousands of women in the developing world due to heavy blood loss after childbirth.

Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) occurs when the uterus fails to contract vigorously after childbirth and the mother loses 500mls or more of blood in the 24 hours after delivery. PPH is responsible for maternal death in 1 in 1,000 deliveries in the developing world. According to recent figures, PPH also complicates around 10% of all births in England and Wales.

Staying clear of diseases requires that the proteins in our cells cooperate with one another. But, it has been a well-guarded secret how tens of thousands of different proteins find the correct dancing partners as they degrade and build up the human body, brain and nervous system. A recent breakthrough at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Chemistry has busted down the door and provided a look at the once obscure behaviour on the protein dance floor.

Singapore, 15 September 2014—A small freshwater fish found in many tropical aquariums may hold the key to unlocking one of the leading causes of respiratory diseases in humans.

Obesity caused by a high-fat diet may increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, new research in mice suggests. Upon aging, a high-fat diet significantly accelerated the onset of neurological symptoms in mice that were genetically predisposed to develop Parkinson's disease.

The Journal of Neurochemistry findings suggest that in addition to having negative effects on glucose and insulin regulation in the body, an unhealthy diet may also cause damage in the brain. More research is needed to uncover the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved.

San Francisco, September 14, 2014—High-risk prostate cancer patients who receive radiation therapy (RT) and an 18-month course of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) recover a normal testosterone level in a shorter amount of time compared to those who receive a 36-month course of ADT, thus resulting in a better quality of life (QOL) and without detriment to long-term outcomes, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 56th Annual Meeting.

San Francisco, September 14, 2014—Patient-reported data indicates that when Manuka honey is prescribed for esophagitis pain during radiation therapy (RT), it is not more effective than standard medical care, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 56th Annual Meeting.

San Francisco, September 14, 2014—A secondary analysis of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-32 trial (Krag 2010) indicates that radiation therapy (RT) does not increase the incidence of lymphedema in patients with node-negative breast cancer, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 56th Annual Meeting.

San Francisco, September 14, 2014—Patients with stage I and II Hodgkin's Disease who receive consolidated radiation therapy (RT) have a higher 10-year survival rate of 84 percent, compared to 76 percent for patients who did not receive RT; and, the data also shows a decrease in utilization of RT, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 56th Annual Meeting.

San Francisco, September 14, 2014—Radiation therapy (RT) alone is as effective in decreasing swallowing complications experienced by advanced esophageal cancer patients as RT combined with chemotherapy, thus allowing patients to forgo chemotherapy, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 56th Annual Meeting.

Sharks, swamps and a tropical rainforest teeming with life – it's not what comes to mind when you think of Yorkshire, England. But for the first time evidence of Doncaster's 310-million-year-old past, including a fossilised shark egg case, has been discovered in a derelict mining tip.

Rosemont, Ill., September 15, 2014: Globally, cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims 17 million lives each year, while complications from high blood pressure take an additional 9.4 million.1 New research presented by international scientists at the 12th Euro Fed Lipid Congress in Montpellier, France on September 15, 2014, suggests that milk consumption and dairy may play a beneficial role.

The life of a cell is straightforward: it doubles, divides in the middle and originates two identical daughter cells. Therefore, it has been long assumed that cells of the same kind are similarly sized and big cells cannot divide symmetrically. Silvia Bulgheresi's team, University of Vienna, revealed that two non-model bacteria divide regularly despite growing so long to be perceivable by the naked eye. These findings have been published in the renowned journal Nature Communications.

Treating advanced small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) with thoracic (or chest) radiation therapy in addition to standard treatment significantly prolongs long-term survival and reduces cancer recurrence in the chest by almost 50%, according to new research published in The Lancet and being presented simultaneously at ASTRO's 2014 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The authors say that as the thoracic radiotherapy is well tolerated, it should to be routinely offered to all SCLC patients with extensive disease whose cancer responds to chemotherapy.

An international study co-led by Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) scientists and researchers in the United Kingdom has revealed 23 new genetic susceptibility locations indicating risk for prostate cancer.

The data study, analyzing more than 87,000 individuals of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry, is the largest of its kind and is the first that combines multiple studies across different ethnic populations.