Body

Researchers in the West Midlands have made a breakthrough in explaining how an incurable type of blood cancer develops from an often symptomless prior blood disorder. The findings could lead to more effective treatments and ways to identify those most at risk of developing the cancer.

All patients diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer of the blood-producing bone marrow, first develop a relatively benign condition called 'monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance' or 'MGUS'.

Monkeys and other primates have a better sense of smell than is often claimed. Researchers at Linköping University and two German universities have studied spider monkeys - and found that they are experts at sniffing out optimally ripe fruit.

Researchers from the Tumour Suppression Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), headed by Manuel Serrano, have discovered the molecular mechanisms that determine cancer predisposition in patients with Diamond-Blackfan anaemia (DBA). To achieve this, they have created the first animal model that recapitulates key characteristics of this type of anaemia in humans, including high cancer susceptibility.

Jena (Germany) It begins as a fairy tale which later turns into a horror story: Lusciously flowering plants, surrounded by a large number of insects. Usually, both sides profit from the encounter: Feasting on the plant juice and pollen, the insects pollinate the flowers and thus secure the survival of the plants. However, sometimes the insects - in this case a certain species of leafhoppers - can bring disaster to the plants, which they are not able to overcome.

Researchers know dinosaurs once ruled the earth, but they know very little about how these animals performed the basic task of balancing their energy intake and output--how their metabolisms worked. Now, a team of Caltech researchers that has measured the body temperatures of a wide range of dinosaurs has provided insight into how the animals may have regulated their internal heat.

Genes involved in schizophrenia and obesity have been highlighted in a new UCL study, which could lead to a better understanding of the DNA variants which affect risk of these conditions and aid the development of improved strategies for prevention and treatment.

A new way to synthesize a molecule implicated in diseases like diabetes is offering researchers a long sought means to study how reactions with glucose can negatively alter the structure of important proteins of the human body.

Scientists from the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that blood-derived T cells are resistant to the chief cause of cell death in HIV infection. Instead, it is T cells in the lymphoid tissues that are most susceptible and whose death leads to the progression from HIV infection to AIDS.

A new study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, published online in the journal Addiction, has found that the signatories to the Public Health Responsibility Deal alcohol labelling pledge are not fully meeting their pledge. Labelling information frequently falls short of best practice, with fonts and logos smaller than would be accepted on other products with health effects.

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have determined the structure of a key part of the enzyme telomerase, which is active in most cancers and enables cancer cells to proliferate indefinitely. The new findings, published October 5 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, reveal how the enzyme carries out a crucial function involved in protecting the ends of chromosomes.

Scientists have discovered a new gene linked to an increased risk of bowel cancer recurrence and shortened survival, reveals research in the journal Gut.

The discovery offers the potential to signal likely disease course in those patients who carry the gene and paves the way for the development of personalised treatments to target it, they suggest.

High levels of total cholesterol are linked to a heightened risk of tendon abnormalities and pain, reveals a pooled analysis of the available evidence published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Chronic low level inflammation, prompted by cholesterol build-up in immune system cells, may have a key role, the findings suggest.

DALLAS, TEXAS - Researchers at Baylor Research Institute have identified a small RNA molecule that appears to enable certain colorectal cancers to become especially aggressive, resistant to treatment and likely to migrate and invade normal tissue.

Findings suggest that detecting high levels of the molecule -- SNORA42 -- in patient tissues could serve as a "biomarker" to help clinicians determine which patients might benefit from more aggressive therapy against the disease that is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

Researchers report the strongest evidence yet that rising antibiotic resistance could have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or cancer chemotherapy. New estimates published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal suggest that up to half of infections after surgery and over a quarter of infections after chemotherapy are caused by organisms already resistant to standard prophylactic antibiotics in the USA.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY -- Organisms from bacteria to humans must defend themselves against parasitic genetic elements called transposons, and the stakes are high. These pieces of DNA, which disrupt genes by jumping around in the genome, can cause so much destruction that cells have dedicated surveillance mechanisms to keep them in check.

To protect future generations against genomic havoc, defects in these innate defense systems usually result in sterility. In animals, the main defense against troublemaking transposons is the Piwi-interacting RNA pathway.