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Wake-up call to physicians caring for hepatitis B patients

Many patients with chronic hepatitis B are deficient in their understanding of the lifelong disease and often do not comply with the drug regimens necessary to control it, according to a new UCLA survey that suggests improved patient involvement in disease management decisions could be the key to fixing this problem.

28 May 2007

Co-infection of HIV and HCV a significant health concern due to increasing prevalence

Researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) have found that persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), who also have alcohol problems, were negatively affected by co-infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

28 May 2007

New gene therapy can nearly eliminate arthritis pain

Early-stage research has found that a new gene therapy can nearly eliminate arthritis pain, and significantly reduce long-term damage to the affected joints, according to a study published today in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

28 May 2007

Why music sound right to our ears!

The use of 12 tone intervals in the music of many human cultures is rooted in the physics of how our vocal anatomy produces speech, according to researchers at the Duke University Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.

28 May 2007

Researchers identify a function of neuregulin1 - impact on schizophrenia

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers have identified a function of neuregulin1 (NRG1), a gene previously linked to schizophrenia but whose role in the disease was unknown.

28 May 2007

Smokers who have a say in how they quit are more likely to try kicking the habit

Rochester researcher Dr. Geoffrey Williams associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, will unveil new findings at a Toronto conference this month that demonstrate patient involvement in a quit plan leads to smokers who are more motivated to quit because they genuinely want to, not because they are being nagged or bullied.

28 May 2007

Detailed portrait of 700 proteins that help maintain DNA integrity

Cells have the remarkable ability to keep track of their genetic contents and -- when things go wrong, to step in and repair the damage before cancer or another life-threatening condition develops.

28 May 2007

Researchers engineer adult stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood to produce insulin

The researchers announced their laboratory finding, which caps nearly four years of research, in the June 2007 issue of the medical journal Cell Proliferation, posted online this week.

28 May 2007

Researchers observe brain cell development in real time

For the first time anywhere, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has succeeded in observing in vivo the generation of neurons in the brain of a mammal.

28 May 2007

Link between mild infection and hypoxic apnoea

Apnoea and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) represent major medical concerns in the neonatal population, and infection may play a crucial role in their pathogenesis.

28 May 2007

Genome detectives discover four more breast cancer genes

An international team of scientists say they have identified another four genes that increase a woman's likelihood of developing breast cancer.

28 May 2007

Tracing the path of depression

David Nutt, Professor of Psychopharmacology, said: "The development of one of these radioactive tracers to enable the study of noradrenaline and its related processes in those suffering depression is critical to our proper understanding of this disease.

27 May 2007

Restrictive drinking culture at work curbs an individual's overall alcohol intake

The researchers base their findings on a detailed analysis of workplace attitudes towards drinking and drinking behaviours in over 5,000 employees in 16 different organisations, representing a range of different sectors.

24 May 2007

Vacuum cleaners and allergy avoidance

This is particularly true of worn carpets where the study results indicate vacuum cleaning may in fact change the distribution of dust mite allergen within the carpet, rather than removing allergen from all depths equally.

24 May 2007

MicroRNAs may increase cancer susceptibility

New evidence indicates that small pieces of noncoding genetic material known as microRNAs (miRNAs) might influence cancer susceptibility.

24 May 2007

High-fat and sugar-sweetened diet compounded by a sedentary lifestyle will have severe health repercussions

It's research that may have you thinking twice before upgrading to the large size at your favorite fast food joint.

24 May 2007

Researchers find alteration in gene associated with uterine cancer

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today announced the discovery of previously unrecognized alterations in a gene called FGFR2 in a subset of endometrial cancers, the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States.

24 May 2007

Stem cells may look malignant, not act it

Call it the cellular equivalent of big glasses, a funny nose and a fake mustache.

24 May 2007

Some cancers linked to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields

The researchers opted to study this group, because railway workers in Switzerland tend to change jobs infrequently and are exposed to much higher levels of electromagnetic field radiation than the general population.

24 May 2007

Sexual orientation has a real effect on how we perform mental tasks

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that sexual orientation has a real effect on how we perform mental tasks such as navigating with a map in a car but that old age does not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation and withers all men's minds alike just ahead of women's.

24 May 2007