Receptor News and Research

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Effective treatment of smell loss with theophylline

Despite the fact that millions of Americans are believed to have lost their sense of smell (hyposmia), no effective method exists to treat many of these people.

8 Apr 2008

Caffeine prevents multiple sclerosis-like disease in mice

Mice given caffeine equivalent to a human drinking six to eight cups of coffee a day were protected from developing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model for the human disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS), according to researchers at Cornell University.

8 Apr 2008

Synthetic molecules may be less expensive alternative to therapeutic antibodies

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a simple and inexpensive method to screen small synthetic molecules and pull out a handful that might treat cancer and other diseases less expensively than current methods.

7 Apr 2008

Rare genetic syndrome may hold key to cure for heat stroke

A genetic disorder that can cause a fatal rise in body temperature in some patients undergoing general anesthesia may hold the key to a cure for heat stroke, according to research published in the April 4 edition of the journal Cell.

4 Apr 2008

Human breast tumors' 'microenvironment' primes them for metastasis

The environment within primary breast tumors can "empower" cells that break free and enter the bloodstream to successfully invade other organs, researchers report in the April 4th Cell, a publication of Cell Press.

4 Apr 2008

Alcohol alters prefrontal cortex activity through ion channel disruption

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) region of the brain is involved in decision making. New rodent findings show that PFC neuron N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors are especially sensitive to concentrations of alcohol achieved during drinking.

4 Apr 2008

Mouse calls help search for emotion-controlling genes

Scientists have long known that emotions and other personality traits and disorders run together in families.

3 Apr 2008

Genetic variations raise lung cancer risk for smokers and ex-smokers

Two common inherited genetic variations are associated with increased risk of lung cancer for smokers and former smokers, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports April 2 in the online edition of Nature Genetics.

3 Apr 2008

Genetic mutations tied to immune comeback during therapy for HIV-1

Researchers with the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program (IDCRP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) here and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have published a patient outcome study in the March 30 online edition of Nature Medicine that may signal a need for a change of thought in the management of HIV.

3 Apr 2008

Link between variant in the sequence of the human genome and susceptibility to nicotine dependence

Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem that contributes to millions of deaths around the world each year.

3 Apr 2008

Molecular evolution of influenza A viruses circulated in Fujian Province, China

Fujian Center for Disease Control & Prevention, China, reported the molecular evolution of influenza A (H3N2) viruses in Fujian Province, south of China during the period 1996 to 2004 and demonstrated some key codons responsible for antigenic drift.

2 Apr 2008

Rimonabant shows mixed results for slowing progression of coronary disease

The anti-obesity medication rimonabant showed mixed results in slowing progression of coronary artery disease in patients with abdominal obesity and pre-existing coronary disease, according to a new study in the April 2 issue of JAMA.

2 Apr 2008

Chemotherapy-induced anemia increases risk of local breast cancer recurrence

Patients with breast cancer who developed anemia during chemotherapy had nearly three times the risk of local recurrence as those who did not, according to a study published in the April 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research¸ a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

2 Apr 2008