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Cannabis-derived medicines may help Alzheimer's

Cannabis-derived medicines may one day be used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease which affects 417,000 people in the UK.

10 Mar 2008

Clearer understanding on how allergy symptoms are triggered

A team of Penn State University researchers is the first to demonstrate that lipid molecules in cell membranes participate in mammals' reactions to allergens in a living cell.

10 Mar 2008

Integrin beta3 protein yields clues to autism

Many children with autism have elevated blood levels of serotonin - a chemical with strong links to mood and anxiety.

6 Mar 2008

Curing cancer with natural products - a case for shamans and herb women?

Not at all, for many chemotherapies to fight cancer applied in modern medicine are natural products or were developed on the basis of natural substances. Thus, taxanes used in prostate and breast cancer treatment are made from yew trees. The popular periwinkle plant, which grows along the ground of many front yards, is the source of vinca alkaloids that are effective, for example, against malignant lymphomas. The modern anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan are derived from a constituent of the Chinese Happy Tree.

6 Mar 2008

Predictors for sickle-cell-anemia complications

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that the level, or saturation, of oxygen in blood could be used to identify children with sickle cell anemia who are at an increased risk of stroke.

6 Mar 2008

Researchers discover molecular pathway in blood vessels that controls blood pressure and vascular function

University of Iowa researchers have identified a molecular pathway in blood vessels that controls blood pressure and vascular function and may help explain why certain drugs for type II diabetes also appear to lower patients' blood pressure.

6 Mar 2008

New potential drug target for atherosclerosis

A nuclear receptor protein, known for controlling the ability of cells to burn fat, also exerts powerful anti-inflammatory effects in arteries, suppressing atherosclerosis in mice prone to developing the harmful plaques, according to new research by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Harvard School of Public Health.

6 Mar 2008

Discovery of gene abnormality that causes the fatal paralysis, motor neuron disease

In a world first, University of Sydney researchers from the ANZAC Research Institute at Concord Hospital, in collaboration with colleagues at Kings College London, have found a new gene abnormality that causes the fatal paralysis, motor neuron disease (MND).

6 Mar 2008

Molecular alliance that sustains embryonic stem cell state

One of the four ingredients in the genetic recipe that scientists in Japan and the U.S. followed last year to persuade human skin cells to revert to an embryonic stem cell state, is dispensable in ES cells, thanks to the presence of a molecular alliance between a specific group of key proteins known as transcription factors, a research team led by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) reports in the current issue of Nature Cell Biology.

6 Mar 2008

Neural progenitor cells as reservoirs for HIV in the brain

Impaired brain function is a prominent and still unsolved problem in AIDS.

6 Mar 2008

Happiness in life and your genes

Happiness in life is as much down to having the right genetic mix as it is to personal circumstances according to a recent study.

6 Mar 2008

Genetic mutations involved in IGF-I signaling pathway influence life span

Mutations in genes governing an important cell-signaling pathway influence human longevity, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found.

6 Mar 2008

Protein within neurons in the amygdala controls development of alcohol withdrawal symptoms and drinking behaviors

Doctors may one day be able to control alcohol addiction by manipulating the molecular events in the brain that underlie anxiety associated with alcohol withdrawal, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center report in the March 5 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

6 Mar 2008

Research in diabetes surgery suggests origins of disease

Growing evidence shows that surgery may effectively cure Type 2 diabetes -- an approach that not only may change the way the disease is treated, but that introduces a new way of thinking about diabetes.

5 Mar 2008

UK researchers look to improve treatment for lung cancer patients

Doctors from around the UK are taking part in one of the world's largest lung cancer clinical trials investigating how a blood thinning drug might help prevent blood clots in lung cancer patients.

5 Mar 2008

Best sex lasts for seven to thirteen minutes

According to sex experts the best sex lasts for between seven and thirteen minutes and even a three minute quickie can be satisfying.

5 Mar 2008

Broccoli and Brussels sprouts protect against bladder cancer

An international team of researchers has found that vegetables from the cabbage family, such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and watercress, can protect against bladder cancer.

5 Mar 2008

Drinking black tea might help combat type 2 diabetes

In an unexpected discovery Scottish scientists have found that black tea may help combat type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

5 Mar 2008

Cigarette smoke prevents stem cells from becoming cartilage

A toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke, and may represent a second way in which smoking delays bone healing, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society in San Francisco.

4 Mar 2008