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Researchers find stress can delay pregnancy and double risk of infertility

Having difficulty getting pregnant can be an incredibly stressful experience for any couple. Now, for the first time, researchers have data that suggests preconception stress might play a role in infertility.

24 Mar 2014

Scientists develop unique cells to repair patient's defective and diseased bladder

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in coaxing laboratory cultures of human stem cells to develop into the specialized, unique cells needed to repair a patient's defective or diseased bladder.

24 Mar 2014

Investigators find group of drugs to treat heart attacks and cancer metastasis

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators may have found a way to solve a problem that has plagued a group of drugs called ligand-mimicking integrin inhibitors, which have the potential to treat conditions ranging from heart attacks to cancer metastasis.

24 Mar 2014

Rare abnormality in chromosomes increases risk of rare childhood leukaemia

Researchers have found that people born with a rare abnormality of their chromosomes have a 2,700-fold increased risk of a rare childhood leukaemia. In this abnormality, two specific chromosomes are fused together but become prone to catastrophic shattering.

24 Mar 2014

Bariatric surgery reduces uterine cancer risk by 71%

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center report that bariatric surgery resulting in dramatic weight loss in formerly severely obese women reduces the risk of endometrial (uterine) cancer by 71 percent and as much as 81 percent if normal weight is maintained after surgery.

24 Mar 2014

Researchers uncover cause of rare type of ovarian cancer that strikes girls and young women

The cause of a rare type of ovarian cancer that most often strikes girls and young women has been uncovered by an international research team led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute, according to a study published online today by the renowned scientific journal, Nature Genetics.

23 Mar 2014

First contact with psychiatric specialists hastens schizophrenia treatment

Patients with first-onset psychosis wait less time for treatment if they visit emergency clinics staffed by specialist psychiatric teams than their counterparts who access healthcare in community settings, report researchers.

21 Mar 2014

Six dimensions explain mania symptom variability

Researchers have identified a six-factor latent structure that they say best describes the symptomatology of hospitalized patients with bipolar mania.

21 Mar 2014

15 mm margins cut NSCLC local recurrence risk after wedge resection

Increasing margin distance up to 15 mm significantly decreases the risk of local recurrence among patients undergoing wedge resection for early-stage, non-small-cell lung cancer, US researchers report.

21 Mar 2014

Lung cancer spread ‘uncommon’ outside of tumour-bearing segment

Lung cancer does not often spread to areas outside of the tumour-bearing segment of the lung when there is no evidence of extrapulmonary nodal metastasis, the tumour is small and peripheral or it has ground glass opacity, study findings show.

21 Mar 2014

Scientists produce antibiotic whose biological activity can be controlled with light

Scientists of the KIT and the University of Kiev have produced an antibiotic, whose biological activity can be controlled with light. Thanks to the robust diarylethene photoswitch, the antimicrobial effect of the peptide mimetic can be applied in a spatially and temporally specific manner.

21 Mar 2014

WTC first responders at higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea, PTSD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers have linked high levels of exposure to inhaled particulate matter by first responders at Ground Zero to the risk of obstructed sleep apnea and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), both conditions that may impact cardiovascular health.

21 Mar 2014

Treat or eat: Many people forced to choose between food or medicine

Chronically ill adults who reported food insecurity in their household (not having consistent access to food due to lack of financial stability) were significantly more likely to report cost-related medication underuse, according to a new study in The American Journal of Medicine,. The term cost-related medication underuse refers to taking less medication than prescribed, or not taking it at all due to financial concerns.

21 Mar 2014

Scientists explore link between SCN10A and cardiac arrhythmia risk

Although genome-wide association studies have linked DNA variants in the gene SCN10A with increased risk for cardiac arrhythmia, efforts to determine the gene's direct influence on the heart's electrical activity have been unproductive. Now, scientists from the University of Chicago have discovered that these SCN10A variants regulate the function of a different gene, SCN5A, which appears to be the primary gene responsible for cardiac arrhythmia risk.

21 Mar 2014

ZL105 drug could potentially replace currently used anticancer drugs, study finds

A revolution in cancer treatment could soon be underway following a breakthrough that may lead to a dramatic improvement in cancer survival rates.

21 Mar 2014

Scientists unlock one of mysteries of modern genetics

Scientists at Indiana University have unlocked one of the mysteries of modern genetics: how acquired traits can be passed between generations in a process called epigenetic inheritance. The new work finds that cells don't know to silence some genes based on information hardwired into their DNA sequences, but recognize heritable chemical marks that are added to the genes. These chemical tags serve as a form of molecular memory, allowing cells to recognize the genes and remember to silence them again in each new generation.

21 Mar 2014

Misplaced protein provides promising drug target for kidney cancer

The shortage of oxygen, or hypoxia, created when rapidly multiplying kidney cancer cells outgrow their local blood supply can accelerate tumor growth by causing a nuclear protein called SPOP-which normally suppresses tumor growth-to move out of the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where it has the opposite effect, promoting rapid proliferation.

21 Mar 2014

Researchers find immune receptor for uric acid crystals

The surface of immune system cells is home to a number of receptors which are able to detect pathogens. As soon as these receptors are activated, inflammation occurs and the body's defense mechanisms kick in. Immune cells also have receptors that regulate or even suppress immunological responses to prevent damage to individual cells.

21 Mar 2014

Researchers identify steps by which cell removes RNA from cytoplasm

RNA encodes the proteins that play a key role in cellular reproduction, but the manner in which cells regulate its removal once these proteins are synthesized remains a mystery. One piece of this mystery has been solved as researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who have identified the steps by which a cell removes RNA from the cytoplasm.

21 Mar 2014

Tooth loss associated with depression and anxiety, study finds

Today, at the 43rd Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental Research, held in conjunction with the 38th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, R. Constance Wiener, from West Virginia University, Morgantown, will present a research study titled "Association of Tooth Loss and Depression and Anxiety."

21 Mar 2014