Body

Laval, October 23, 2009 – Professor Albert Descoteaux's team at Centre INRS – Institut Armand-Frappier has gained a better understanding of how the Leishmania donovani parasite manages to outsmart the human immune system and proliferate with impunity, causing visceral leishmaniasis, a chronic infection that is potentially fatal if left untreated. This scientific breakthrough was recently published in PLoS Pathogens.

The theme of this year's World Stroke Day on 29th October is "What can I do?". As the World Stroke Organization says, everyone can do something: learn to recognise symptoms and take action, learn to recognise the risk factors and take action.

Fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a recently recognized condition, which is actually one of the most prevalent heritable neurodegenerative diseases. It is assumed that the condition is caused by deficiency for the protein Pur-alpha, which is essential for normal neural function. Structural studies undertaken by a team under the leadership of Dr. Dierk Niessing of the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Gene Center at Ludwigs-Maximilians-University (LMU) have now determined the three-dimensional structure of Pur-alpha, and gained insights into the molecular function of the protein.

A Spanish researcher has analysed the preferences of wolves from the north east of the Iberian Peninsula to demonstrate that, in reality, their favourite prey are roe deer, deer and wild boar, ahead of domestic ruminants (sheep, goats, cows and horses).

A team of Harvard chemists led by X. Sunney Xie has developed a new microscopic technique for seeing, in color, molecules with undetectable fluorescence. The room-temperature technique allows researchers to identify previously unseen molecules in living organisms and offers broad applications in biomedical imaging and research.

The scientists' results are published in the Oct. 22 issue of Nature. Partial funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Women who lived in villages sprayed with DDT to reduce malaria gave birth to 33 per cent more baby boys with urogenital birth defects (UGBD) between 2004 and 2006 than women in unsprayed villages, according to research published online by the UK-based urology journal BJUI.

And women who stayed at home in sprayed villages, rather than being a student or working, had 41 per cent more baby boys with UGBDs, such as missing testicles or problems with their urethra or penis.

RENO/LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Sanford Barsky, M.D., who holds faculty positions at the University of Nevada School of Medicine as chair of the pathology department and Nevada Cancer Institute chief of pathology, is part of a team that has a paper on transgenic mouse mammary tumors with direct relevance to human breast cancer published in the October 22 issue of the scientific journal Nature.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most common esophageal disorder, and frequently encountered in the primary care setting. Accumulating evidence has confirmed the excellent efficacy and safety of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy in patients with all grades of GERD, making these agents the mainstay of treatment. However, the possible impact of changes in body weight(BW) or body mass index (BMI) in reflux patients while on long-term PPI therapy has not been examined.

In the last decade, advances in the understanding of genes promoting hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation are impressive. However, there are few breakthroughs in therapeutic intervention of hepatic fibrogenesis. Efficient and well-tolerated antifibrotic drugs are lacking and current treatment of hepatic fibrosis is limited to withdrawal of the noxious agent. Research identifying innocuous antifibrotic agents is of high priority and urgently needed. Emodin is efficacious in the management of hepatic fibrosis. However, the mechanisms underlying its effects remain to be elucidated.

Difficult-to-treat asthma often may have more to do with patients who do not take their medication as instructed than ineffective medication, according to researchers in Northern Ireland.

"[A] significant proportion of patients with difficult asthma are poorly adherent to inhaled and oral corticosteroid therapy," wrote principal investigator, Dr. Liam Heaney, of Belfast City Hospital.

New York, New York, October 23, 2009 – Each year 3-5 million people have severe cases and 250-500,000 die from complications of seasonal influenza world-wide. This year, the novel 2009 H1N1 (nH1N1) influenza, previously called swine flu, has reached pandemic status. Since novel 2009 H1N1 is a viral infection of the respiratory tract, there are additional challenges for cardiopulmonary transplant recipients and donors, as well as for the healthcare workers involved in the transplant process.

A mathematical model constructed by researchers at Imperial College London predicts the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, stroke) associated with low background levels of radiation. The model shows that the risk would vary almost in proportion with dose. Results, published October 23 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, are consistent with risk levels reported in previous studies involving nuclear workers.

North Carolina, October 2009 – Scientists have overcome a key barrier to the clinical use of stem cells with a technique which transforms regular body cells into artificial stem cells without the need for introducing foreign genetic materials, which could be potentially harmful. The research, published in Stem Cells, suggests that cells taken from a patient's eye can be "reprogrammed" to replace or restore cells lost to degenerative diseases.

Soon you could be genetically screened for mitochondrial disorders quickly and comprehensively. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Genome Medicine, outlines an innovative clinical diagnostic test for the early identification of a wide range of mitochondrial disorders. Mutations to one of the mitochondrial genes, or to a number of nuclear genes with roles in mitochondrial function, can cause diseases which have very similar symptoms, making them difficult to diagnose and treat.

Low alcohol consumption is bad for your health in general. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation studied the relationship between alcohol consumption and health to test the current theory which suggests improved health is responsible for the link found between low alcohol consumption and increased wages.