Body

A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center may explain why chemotherapy drugs such as gemcitabine are not effective for many pancreatic cancer patients, and perhaps point to new approaches to treatment including enhancing gemcitabine's ability to stop tumor growth.

The MD Anderson study in mice suggests that suppressing a cellular plasticity process known as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in combination with gemcitabine, may boost the drug's effectiveness. Study findings were published in the Nov. 11 online version of Nature.

They might be looking quite identical, while perched above humanised farmlands and grasslands across several continents, but each of the populations of two owl species, living in the opposite hemispheres, might actually turn out to be yet another kind. This suggestion has been made by Dr.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Nov. 11, 2015 -- University of Oregon scientists have found that strength in numbers doesn't hold true for microbes in the intestines. A minority population of the right type might hold the key to regulating good health.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Children whose mothers were exposed to relatively high levels of the chemical PFOA during pregnancy experienced more rapid body fat gain and higher body fat by age 8 than children whose mothers were less exposed, according to a new analysis in the journal Obesity.

PFOA -- perfluorooctanoic acid -- is a suspected "obesogen," because lab studies suggest exposure to its broader family of PFAS chemicals may alter the body's metabolism and fat cell development.

In recent decades, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has evolved from a controllable nuisance into a serious public health concern. A pre-clinical study published November 11 in Cell Host & Microbe now reveals that treatment with first-line antibiotics may actually make MRSA skin infections worse, ironically by activating the body's own pathogen-defense system. The next step will be to obtain human data.

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 11, 2015) - A new study sheds light on how treatment of the "superbug" known as MRSA with certain antibiotics can potentially make patients sicker. The findings by Cedars-Sinai scientists, published today in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, could have implications for managing the bug, a virulent form of the common staph infection that can be difficult to control.

Tampa, FL (Nov. 10, 2015) -- A University of South Florida Center for Global Health & Infectious Diseases Research team has demonstrated a new screening model to classify antimalarial drugs and to identify drug targets for the most lethal strain of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum.

The National Institutes of Health-funded study appeared online Nov. 6 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Imagine a species that is only one millimetre long and has only a limited swimming ability. Yet, its mobility is sufficient for moving, feeding and reproducing in freshwater and seawater. That's exactly what a type of zooplankton of the crustaceans family - namely the calanoid copepods - does. In a study published in EPJ E, physicists shed new light on how these zooplankton steer large-scale collective motion under strong turbulence. To do so, the authors study the zooplankton's small-scale motion mechanisms when subjected to background flow motion.

Tiny plastic bits, collectively known as called microplastics, are showing up in bodies of water around the world, and are accumulating in aquatic creatures, including fish and shellfish. Now scientists, after testing a sampling of commercial products in China, have reported for the first time that they also could be contaminating something else we consume from the sea salt. Their study appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Preventing blood clots with drugs such as heparin has become a common practice for fighting some heart and lung conditions, and for certain surgeries. But patients who take them also need their blood to clot to heal incisions made during operations. Researchers are developing a new way to tackle this problem -- by pairing snake venom with nanofibers. Their study using the therapy on rats appears in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue researchers have devised a way to capture the finer details of complex cell processes by using tiny synthetic particles known as dendrimers, a technology that could lead to more targeted treatment for cancer.

A precise understanding of how cells engulf small particles, a process known as endocytosis, could help researchers improve drug delivery and reveal the mechanisms of viruses. But the particles "eaten" by cells and the proteins that control cell entry pathways are too little for conventional technologies to detect.

The death of a parent in childhood was associated with a long-term risk of suicide in a study of children from three Scandinavian countries who were followed for up to 40 years, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry.

In Western societies, 3 percent to 4 percent of children experience the death of a parent and it is one of the most stressful and potentially harmful life events in childhood. While most children and adolescents adapt to the loss, others develop preventable social and psychological problems.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Michigan have produced the first image of an important human protein as it binds with ribonucleic acid (RNA), a discovery that could offer clues to how some viruses, including HIV, control expression of their genetic material.

That information could lead to new strategies to block viruses from replicating, thereby limiting or halting infection.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have used computational modelling to shed light on precisely how charged gold nanoparticles influence the structure of DNA and RNA - which may lead to new techniques for manipulating these genetic materials.

The work holds promise for developing applications that can store and transport genetic information, create custom scaffolds for bioelectronics and create new drug delivery technologies.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Patients who develop ovarian cancer appear to have better outcomes if they have a history of oral contraceptive use, according to a study by Mayo Clinic researchers published in the current issue of the journal BMC Cancer.