Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed biomimetic bone tissues that could one day provide new bone marrow for patients needing transplants.
An international collaborative study led by researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP), with major participation from Yokohama School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and UC San Diego, has identified the molecular mechanism behind lithium’s effectiveness in treating bipolar disorder patients. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), utilized human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells) to map lithium’s response pathway, enabling the larger pathogenesis of bipolar disorder to be identified.
In experiments with human colon cancer cells and mice, a team led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer arises when a normal part of cells' machinery generally used to repair DNA damage is diverted from its usual task. The findings, if further studies confirm them, could lead to the identification of novel molecular targets for anticancer drugs or tests for cancer recurrence, the investigators say.
Systemic therapy consisting of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants preserved vision of uveitis patients better – and had fewer adverse outcomes – than a long-lasting corticosteroid intraocular implant, according to a clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI). After seven years, visual acuity on average remained stable among participants on systemic therapy but declined by an average of six letters (about one line on an eye chart) among participants who had the implant. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Chemists from Italy and Canada specializing in nanotechnology create a molecular slingshot that could shoot drugs at precise locations in the human body once triggered by specific disease markers.
A newly identified molecular chain of events in a mouse model of prostate cancer highlights novel targets to treat it and other cancers. A Penn team discovered that the overexpression of a protein called PKCε with the loss of the tumor suppressor Pten causes the progression of prostate cancer.
Research Examines Effectiveness of Leading Treatment Approaches
Much is known about flu viruses, but little is understood about how they reproduce inside human host cells, spreading infection. Now, a research team headed by investigators from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is the first to identify a mechanism by which influenza A, a family of pathogens that includes the most deadly strains of flu worldwide, hijacks cellular machinery to replicate.
Texas A&M researchers are working to develop drugs to enhance the function of these receptors in the brain, which could have three very different applications: easing pain, slowing the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s and making it easier for people to stop smoking.
Vocalization plays a significant role in social communication across species such as speech by humans and song by birds. Male mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations in the presence of females and both sexes sing during friendly social encounters.
Researchers investigating a form of adult-onset diabetes that shares features with the two better-known types of diabetes have discovered genetic influences that may offer clues to more accurate diagnosis and treatment. The study team found that latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is genetically closer to type 1 diabetes than to type 2 diabetes.
Despite intense research, there’s been much confusion regarding the exact role of a protein in a critical cancer-linked pathway. On one hand, the protein is described as a cell proliferation inhibitor, on the other, a cell proliferation activator, a duality that has caused a great deal of scientific head scratching. Now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have solved the conundrum, uncovering the regulatory machinery underlying the function of a protein, called angiomotin.
Neuroscientists at Tufts have discovered a new signaling pathway that directly connects the brain’s NMDA and a7nACh receptors – both associated with learning and memory –– which has significance for development of drugs to treat schizophrenia. Astrocytes are the key elements that link the receptors.
The study examined language concordance visits--duty calls where the provider spoke the same language as the patient or an interpreter accompanied the provider--for registered nurses (RN) and physical therapists (PT) from home health care services in the New York City area. Korean speakers had the highest percentage of language-concordant visits, while Spanish speaking patients had the least.
Working with mouse, fly and human cells and tissue, Johns Hopkins researchers report new evidence that disruptions in the movement of cellular materials in and out of a cell's control center -- the nucleus -- appear to be a direct cause of brain cell death in Huntington's disease, an inherited adult neurodegenerative disorder.
An international team of scientists has developed a new way to produce single-layer graphene from a simple precursor: ethene – also known as ethylene – the smallest alkene molecule, which contains just two atoms of carbon.
New research published May 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that a buprenorphine can safely cut the duration of therapy nearly in half for infants withdrawing from opioids.
SBP researcher Ranjan Perera uncovered the M.O. of a mysterious lncRNA molecule called SPRIGHTLY that acts as a hub for cancer-related genes in the nucleus. The study identified “major” RNA binding partners – genes already implicated in a variety of cancers. In a mouse model of melanoma, tumors with reduced SPRIGHTLY grew more slowly, indicating use as a therapeutic target or biomarker. Science Advances.
As children with single-ventricle disease, a complex and severe heart defect, undergo a series of three reconstructive surgeries, pediatric researchers have detected higher rates of brain abnormalities at each stage. The scientists also found associated changes in the infants’ cerebral blood flow that could offer important clues to improving long-term neurological outcomes in these children.
Researchers found that allocation of rehabilitation services differs by ethnicity, which may help explain why Mexican-Americans have worse outcomes after stroke.
Sudden cardiac death resulting from fibrillation – erratic heartbeat due to electrical instability – is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Now, researchers have discovered a fundamentally new source of that electrical instability, a development that could potentially lead to new methods for predicting and preventing life-threatening cardiac fibrillation.
UCLA scientists have discovered specific genetic changes in the placentas of women who gave birth to growth-restricted infants.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego has been granted a supplemental award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to double the number of graphic processing units, or GPUs, on its petascale-level Comet supercomputer in direct response to growing demand for GPU computing across a wide range of research domains.
Wayne State University received notice from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health of the $7.5 million renewal for five years of the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES). The previous NIH grant for CURES totaled $2.4 million for three years.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered why some cancers may reoccur after years in remission.
Cigarette smoking accounts for about one fifth of cases of coronary heart disease (CHD), one of the leading causes of death worldwide, but precisely how smoking leads to CHD has long been unclear. Now, a team has uncovered a molecule that may at least partly explain the smoking-CHD connection.
UCLA study identifies a potential test that may help select patients for whom combination therapy could be most effective
Using a mouse heart attack model, researchers have shown that knocking out one particular lipid-modifying enzyme, along with a short-term dietary excess of a certain lipid, can improve post-heart attack healing and clear inflammation.
Treating donor corneas with a cocktail of molecules prior to transplanting to a host may improve survival of grafts and, thus, outcomes in high-risk corneal transplant patients, according to a new study led by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
Spider silks, ounce for ounce, can be stronger than steel, and much more tough and flexible. They tend not to provoke the human immune system and some even inhibit bacteria and fungi, making them potentially ideal for surgery and medical device applications. Exploitation of silks has been slow, due to challenges with identifying and characterizing their genes, but researchers have now made a major advance with the largest-ever study of spider silk genes.
Ten patients at Penn Medicine have been cured of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) following lifesaving kidney transplants from deceased donors who were infected with the disease. The findings point to new strategies for increasing the supply of organs for the nation’s more than 97,000 patients who are awaiting kidney transplants – often for as many as five or more years.
In an analysis of Medicare billing data submitted by more than 2,300 United States physicians, researchers have calculated the average number of surgical slices, or cuts, made during Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS), a procedure that progressively removes thin layers of cancerous skin tissue in a way that minimizes damage to healthy skin and the risks of leaving cancerous tissue behind.
According to a new multicenter study, nearly half of previously employed adult survivors of acute respiratory distress syndrome were jobless one year after hospital discharge, and are estimated to have lost an average of $27,000 in earnings.
A gene previously identified as critical for tumor growth in many human cancers also maintains intestinal stem cells and encourages the growth of cells that support them, according to results of a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers. The finding, reported in the Apr. 28 issue of Nature Communications, adds to evidence for the intimate link between stem cells and cancer, and advances prospects for regenerative medicine and cancer treatments.
Differences in undergraduate tuition rates by a student’s degree program or year of study have become increasingly prevalent over the past 25 years, finds a study by New York University’s Steinhardt School, Arizona State University, and the University of Louisville.
Mounting anti-terrorism security procedures and the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) screening processes have launched numerous debates about the protection of civil liberties and equal treatment of passengers. A new study published in Risk Analysis has successfully quantified how much potential air passengers value equal protection when measured against sacrifices in safety, cost, wait time, and convenience.
Johns Hopkins researchers report that an analysis of survey responses and health records of more than 10,000 American adults for nearly 20 years suggests a “synergistic” link between exercise and good vitamin D levels in reducing the risk of heart attacks and stroke
New research from the National Institutes of Health found that pairing the antidepressant amitriptyline with drugs designed to treat central nervous system diseases, enhances drug delivery to the brain by inhibiting the blood-brain barrier in rats. The blood-brain barrier serves as a natural, protective boundary, preventing most drugs from entering the brain. The research, performed in rats, appeared online April 27 in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.
In a preclinical study in mice and human cells, researchers report that selectively removing old or 'senescent' cells from joints could stop and even reverse the progression of osteoarthritis.
Patients who expressed the tumor antigen NY-ESO-1 had more aggressive cancers and were more likely to die early from their disease, according to a large study conducted by Roswell Park Cancer Institute researchers and published online ahead of print in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.
This discovery, described online in the April 25 edition of eLife, will lead to important research and may one day help experts develop new and better therapies for Alzheimer's and other forms of cognitive decline.
Humans, like virtually all other complex organisms on Earth, have adapted to their planet’s 24-hour cycle of sunlight and darkness. That circadian rhythm is reflected in human behavior, of course, but also in the molecular workings of our cells. Now scientists have developed a powerful tool for detecting and characterizing those molecular rhythms -- a tool that could have many new medical applications, such as more accurate dosing for existing medications.
A multidisciplinary research team at UAB looks to address obesity as it is genetically passed from mother to child.
A new study led by Massachusetts Eye and Ear researchers found that oral promethazine, a drug commonly taken to alleviate motion sickness, temporarily worsened vestibular perception thresholds by 31 percent, lowering one’s ability to perceive sensory information about motion, balance and spatial orientation.
A study that surveyed a national sample of emergency department health care providers and adult patients suggests that patients are substantially more willing to disclose their sexual orientation than health care workers believe.
The Amazonian Center of Excellence for Malaria Research, headed by Joseph Vinetz, MD, professor of medicine and tropical disease specialist at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, will receive up to approximately $8.3 million over seven years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Context can alter something as basic as our ability to estimate the weights of simple objects. As we learn to manipulate those objects, context can even tease out the interplay of two memory systems and shows how distraction can affect multitasking.
After ten years of continuous work, a combined DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) research team has successfully developed a set of electronic tools that can draw “space and time-based” maps of the neuron-signaling across speech and language centers of the human brain.
Spermidine—a compound found in foods like aged cheese, mushrooms, soy products, legumes, corn and whole grains—seems to prevent (at least in animal models) liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, which is the most common type of liver cancer.
Tiny vesicles isolated from adult mesenchymal stem cells and administered intranasally can limit the damage to the brain of animal models caused by a seizure disorder called status epilepticus, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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