Medical Research News

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Could senna improve the quality of colonoscopy preparation with magnesium citrate?

Inadequate cleansing of the colon has an adverse effect on procedure time, safety, completion rate and diagnostic accuracy.

20 Apr 2009

Coffee, caffeine and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that damages key neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

20 Apr 2009

Brain metastases hijack neuron-supporting cells to resist chemotherapy

Cancer that spreads to other organs finds a particularly inviting hideout in the brain, where these metastases are usually far harder to treat than they are in other locations.

20 Apr 2009

Computational model examines the pathways of Alzheimer's that strikes at the young

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a tragic disease that robs an individual of their memory and mental capacity.

20 Apr 2009

Thymoquinone inhibits the development of pancreatic cancer

An herb recently found to kill pancreatic cancer cells also appears to inhibit development of pancreatic cancer as a result of its anti-inflammatory properties, according to researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson.

20 Apr 2009

Addition of dasatinib to standard chemo cocktail may enhance effect in certain ovarian cancers

The addition of a chemotherapeutic drug for leukemia to a standard regimen of two other chemotherapy drugs appears to enhance the response of certain ovarian cancers to treatment, according to a pre-clinical study led by researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

20 Apr 2009

A potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common malignancy and the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death in the world.

20 Apr 2009

Novel method of isolating high quality RNA from Kupffer cells

Kupffer cells, resident tissue macrophages that line the liver sinusoids, play a key role in modulating inflammation in a number of experimental models of liver injury.

20 Apr 2009

Cooked tomatoes may be healthier than raw ones

According to scientists in New Zealand, eating a raw tomato may not be the best way to access it s healthy antioxidants - they say a mere 4% of the antioxidant lycopene is released from raw tomatoes.

20 Apr 2009

Jet lag disrupts sleep by throwing two neural centers out of sync

New research by scientists in the U.S. has revealed that the disrupted sleep which results from jet lag and shift work occurs in two separate but linked groups of neurons below the hypothalamus at the base of the brain.

19 Apr 2009

Scientists uncover secrets of salmonella's stealth attack

A single crafty protein allows the deadly bacterium Salmonella enterica to both invade cells lining the intestine and hijack cellular functions to avoid destruction, Yale researchers report in the April 17 issue of the journal Cell.

16 Apr 2009

When every photon counts: unusual cell nuclei help nocturnal animals see better

The eyes of nocturnal mammals have very large numbers of highly-sensitive rod photoreceptors (the cell type responsible for night vision).

16 Apr 2009

Move over, Y chromosome - it's time X got some attention

In the first evolutionary study of the chromosome associated with being female, University of California, Berkeley, biologist Doris Bachtrog and her colleagues show that the history of the X chromosome is every bit as interesting as the much-studied, male-determining Y chromosome, and offers important clues to the origins and benefits of sexual reproduction.

16 Apr 2009

Survival mode that protects cells when oxygen is low also slows aging

A biochemical pathway that helps keep cells alive when oxygen is low also plays a role in longevity and resistance against some diseases of old age, according to a report to be published April 16 in the journal Science.

16 Apr 2009

Disruption of copper regulation key to prion diseases

An investigation of a rare, inherited form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease suggests that disrupted regulation of copper ions in the brain may be a key factor in this and other prion diseases.

16 Apr 2009

Neighborhood environments and physical activity among adults

People who live in city neighborhoods close to stores, transit stops, sidewalks, bicycle and low-cost recreational facilities are twice as likely to get enough exercise as people who have no access to these amenities - and this holds true worldwide.

16 Apr 2009

Shedding some light on Parkinson's treatment

A research team lead by Karl Deisseroth in the bioengineering department at Stanford University has developed a technique to systematically characterize disease circuits in the brain.

16 Apr 2009

Nanoparticles combined with scorpion venom slow spread of brain cancer

By combining nanoparticles with a scorpion venom compound already being investigated for treating brain cancer, University of Washington researchers found they could cut the spread of cancerous cells by 98 percent, compared to 45 percent for the scorpion venom alone.

16 Apr 2009