Body

San Diego, CA – Patients who exhibited a certain genetic mutation of anti-oxidant enzymes are three times more likely to develop age-related hearing loss (ARHL), according to new research presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, in San Diego, CA.

CHICAGO --- Think of a protective fence that blocks the neighbor's dog from charging into your backyard. The body, too, has fences -- physical and biochemical barriers that keep cells in their place.

We've all heard about the damage that reactive oxygen species (ROS) – aka free radicals – can do to our bodies and the sales pitches for antioxidant vitamins, skin creams or "superfoods" that can stop them. In fact, there is considerable scientific evidence that chronic ROS production within cells can contribute to human diseases, including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Researchers have fresh insight into an evolutionarily ancient way that cells cope when oxygen levels decline, according to a new study in the October 7th issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. In studies of cells taken from the lining of human pulmonary arteries, they show that a microRNA – a tiny bit of RNA that regulates the activity of particular genes and thus the availability of certain proteins – allows cells to shift their metabolic gears, in a process known as the Pasteur effect.

When it comes to the two basic types of cells, prokaryotes and eukaryotes, compartmentalization is everything. Prokaryotes are evolutionarily ancient cells that only have a membrane surrounding their outer boundary, while the more complex eukaryotes have an outer membrane and membrane bound compartments within the cell. Perhaps most notable is the double layered membrane that surrounds the nucleus, the cellular compartment which houses the cell's genetic material.

Vaccination can lower children's risk of allergy. Cathleen Muche-Borowski and her coauthors present a clinical practice guideline for allergy prevention in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106[39]: 625-31).

Allergic diseases are becoming increasingly common in Western industrialized countries. As there is still no etiologically based treatment of allergic asthma, hay fever, or atopic eczema, the prevention of these diseases is a matter of special importance.

During cell division, whether hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) will develop into new stem cells (self-renewal) or differentiate into other blood cells depends on a chemical process called DNA methylation. These were the findings of researchers at the laboratory of Dr. Frank Rosenbauer of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch in cooperation with the laboratory of Professor Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen (Lund University, Sweden and the University of Oxford, England).

Staying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research supported by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Oct. 5, 2009 — A new drug designed to "seek and destroy" common cancers such as breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, ovarian, skin and testicular cancers is being tested at TGen Clinical Research Services (TCRS) at Scottsdale Healthcare.

The Phase 1 clinical trial will help determine if EP-100 is safe and effective for use among patients with solid cancer tumors, with fewer side effects than chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

Chevy Chase, MD— Fat and muscle mass, as potentially determined by a person's ethnic background, may contribute to diabetes risk, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

BETHESDA, Md. (Oct. 6, 2009) — How far you can reach beyond your toes from a sitting position – normally used to define the flexibility of a person's body – may be an indicator of how stiff your arteries are.

Scientists at the University of York have identified and successfully silenced a gene that appears essential to cancer cell survival.

Professor Jo Milner and Dr Shafiq Ahmed, from the YCR P53 Research Unit in the Department of Biology, used a process called RNA interference to target the JNK2 gene in both cancer and healthy cells. The cancer cells died but the healthy cells were unaffected.

Hamilton, ON (October 5, 2009) – Skeletal muscle plays a critical role in regulating blood sugar levels in the body. But few studies have comprehensively examined how obesity caused by a high-fat diet affects the health of muscle in adolescents who are pre-diabetic.

A team of University of British Columbia microbiologists has identified a key defence mechanism used by the immune system against Listeria with strong implications for the future development of vaccines.

Listeria is the bacteria that causes listeriosis, a food-borne infection that caused 22 deaths in Canada in an August 2008 outbreak in meat products produced by Maple Leaf Foods.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a childhood cancer thought to originate from skeletal muscle. In patients whose disease has spread (metastasized) from the initial tumor site the chance of long-term survival is poor. Hopes for a therapy for such patients are not high, as little is known about the factors that control tumor progression and metastasis.