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Possible toxic damage from inhaled nanoparticles

A physicist and a medical researcher at the University of Leicester have received a grant of £100,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to look at possible toxic damage from inhaled nanoparticles used for a range of everyday purposes.

27 Oct 2005

Rate of weight gain, not the degree of fatness at any one time, which is the main predictor of future problems

Research published today indicates that the risk of heart disease in adulthood is more strongly related to how quickly children gain weight between the ages of two and eleven than their actual body weight at any particular age. Scientists believe this is linked to differences in insulin processing in later life.

27 Oct 2005

Bouncing helicases possibly play a preventative role in keeping the genome intact

Researchers studying how proteins called helicases travel along strands of DNA have found that when the proteins hit an obstacle they snap back to where they began, repeating the process over and over, possibly playing a preventative role in keeping the genome intact.

27 Oct 2005

Northwestern University move closer to new therapies for neurodegenerative disease

French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot first described amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1869, but, nearly 140 years later, little is known about the cause of the devastating neurodegenerative disease, and there is no cure.

27 Oct 2005

Preventing bowel cancer in high risk families

Bowel cancer rates could be reduced by up to 80 per cent in people with a moderate family history of the disease by screening with colonoscopy, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal.

26 Oct 2005

Simple urine test detects bladder cancer

According to Italian researchers a simple and accurate urine test can detect bladder cancer early and they say the test should be used on smokers and others prone to the disease.

26 Oct 2005

Cancer drug may be effective for Alzheimer's

According to scientists at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute and the Marine Biological Laboratory, a cancer drug may stimulate the production of proteins needed for long-term memory, suggesting the compound may a possible treatment for Alzheimer's disease

26 Oct 2005

Australian researchers determine structure of JAK2 kinase, huge implications for development of new cancer drugs

Researchers from Monash's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have determined the structure of the protein JAK2 kinase, a discovery with huge implications for the design and development of new cancer drugs.

25 Oct 2005

Common anthrax sampling methods need improvement

A research team from the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories has discovered that common anthrax sampling methods need improvement. The research shows that more deadly spores remain after decontamination than previously believed.

25 Oct 2005

Middle-age people more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine

"Midlife adults entered adulthood at a time of more widespread use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the population and when public health policy was shifting attention toward individual responsibility for health and health promotion," said Joseph G. Grzywacz, Ph.D., and his colleagues, writing in the October issue of the Journal of Aging and Health.

25 Oct 2005

Growth hormone illegal for off-label anti-aging use

Because of 1988 and 1990 amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, off-label distribution or provision of human growth hormone to treat aging or age-associated illnesses is illegal in the United States, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

25 Oct 2005

Women's sexual function improves when partners are administered Vardenafil for erectile dysfunction

Couples share wine, movies, vacations and bedrooms. Do couples also share sexual problems and solutions?

25 Oct 2005

Gene therapy used to successfully treat heart failure

University of Pittsburgh investigators have for the first time used gene therapy to successfully treat heart failure and other degenerative muscle problems in an animal model that is genetically susceptible to a human muscular dystrophy.

25 Oct 2005

Number of color-sensitive cones in the human retina differs dramatically among people

First-ever images of living human retinas have yielded a surprise about how we perceive our world.

25 Oct 2005

Antisense molecules may hold promise in treating brain chemical problems such as Alzheimer's

Saint Louis University research shows a new class of drugs may hold promise in treating brain chemical problems such as Alzheimer's disease, says the principal investigator of research published in an early on-line version of Peptides.

25 Oct 2005

Early diagnosis guarantees therapeutic success in breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common tumour amongst the female population. In recent years its prevalence has increased considerably without the reasons thereof being very clear, although lifestyle changes such as first pregnancy taking place at a later age or the reduction in the period of breast-feeding may play an important role.

25 Oct 2005

Association of aprotinin with reduced glucose levels during CABG surgery

An anesthesiology research team at Columbia University Medical Center have completed the first human study to show that aprotinin, a protease inhibitor, was associated with lower blood glucose levels during coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

25 Oct 2005

Ginseng shown to significantly offer protection from colds

According to new research people who take ginseng suffer from far fewer colds.

25 Oct 2005

Maximum longevity inherited from the father

The parts of the genetic make-up that are thought to determine an individual’s maximum possible longevity, so-called telomeres, are inherited from the father but not the mother. This is shown by a research team at Umea University in the coming issue of the U.S. scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24 Oct 2005

Lack of gene expression associated with ovarian cancer

The expression of two specific genes is almost completely downregulated in ovarian cancer tumours. An extensive analysis of gene expression in ovarian cancer tumour cells has revealed this important finding, which should be an aid to early diagnosis.

24 Oct 2005