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Research suggests protein released from lungs could initiate labour

A protein released from the lungs of a developing mouse fetus initiates a cascade of chemical events leading to the mother's initiation of labor, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found.

22 Mar 2004

Risk of kidney stones increases higher if overweight

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found that the more overweight a person is the more at risk he or she is for forming uric acid kidney stones.

22 Mar 2004

Enzyme Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), New Approach to Drug Design

French and American researchers have developed a unique approach to drug design where an important neuron-signaling enzyme called acetylcholinesterase (AChE) acts as a microscopic vessel filled with reactant chemicals, to create its own, tailored therapeutic agent.

22 Mar 2004

Researchers discover new form of the Rett syndrome protein

Adrian Bird and Skirmantas Kriaucionis of the University of Edinburgh have discovered a novel form of the protein MeCP2. This alternate form, coined MeCP2 alpha, differs from the original only in the first 19 amino acids. Interestingly, Adrian Bird, Director of the Welcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at Edinburgh University, found that MeCP2 alpha, is ten times more prevalent not only in the brain but also in other tissues. These findings are currently reported online in Nucleic Acids Research. Similar findings were reported yesterday in Nature Genetics online by Berge Minassian, a neurologist and scientist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

22 Mar 2004

Clinical study - Diagnostic testing for epilepsy released

Bionomics Limited announced today the publication of its international clinical study involving patients with a form of epilepsy confined to early childhood in the scientific journal, Annals of Neurology. The publication details genes associated with a condition known as Benign Familial Neonatal Infantile Spasms (BFNIS), a condition in which infants experience seizures in the first few months of their life.

22 Mar 2004

Scientists identify genetic changes during infection by tuberculosis

Researchers at the Center for Biomedical Inventions at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have identified the genetic changes that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, undergoes during infection of a living host.

22 Mar 2004

Plasticiser Phthalates connected with rising infertility rates

Phthalates, largely used as plasticisers, have long been suspected in connection with rising infertility rates, particularly among men. These substances are quite common and are considered highly hazardous to human health because they disrupt the hormonal balance and impair reproduction and development. What has not been clear up to now is the amount of phthalates that enter the human body.

22 Mar 2004

Study suggests cigarette smoking increases likelihood of death by prostate cancer

Although cure rates for prostate cancer patients who smoke cigarettes are about the same as patients who do not smoke, researchers have found that smokers were more likely to die of other causes than non-smokers, according to a new study in the March 15, 2004, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

22 Mar 2004

The placebo effect, study suggest pain management is possible

A Columbia professor has uncovered fresh evidence of the existence of the often-debated placebo effect. Even the professor himself, Tor D. Wager, of the Department of Psychology, was surprised by his team's findings. The study showed that the human brain processes pain differently when people believe that they have been given a pain-relieving skin cream. Wager, lead author of the study, defines "placebo" as a treatment that has no direct pharmacological effect and that may influence one's experience and physiology through one's beliefs.

22 Mar 2004

New research may help treatment of Norrie disease and familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR)

Researchers have discovered that genetic mutations underlying two inherited eye disorders arise in different components of a single intracellular signaling pathway that is responsible for development of blood vessels in the eye.

22 Mar 2004

New pill for post-traumatic stress disorder

Every day, people suffer traumatic experiences that scar their minds. Combat, rape, bombings, burns, beatings, and horrific car accidents haunt them with memories impossible to suppress. Such day- and nightmares are part of a problem known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

22 Mar 2004

Liverpool scientist presents chronic illness study to House of Commons

A social scientist from the University of Liverpool has visited the House of Commons to present preliminary findings of an innovative research project to MPs.

22 Mar 2004

Chemotherapy offers new hope for pancreatic cancer patients

Chemotherapy after surgery more than doubles survival rates for pancreatic cancer according to new research published today (18 March 2004) in the New England Journal of Medicine. Scientists from the University of Birmingham and the University of Liverpool have carried out a Europe wide study of more than 280 patients over 10 years.

22 Mar 2004

Breast feeding increases choline which means more brain cells

Five years ago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers first reported finding that the nutrient choline played a critical role in memory and brain function by positively affecting the brain’s physical development. Differences in development influenced action, the scientists and their colleagues found. In animal experiments conducted at Duke University, both young and old rats performed significantly better on memory tasks if they received enough choline before birth compared with same-age rats whose mothers were fed choline-deficient diets. The latter showed deficits in the hippocampus and septums of their brains.

22 Mar 2004

Pfizer breast cancer drug looks to be best in field

A breast cancer drug made by Pfizer Inc. increased survival rates by 63 percent compared with the standard therapy tamoxifen, researchers said on Wednesday. The clinical trial strengthens the case for administering the newer drug, exemestane, as a first option. A study published last week showed that women recovering from breast cancer lowered their chance of developing another tumor by 32 percent if they switched to exemestane after two or three years of tamoxifen treatment.

22 Mar 2004

New research may help prevent anthrax, bubonic plague and typhoid fever

The mechanism used by the bacteria that cause anthrax, bubonic plague and typhoid fever to avoid detection and destruction by the body’s normal immune response, leading to life-threatening bacterial infections, has been identified by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

22 Mar 2004

Research provides better understanding of lipodystrophies disorders

More than a decade of work conducted by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers has led to a better understanding of the underlying causes of lipodystrophies - disorders characterized by the selective loss of fat tissues, resulting in metabolic complications, such as severe diabetes and high blood cholesterol levels.

22 Mar 2004

Asian poison ivy like plant may stop prostate cancer

The croton plant, long known to oriental herbalists and homeopaths as a purgative, has an oil in its seeds that shows promise for the treatment of prostate cancer – the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. The active ingredient in the oil is 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate, a compound generally known as TPA.

22 Mar 2004

Atrix Signs Feasibility Agreement for Development of Two New Compounds

Atrix Laboratories, Inc. has announced today that the company has signed a limited feasibility agreement with Aventis SA (NYSE: AVE) to begin preliminary research on two proprietary Aventis compounds formulated in Atrix's delivery technology, Atrigel®. The current agreement is specific for these compounds in an undisclosed therapeutic area.

22 Mar 2004

Supercomputer to help the diagnosis of epilepsy, stroke, depression and other brain conditions

The University of Oregon, Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI), and IBM have announced a new project that uses grid computing, Linux and IBM supercomputer technology to speed and improve the diagnosis of Epilepsy, stroke, depression and other brain conditions.

22 Mar 2004