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Research finding could lead to new therapeutic target for treating hypertension in males

Higher levels of a "danger" molecule may be one reason males tend to become hypertensive earlier and more severely than females, scientists say.

16 Feb 2015

Study lays groundwork for building consensus on successful aging

Scholars have long debated what successful aging is, how to measure it, and how to promote it. But the latest issue of The Gerontologist lays the groundwork for building consensus on the topic -- while pointing out that the answer may differ among academics and the general public, as well as across populations and demographic groups.

16 Feb 2015

R. Bryan Miller Symposium to spotlight special focus on rare disease research

The University of California, Davis Department of Chemistry will spotlight a special focus on rare disease research with this year's 15th annual R. Bryan Miller Symposium. Experts in rare diseases will gather at the UC Davis Conference Center March 5 for a conference highlighting the opportunities and challenges in applying cutting edge technologies and "precision medicine" to better treat conditions that together affect millions of people, especially children.

16 Feb 2015

Study shows that plant-based vegan diet may lower heart disease risk in obese children

Obese children who begin a low-fat, plant-based vegan diet may lower their risk of heart disease through improvements in their weight, blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol levels, insulin sensitivity, and high-sensitivity C-reactive, according to Cleveland Clinic research published online today by The Journal of Pediatrics.

16 Feb 2015

Researchers develop novel strategy in fight against cancer

A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Caroline Lee from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, in collaboration with Associate Professor Song Jianxing of the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science, has developed a novel strategy in the fight against cancer.

15 Feb 2015

Scientists find seven new genes that can cause X-linked intellectual disability

X-linked intellectual disability is a disorder that predominantly affects men and can have highly variable clinical manifestations. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have found seven new genes that can cause this genetic disease: Mutations of these genes on the X chromosome lead to various forms of intellectual disability.

15 Feb 2015

Door-to-door campaing encourages people to get tested for hepatitis C and to get linked to care

In Philadelphia, as in many cities, neighborhoods with high rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) often also have limited access to screening and treatment. A new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine shows that when expert advocates made a focused effort in a medically underserved area, they were able to help vulnerable patients leap each of the many hurdles that often keep people out of care.

15 Feb 2015

New technology can help identify patients at risk of second stroke

Risk of recurrent stroke is higher in patients who have low blood flow to the back of the brain, a six-year, multi-center trial has found, and the condition can be visualized using specialized software developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago that analyzes blood flow using standard MRI.

15 Feb 2015

Cervarix effective against other common cancer-causing HPVs

According to a multinational clinical trial involving nearly 20,000 young women, the human papilloma virus vaccine, Cervarix, not only has the potential to prevent cervical cancer, but was effective against other common cancer-causing human papillomaviruses, aside from just the two HPV types, 16 and 18, which are responsible for about 70 percent of all cases.

15 Feb 2015

Researcher uses Gene Rank technique to capture, describe gene connectivity

Using the technique known as "Gene Rank" (GR), Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center investigator Eugene Demidenko, PhD, captured and described a new characterization of gene connectivity in "Microarray Enriched Gene Rank," published in BioData Mining. The effective computer algorithm can be used to compare tissues across or within organisms at great speed with a simple laptop computer.

15 Feb 2015

Study finds link between type 2 diabetes and reduction of certain cognitive abilities

Type 2 diabetes is associated with worse performance on cognitive tests measuring abilities involved in the control of emotions, behaviours and thought, says a new study from the University of Waterloo.

15 Feb 2015

Study: Ebola transmission from deceased patients may be possible

To determine how long Ebola virus could remain infectious in a body after death, National Institutes of Health scientists sampled deceased Ebola-infected monkeys and discovered the virus remained viable for at least seven days. They also detected non-infectious viral RNA for up to 70 days post-mortem. The study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, suggests that Ebola transmission from deceased individuals may be possible for an extended period of time following death, underscoring the importance of using safe practices for handling corpses.

15 Feb 2015

Researchers identify two cell-signaling molecules that appear critical to stalling cancer's spread

In what is believed to be the largest epigenetic analysis to date of cell-signaling molecules in early-stage melanoma, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center have identified two tiny bits of non-coding genetic material in primary tumors that appear critical to stalling the cancer's spread -- and essentially setting the biological fate of the disease.

15 Feb 2015

New Penn Medicine study reveals how sleep deprivation increases intake of fat

Experts have warned for years that insufficient sleep can lead to weight gain. A new Penn Medicine study found that not only do we consume more food following a night of total sleep deprivation, but we also we consume more fat and less carbohydrates and a region of the brain known as the salience network is what may lead us to eat more fat.

15 Feb 2015