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A road map to safer pain control, cost savings during colonoscopies

At a time when several U.S. health insurers have discontinued payment for use of the sedative propofol during most screening colonoscopies, physicians at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that an alternative way to administer the drug could both save millions of health care dollars and provide a safer way to deliver optimal pain relief.

12 Mar 2008

Switch for programmed cell death promotes spread of glioblastoma

Malignant tumors have usually lost their ability to destroy themselves by programmed cell death, or apoptosis.

12 Mar 2008

Blood test for Parkinson's shows promise

A test that profiles molecular biomarkers in blood could become the first accurate diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease, new research shows.

12 Mar 2008

Scientists discover epigenetic changes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Scientists have discovered epigenetic changes (i.e. chemical changes to a gene that do not alter the DNA sequence) in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

12 Mar 2008

COX-2 expression is marker for cancer development in some benign breast biopsies

It's a good news, bad news situation. Some women who have a breast biopsy are told that while they don't have cancer, they do have atypical hyperplasia -- cells that aren't quite normal and might become cancerous someday.

12 Mar 2008

Scientists identify key protein in cell's 'self-eating' function

Molecular biologists at the University of California, San Diego have found one piece of the complex puzzle of autophagy, the process of "self-eating" performed by all eukaryotic cells - cells with a nucleus - to keep themselves healthy.

12 Mar 2008

Simple blood test could show whether an antidepressant is working

Researchers in the United States have discovered that a single protein in the brain changes its location within a cell membrane when an antidepressant is working.

11 Mar 2008

Weight-loss more effective than intensive insulin therapy for type 2 diabetics, according to expert

Weight-loss and major lifestyle changes may be more effective than intensive insulin therapy for overweight patients with poorly controlled, insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes, according to a diabetes researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

11 Mar 2008

Structure reveals how cells 'sugar-coat' proteins - process essential to many proteins' functions can lead to disease when gone awry

Biologists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, and the University of Wurzburg, Germany, have deciphered the structure of a large protein complex responsible for adding sugar molecules to newly formed proteins - a process essential to many proteins' functions.

11 Mar 2008

Scientists characterizes novel regulator of chromosome function

The Stowers Institute's Workman Lab has shed new light on a novel histone acetyltransferase protein complex called ATAC.

11 Mar 2008

Virtual reality therapy for stroke patients

Israeli hospitals have recently started to use virtual reality therapy for stroke patients.

11 Mar 2008

Discovery of new protein family that may play an important role in preventing inflammatory diseases

A University of Central Florida research team has discovered a new protein family that may play an important role in preventing inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, some forms of cancer and even heart disease.

11 Mar 2008

Potential new gene therapy strategy for muscle-wasting diseases

Investigators in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital have identified the role of a protein that could potentially lead to new clinical treatments to combat musculoskeletal diseases, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

11 Mar 2008

Mouse model for human malignant mesothelioma

Scientists have established a mouse model for human malignant mesothelioma (MM) that will provide valuable insight into cancer development and progression along with new directions for design of therapeutic strategies.

11 Mar 2008

Cell therapy for rejuvenating aged brain by injection of human umbilical cord blood

When human umbilical cord blood cells (UCBC) were injected into aged laboratory animals, researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) found improvements in the microenvironment of the hippocampus region of the animals' brains and a subsequent rejuvenation of neural stem/progenitor cells.

11 Mar 2008