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Amazon jungle plant compound blocks tissue destruction

Scientists at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine have published in the Journal of Inflammation a remarkable discovery with a natural product derived from the Amazon rainforest.

24 Oct 2007

Public access policy for NIH-funded research set to become law

The U.S. Senate last night approved the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill (S.1710), including a provision that directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen its Public Access Policy by requiring rather than requesting participation by researchers.

24 Oct 2007

Potential new ways to treat ulcers

The alarming truth is more than 14.5 million people suffer from ulcers worldwide due to factors such as stress and the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).

24 Oct 2007

Increased intestinal permeability by exogenous sphingomyelinase

Many signaling molecules involved in the pathogenesis of IBD, such as TNF or IFN, infections with bacteria or viruses and ionizing radiation, may cause an alteration of the lipid composition in the cell membrane by activation of sphingomyelinases (SMases).

24 Oct 2007

Sounds can alter how masculine or feminine a person looks

Think about the confused feelings that occur when you meet someone whose tone of voice doesn't seem to quite fit with his or her gender.

24 Oct 2007

New understanding of vagus nerve's role in regulating inflammation

It used to be dogma that the brain was shut away from the actions of the immune system, shielded from the outside forces of nature.

24 Oct 2007

Canadians would welcome HPV vaccine if it were free

Canadians would welcome a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) if it were introduced at no charge, a Quebec, Canada survey suggests.

24 Oct 2007

Video game reduces production of stress-related hormone cortisol

A video game designed by McGill University researchers to help train people to change their perception of social threats and boost their self-confidence has now been shown to reduce the production of the stress-related hormone cortisol.

24 Oct 2007

Darkness increases the impact of social stress

Just in time for Halloween, researchers are releasing new data that show darkness increases the impact of social stress, in an article scheduled for publication in the November 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry.

24 Oct 2007

Novel strategy to inactivate Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

A collaborative team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have developed a novel strategy to inactivate highly virulent Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) that can infect and kill both animals and humans.

24 Oct 2007

Legionnaire's bacterial proteins work together to survive

Proteins within the bacteria that cause Legionnaire's disease can kidnap their own molecular "coffin" and carry it to a safe place within the cell, ensuring their survival, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in Nature Wednesday.

24 Oct 2007

Field mammalogy declining under financial pressures

Field research has traditionally been a fundamental training element for Mammalogists; however social, institutional and bureaucratic changes that have accelerated over the past decade are threatening the ability of Mammalogists to conduct fieldwork and train the next generation.

24 Oct 2007

Firing clay in unvented kilns could be a significant source of dioxins

The results came out of follow-up interviews with subjects who participated in the University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study, which measured dioxin levels in residents in Midland and the Tittabawassee River flood plain between Midland and Saginaw.

24 Oct 2007

Exercise and counseling could ease cancer-related fatigue

Cancer patients suffering from symptoms of fatigue might find some relief through regular exercise and psychological counseling to deal with stress, according to a new review.

24 Oct 2007

Contamination from depleted uranium found in urine 20 years later

Inhaled depleted uranium (DU) oxide aerosols are recognised as a distinct human health hazard and DU has been suggested to be responsible in part for illness in both military and civilian populations that may have been exposed.

24 Oct 2007

Hate those greens?....could be in your genes!

Scientists in the UK are suggesting that food preferences may all be the result of a person's DNA.

24 Oct 2007

Influence of poverty upon health in PLoS Medicine

Everything published by PLoS Medicine is Open Access: freely available for anyone to read, download, redistribute and otherwise use, as long as the authorship is properly attributed.

23 Oct 2007

Advances in drug screening

With the discovery of suitable molecular targets - cellular molecules along pathways crucial for sustaining the life of cancer cells - comes the perplexing dilemma of where to find the next therapeutics that will bind to and disable those targets.

23 Oct 2007

Cellular power plant fault explains abnormal metabolism of tumours

The increased consumption of glucose that tumour cells exhibit, was thought to be a cause of the extra demand of building blocks required to keep up with an uncontrolled cell growth, but now it is more accepted that it could be the effect of a programmed metabolic change that favours this malignant growth.

23 Oct 2007