Researchers found that rodents that had been exposed to stress had a weakened alcohol-induced dopamine response and voluntarily drank more alcohol compared to controls. The blunted dopamine signaling to ethanol arose due to changes in the circuitry in the ventral tegmental area, the heart of the brain's reward system.
Zinc is essential for wound healing, for vision, for DNA creation, for our senses of taste and smell, even for sexual health. But despite its importance, scientists have never fully understood the mechanism that moves the mineral through the body – until now. Researchers have, for the first time, created detailed blueprints of the molecular moving vans that ferry this important mineral everywhere it’s needed through the blood.
Hip fractures are a common and disabling condition that occurs more than 300,000 times each year in the United States in those 65 and older—1.6 million times worldwide. A new study from Penn Medicine, which compared outcome variations in acute and post-acute care facilities, suggests that for older adults hospitalized with hip fracture, the quality of the post-acute care they receive has a greater impact on long-term recovery than the care they received at the hospital. This study was published today online ahead of print in Medical Care, a journal of the American Public Health Association.
Using prominent, graphic pictures on cigarette packs warning against smoking could avert more than 652,000 deaths, up to 92,000 low birth weight infants, up to 145,000 preterm births, and about 1,000 cases of sudden infant deaths in the U.S. over the next 50 years, say researchers from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
By removing the protein galectin-3 (Gal3), a team of investigators led by University of California School of Medicine researchers were able to reverse diabetic insulin resistance and glucose intolerance in mouse models of obesity and diabetes.
A new study co-led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) suggests that Ebola virus gained a genetic mutation during the 2013–16 epidemic that appears to have helped it better target human cells.
Scientists at the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics have shown for the first time the extent by which interactions between environmental exposures and genetic variation across individuals have a significant impact on human traits and diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity, strengthening the case for precision medicine initiatives.
The latest developments in prenatal technology conceived by scientists at the Wayne State University School of Medicine that make it possible to test for genetic disorders a little more than one month into pregnancy were revealed this week in Science Translational Medicine, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
An entire class of proteins called transcription factors has largely been ignored by the pharmaceutical industry because it’s difficult to design and screen drugs against them. But a new study from scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute suggests that a key group of transcription factors are in fact ‘druggable,’ including several that could be targeted to treat cancer, metabolic disease, or autoimmune conditions. The paper, published in eLIFE, shows that at least seven bHLH-PAS proteins have pockets where drugs would fit and remain tightly bound.
NIH-funded scientists have developed a new diagnostic test for cystic fibrosis. The new device provides a cheaper, easier way to detect levels of chloride in sweat, which are elevated in cystic fibrosis patients.
While schizophrenia is best known for episodes of psychosis – a break with reality during which an individual may experience delusions and hallucinations – it is also marked by chronic neurocognitive deficits, such as problems with memory and attention. A multi-site cognition study led by psychologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) found that these neurocognitive symptoms are evident prior to the onset of psychosis in a high-risk stage of the disorder called the prodromal phase. The findings suggest that these impairments may serve as early warning signs of schizophrenia, as well as potential targets for intervention that could mitigate the onset of the psychotic disorder and significantly improve cognitive function.
A research team led by University of Washington biology professor Tom Daniel has teased out how hawkmoths integrate signals from two sensory systems: vision and touch.
Women experience a notable decline in sexual function approximately 20 months before and one year after their last menstrual period, and that decrease continues, though at a somewhat slower rate, over the following five years, according to a study led by a researcher at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Researchers have developed a chemical compound that detects the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta better than current FDA-approved agents. The compound potentially could be used in brain scans to identify the signs of Alzheimer’s early, or to monitor response to treatment.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a broadly useful method to unmask new functional features of human proteins.
Implanted medical devices like catheters, surgical mesh and dialysis systems are ideal surfaces on which bacteria can colonize and form hard-to-kill sheets called biofilms. Known as biofouling, this contamination of devices is responsible for more than half of the 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections in the United States each year.
Researchers have identified a protein that helps ovarian cancer cells multiply and spread. By blocking it with a new antibody agent, they could slow the cancer’s growth and stop it from metastasizing.
The cornerstone of genetics is the loss-of-function experiment. In short, this means that to figure out what exactly gene X is doing in a tissue of interest—be it developing brain cells or a pancreatic tumor—you somehow cut out, switch off or otherwise destroy gene X in that tissue and then watch what happens. That genetic litmus test has been applied since before people even knew the chemical DNA is what makes up genes. What has changed radically are the tools used by biologists to inactivate a gene.
Studying hurricane and tropical storm development from three million years ago might give today’s forecasters a good blueprint for 21st century storms, says a team of international researchers that includes a Texas A&M University atmospheric sciences professor.
A new study shows that Zika targets the male reproductive system, at least in mice. Three weeks after Zika infection, male mice had shrunken testicles, low levels of sex hormones and reduced fertility. The results suggest that Zika infection may interfere with men’s ability to have children.
A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) shows that older black adults are not only more likely to be readmitted following an elective hip/knee replacement, than otherwise similar white patients – they may also be more adversely affected by insufficient hospital nurse staffing.
More than one in four older adults have not engaged in planning for end-of-life care or directives, despite significant public efforts to encourage the practice. This is especially true for African Americans, Latinos and those with less education and income, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco.
Researchers in Japan have discovered that the adrenergic nervous system controls when white blood cells circulate through the body, boosting the immune response by retaining T and B cells in lymph nodes at the time of day when they are most likely to encounter foreign antigens. The study, “Adrenergic control of the adaptive immune response by diurnal lymphocyte recirculation through lymph nodes,” will be published online October 31 ahead of issue in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
A new probe into why colorectal surgery patients end up back in the hospital after surgery suggests that it has less to do with the hospital or treatment received but rather more determined by patient factors such as race, income, and insurance status. The study underscores the vast challenge in leveling health disparities especially as some hospitals that serve these populations face disproportionately harsh penalties for outcomes directly impacted by such factors.
To get a head start on healing burn wounds, biomedical engineers at Michigan Technological University turn to the body's natural network. They combine engineered stem cell sheets with split thickness skin grafts to do so.
Scientists have identified for the first time the region in the brain responsible for the “placebo effect” in pain relief, when a fake treatment actually results in substantial reduction of pain, according to new research from Northwestern Medicine and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC). Pinpointing the sweet spot of the pain killing placebo effect could result in the design of more personalized medicine for the 100 million Americans with chronic pain.
Reinvigorating exhausted T cells in mice using a PD-L1 blockade caused very few T memory cells to develop. After the blockade, re-invigorated T cells became re-exhausted if antigen from the virus remained high, and failed to become memory T cells when the virus was cleared.
A research team at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre has discovered that the ABHD6 enzyme in certain brain neurons plays a key role in controlling body weight.
More than 4,000 children and teens are diagnosed with brain cancer each year and the disease kills more children than any other cancer. Writing this week in the journal Cell Reports, researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah report they have identified an existing group of drugs that appear to reduce or eliminate a certain subgroup of childhood brain cancers while sparing normal brain tissue. The research was conducted using a new zebrafish animal model system developed by the researchers, which closely resembles an aggressive subtype of pediatric brain tumors.
Beginning in early elementary school, boys outperform girls in math – especially among the highest achievers – continuing a troubling pattern found in the late 1990s, finds a new analysis led by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Asthma caused by adult exposure to cockroach detritus is blocked in mice that were vaccinated as newborns with a particular bacteria, Enterobacter that expresses alpha-1,3-glucan molecules on its surface.
In a remarkable “two for one” discovery, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have illuminated a key molecular player in the addictive effects of morphine in animal models.
A newly published study of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) concludes that long-term supplemental oxygen treatment results in little or no change in time to death, time to first hospitalizations or significant quality of life improvements for those with moderately low blood oxygen levels.
Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing researchers have received $1.8 million from the National Science Foundation to ensure that door locks, lightbulbs, cameras and other common household items, which are increasingly connected to the internet, remain secure.
A study sheds new understanding on the mechanisms of the diabetic retinopathy - which is the most prominent complication of diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in working age individuals - as it uncovered a program of accelerated aging of the neurons, blood vessels and immune cells of the retina in areas where blood vessels had been damaged.
Scientists from Johns Hopkins and Texas A&M have launched an ambitious effort, with a $5.3-million NIH grant, to learn at a fundamental level how genes and environmental factors interact to trigger human disease.
Th17 cells, a type of white blood cells, protects against the Trypansoma cruzi parasite, which is spread by kissing bugs and causes Chagas disease.
A team of Wayne State University researchers led by Karen MacDonell, Ph.D., assistant professor of family medicine and public health sciences at Wayne State’s School of Medicine, recently received a $2.66 million award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to address research limitations on interventions and ultimately improve asthma management in racial minority populations, particularly minority adolescents and young adults.
Medical researchers at Indiana University Bloomington have found evidence for a link between prostate cancer, which affects millions of men aged 50 and older, and Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects children and young adults. The results of the study are reported in the journal Cell Reports.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute Staff Scientist recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study and identify molecular mechanisms underlying early atherosclerosis.
Research in C. elegans shows the popular supplement engages longevity genes to increase lifespan and prevent the accumulation of toxic proteins linked to many age-related diseases
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a project to investigate a personalized web app that is designed to encourage young men at risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), to get routine testing. The funding for “Get Connected” is supported by the new NIH Adolescent Trials Network. As part of the UNC/Emory Center for Innovative Technology.
A Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey researcher has received a $596,250 award (W81XWH-16-1-0358) from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the role of chronic stress in breast cancer development. The focus of the work is to explore how chronic stress impacts breast cancer risk and to provide a foundation that can guide prevention strategies.
Researchers have been trying for decades to develop a vaccine against the globally endemic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered one reason why success has so far been elusive.
This is the first quantitative study of business manager encounters with drug use which suggests overdose recognition and naloxone training, combined with the operation of supervised injection facilities, could save lives.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is an untreatable inherited disorder that leads to loss of motor neurons and paralysis. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Stanford University have designed compounds to correct the molecular dysfunction underlying the disease.
Researchers in France have identified a molecular motor that controls the release of inflammatory factors that cause severe and fatal allergic reactions. The study, “Kinesin-1 controls mast cell degranulation and anaphylaxis through PI3K-dependent recruitment to the granular Slp3/Rab27b complex,” which will be published online October 24 ahead of issue in The Journal of Cell Biology, suggests that targeting this motor may be a new way to treat patients undergoing anaphylactic shock.
More and more medical centers are relying on hospitalists -- hospital-based internal medicine specialists who coordinate the complex care of inpatients. Now, an 18-month study comparing two hospitalist groups -- one with a high physician assistant (PA)-to-physician ratio ("expanded PA") and one with a low PA-to-physician ratio ("conventional") -- has found no significant differences in key clinical outcomes achieved by both groups.
One of the earliest widespread applications of precision medicine in cancer care is helping patients and physicians decide whether chemotherapy is needed, a new study finds.
A study by researchers from The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles reveals a promising therapeutic target for improving lung function in infants.
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