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Neuregulin 1 gene linked to schizophrenia

Scientists have provided new insight into how a gene is related to schizophrenia.

12 Aug 2007

Impaired energy production in heart muscle may underlie heart failure in some hypertensive patients

Many people with long-standing high blood pressure develop heart failure.

12 Aug 2007

Researchers discover how Bcl-3 protein stops inflammation

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine recently identified how a regulatory protein called Bcl-3 helps to control the body's inflammation response to infection by interfering a critical biochemical process called ubiquitination.

12 Aug 2007

FDA warns against use of red yeast rice products promoted as high cholesterol treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to buy or eat three red yeast rice products promoted and sold on Web sites.

12 Aug 2007

Why acid reflux sometimes turns into cancer

New research from scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center underscores the importance of preventing recurring acid reflux while also uncovering tantalizing clues on how typical acid reflux can turn potentially cancerous.

12 Aug 2007

High-tech diagnosis pinpoints causes of behavioral and psychiatric problems in patients

Is there a definitive test for mental illness? Not yet, but using advanced neuropsychiatric diagnostic tools including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), mental health professionals at The Menninger Clinic in Houston are pinpointing the causes of behavioral and psychiatric problems in patients.

12 Aug 2007

Staggering costs of end-stage renal disease in U.S.

Recent progress in the prevention and treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States give reason for "cautious optimism," but skyrocketing costs are a major concern, according to a Special Article in the October Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

12 Aug 2007

New insights into cell division process

Which genes are passed on from mother to child is decided very early on during the maturation of the egg cell in the ovary.

12 Aug 2007

The role of estrogens and polyphenols in hypertension and diabetes

Menopausal women are at relatively high risk for memory loss, high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes.

12 Aug 2007

Connection between reduced glutathione and heart failure

Antioxidants are widely considered an important defense against heart disease, but University of Utah researchers have found excessive levels of one antioxidant - reduced glutathione - actually may contribute to the disease.

12 Aug 2007

Leptin controls our fondness for food

Scientists have discovered that leptin, one of the key hormones responsible for reducing hunger and increasing the feeling of fullness, also controls our fondness for food.

12 Aug 2007

TRF2 and POT1 proteins found on telomeres control DNA damage response pathways

No sooner had cells evolved linear chromosomes than they had a life-threatening problem to solve.

12 Aug 2007

90 percent of seniors now have prescription drug coverage

More than 90 percent of Americans age 65 and older now have prescription drug coverage, compared to more than 75 percent who were covered in 2004, according to a University of Michigan analysis. And poor seniors are as likely to have coverage as the rich.

12 Aug 2007

Light-activated molecules used to induce apoptosis in cancer cells

A key challenge facing doctors as they treat patients suffering from cancer or other diseases resulting from genetic mutations is that the drugs at their disposal often don't discriminate between healthy cells and dangerous ones -- think of the brute-force approach of chemotherapy, for instance.

12 Aug 2007

Chromatin remodeling complex connected to DNA damage control

When molecular disaster strikes, causing structural damage to DNA, players in two important pathways talk to each other to help contain the wreckage, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the August edition of Cell.

12 Aug 2007

Sex hormones play a significant role in the development of diabetic kidney disease

Women have a "female advantage" when it comes to chronic kidney disease. When compared to men, they have fewer and less severe episodes of this disorder throughout most of their lives.

11 Aug 2007

Smokeless tobacco products are not safe

It may not be inhaled into the lungs, but smokeless tobacco exposes users to some of the same potent carcinogens as cigarettes.

11 Aug 2007

FGFR4 gene plays a complex role in obesity, fatty liver and diabetes

Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Houston have found that a gene in the liver and elsewhere in the body, when inhibited or increased, affects fatty liver and diabetes but does not alleviate both diseases at once.

11 Aug 2007

The skeleton is an endocrine organ

Bones are typically thought of as calcified, inert structures, but researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have now identified a surprising and critically important novel function of the skeleton.

11 Aug 2007

Sex steroids, platelet aggregation and inflammation

In women, hormone therapy is a risk factor for venous thrombosis, a blood clot forming deep inside the vein. Despite the fact that the disorder is rare, it increases exponentially during menopause and can be deadly.

11 Aug 2007