Body

A process that limits the number of times a cell divides works much differently than had been thought, opening the door to potential new anticancer therapies, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report in the journal Cell.

Most cells in the human body divide only a certain number of times, via a countdown mechanism that stops them. When the controlling process goes wrong, the cells divide indefinitely, contributing to cancer growth.

Researchers say findings about how fat causes hypertension could one day help identify which obese people – and maybe some thin ones too – are at risk for hypertension and which drugs would work best for them.

Medical College of Georgia researchers have found that deleting or mutating the gene PTP1B puts mice at risk for hypertension by interfering with an endogenous mechanism that should help prevent it. The findings are published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation

Preliminary findings in ferrets suggest that the novel 2009 H1N1 influenza virus may out-compete human seasonal influenza viruses, researchers say. Tests in animals showed that levels of the 2009 H1N1 virus rose more quickly than levels of the seasonal virus strains, and the new virus caused more severe disease. In line with previous findings by other research groups, the University of Maryland researchers also observed that the novel H1N1 virus was transmitted more easily from infected to uninfected ferrets than either of the two seasonal influenza viruses.

Researchers have found new evidence showing that parents play a key role in whether or not their adolescent children who experiment with tobacco progress to become daily smokers before they graduate from high school.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that parents can be a positive or negative influence on their child's future smoking habits.

A new genetic marker associated with ovarian cancer risk was recently discovered by an international research group, led by scientists from the Cancer Research Genetic Epidemiology Unit in the United Kingdom. Drs. Marc Goodman, Galina Lurie, Michael Carney, and Keith Terada of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i participated in the validation of the discovered genetic marker as a part of the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium, a worldwide forum of scientists performing ovarian cancer research.

Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: The goals of the PreSCD II (Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death II) registry are to collect recent data on patients with high risk for sudden cardiac death after a heart attack and to describe their prognosis in relation to initial left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) as the primary risk marker.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A laboratory study by University of Maryland researchers suggests that some of the worst fears about a virulent H1N1 pandemic flu season may not be realized this year, but does demonstrate the heightened communicability of the virus.

Fears that medical research using tissue such as blood or material from biopsies would be obstructed by the Human Tissue Act 2004 may have been unfounded, a new study from the University of Leicester reveals.

In fact, the research suggests that the Act may have helped medical research by giving Research Ethics Committees clarity when making decisions.

Many medical researchers in UK universities and research institutions had feared that the legislation would unduly restrict research based on tissue samples and that ethics committees might struggle to interpret the Act.

Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Most research in atrial fibrillation (AF) has focused on reducing stroke and other embolic events. Yet heart failure occurs more frequently in AF patients, but has not been the focus of intervention research.

In a major international trial, researchers from McMaster University in Canada, found that the hypertension drug irbesartan reduced the risk of heart failure complications and the combination of stroke, other embolic events and transient ischemic events, also known as ministrokes, in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cardiac patients randomised to an implanted cardiac resynchronisation device with defibrillator (CRT-D) have a 34% lower risk of heart failure or death than those receiving a standard implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD-only) (HR 0.66, p=0.001), according to results from the MADIT-CRT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) study.

Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: The KYOTO HEART Study, which took place in Japan between January 2004 and January 2009, shows that the addition of valsartan to conventional antihypertensive treatment to improve blood pressure control is associated with an improved cardiovascular outcome in Japanese hypertensive patients at high risk of CVD events.

Chevy Chase, MD—Adolescent and young children of obese mothers who underwent weight-loss surgery prior to pregnancy have been found to have a lower prevalence of obesity and significantly improved cardio-metabolic markers when compared to siblings born before the same obese mothers had weight-loss surgery. This new study has been accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Chevy Chase, MD—A moderate aerobic exercise program, without weight loss, can improve insulin sensitivity in both lean and obese sedentary adolescents, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that permits glucose to enter cells to be used for energy or stored for future use by the body.

Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Atrial fibrillation ablation is one of the fastest growing techniques in cardiology and due to the very high number of patients that might be candidates to this procedure, a significant number of resources will have to be devoted to it to be able to treat them in the following years.

Barcelona, Spain, 1 September 2009: The REVISE Study (Reveal in the Investigation of Syncope and Epilepsy) found that 1 in 8 adult patients in the United Kingdom, previously thought to be suffering from epilepsy or in whom this diagnosis was in doubt, in fact had symptoms as a result of an abnormal pattern of heart beating, commonly found in patients with syncope (fainting).