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Researchers find protein associated with brain cell death

Neuroscientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found evidence of which protein in the brain's immune cells triggers a cascade of reactions that produces unregulated free radical production that eventually leads to the neural cell death found in Alzheimer's disease.

19 Jul 2006

Anomalous renal effects of tin protoporphyrin in a murine model of sickle cell disease

Researchers have unexpectedly shown that sickle cell-associated kidney injury may be reduced by inhibiting the enzyme activity of a protein that commonly confers protection in other diseased states.

19 Jul 2006

Neurosurgical treatment of anxiety disorders effective

Severely ill patients with anxiety disorders or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder undergoing neurosurgical treatment risk serious complications.

19 Jul 2006

New diagnostic tool for prostate cancer

According to the World Health Organization there are about 250,000 new cases of prostate cancer every year but, when caught in time, the disease has a cure rate of over 90%.

19 Jul 2006

New research shows how 'genetic fingerprinting' can be used to track the spread of STDs

New research shows it could be possible to follow the spread of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) through the population by tracking the individuals in a city infected with the same strain of the bacterium.

19 Jul 2006

Antibodies show promise in treating Alzheimer's

Researchers say infusing human antibodies into people with Alzheimer's disease appears to help stop the disease from getting worse and may even help the patients improve.

19 Jul 2006

Migraine with 'aura' linked to heart attacks

Researchers say that of the 28 million Americans who suffer from migraines, those who experience an "aura" before the start of the pain have an increased risk for heart attack or stroke.

19 Jul 2006

It's never too late to start exercising!

According to German researchers it's never too late to start exercising and even long time couch potatoes can reduce their risk of heart disease, by just getting off the sofa and going for a walk.

18 Jul 2006

Rise in asthma linked to chlorine in indoor swimming pools

New research into the rising number of asthma sufferers is suggesting that indoor swimming pools may be partly to blame.

18 Jul 2006

Growing spinal cord nerves after injury

In tests on rats, researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan have developed a treatment that helps spinal cord nerves regrow after injury.

18 Jul 2006

Doctors may be over-diagnosing melanoma in sun-damaged skin

A Mayo Clinic physician and colleagues have defined the normal number of melanocytes that are present in Caucasians' sun-exposed skin.

18 Jul 2006

New role discovered for breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1

A recently discovered facet of the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 reveals a mechanism linking mutation of BRCA1 to formation of large blood vessels needed to support cancer progression.

18 Jul 2006

Researchers isolate rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston and their colleagues have isolated rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia in a mouse model of the human disease.

18 Jul 2006

An accurate model of p53 tumor suppressor protein bound to DNA for anti-cancer activity

More than half of human cancers involve mutations in the p53 tumor-suppressor gene, suggesting the critical role played by the normal p53 protein in defending against cancer.

18 Jul 2006

New hope for patients with aggressive multiple sclerosis

A new combination treatment regime, for patients with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), is offering new hope to a group of patients who would otherwise be at high risk of early disability.

18 Jul 2006

Eicosanoids and inflammatory response

Revolutionary new results concerning substances that play major roles in the inflammatory response have been published in the American scientific journal PNAS in two articles from Karolinska Institutet.

18 Jul 2006

Reading the words halitosis or jasmine activates the olfactory areas of the brain

There are words whose power to evoke sensations has become proverbial. Just hearing them brings to mind the image, sound or feeling of that little fragment of reality they refer to.

18 Jul 2006

Scientists identify signals that regulate the formation of spinal marrow

A team of researchers at Umea University in Sweden under the leadership of Thomas Edlund, Umea Center for Molecular Medicine, is now publishing their discovery of the signal molecules that regulate the formation of spinal marrow during the fetal period.

17 Jul 2006

Crohn's disease - possible genetic cause found

Patients with Crohn's disease of the colon have one copy less than healthy persons of the beta-defensin 2 gene, a gene coding for an important defense molecule of the body.

17 Jul 2006

New genetic clues to dementia with Lewy bodies

Researchers have found that genetic alterations originally identified in people suffering from a rare disease may also be an important risk factor for the second most common form of dementia among the elderly.

17 Jul 2006