ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• 'Organic' study of live pancreatic tissue yields new opportunities for diabetes research
• Brain's mysterious switchboard operator revealed
• Cholesterol test with only a photo of patient's hand
• War is not necessarily the cause of post-traumatic stress disorder
• Molecular 'movies' may accelerate anti-cancer drug discovery
• Flu vaccine research: Overcoming 'original sin'
• New player in immune response? The strange case of UCP2
• Smoking in pregnancy increases asthma risk in preschool
• What’s your lifetime risk of developing kidney failure?
• Potential new drug for ulcerative colitis
• Tracking the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure through to nine years of age
• Novel technique demonstrates interactions between malaria parasite and HIV

'Organic' study of live pancreatic tissue yields new opportunities for diabetes research Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:15 PM PDT An 'all-natural' method for studying pancreatic islets, the small tissues responsible for insulin production and regulation in the body, has recently been developed to try to track metabolic changes in living tissues in 'real time' and without additional chemicals or drugs.

Brain's mysterious switchboard operator revealed Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:15 PM PDT Researchers report that a mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival.

Cholesterol test with only a photo of patient's hand Posted: 17 Aug 2012 10:55 AM PDT Researchers have developed a total cholesterol test that uses a digital camera to take a snapshot of the back of the patient's hand rather than a blood sample. The image obtained is cropped and compared with images in a database for known cholesterol levels.

War is not necessarily the cause of post-traumatic stress disorder Posted: 17 Aug 2012 10:55 AM PDT Surprisingly, the majority of soldiers exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome were suffering from poor mental health before they were posted to a war zone, new research suggests.

Molecular 'movies' may accelerate anti-cancer drug discovery Posted: 17 Aug 2012 06:30 AM PDT Using advanced computer simulations, researchers have produced moving images of a protein complex that is an important target for anti-cancer drugs.

Flu vaccine research: Overcoming 'original sin' Posted: 17 Aug 2012 06:25 AM PDT Scientists studying flu vaccines have identified ways to overcome an obstacle called "original antigenic sin," which can impair immune responses to new flu strains.

New player in immune response? The strange case of UCP2 Posted: 17 Aug 2012 05:40 AM PDT Uncoupling proteins present a paradox.  They are found within mitochondria and serve to prevent the cell's powerhouses from exploiting the charge differential across their membranes to generate ATP, which the body uses as an energy source.  When uncoupling proteins are active, mitochondria produce heat instead of ATP.  This may be useful under certain circumstances, such as when an animal is hibernating, but it seems unlikely that helping bears through the winter is the only function of uncoupling proteins, especially as non-hibernating animals also have them.

Smoking in pregnancy increases asthma risk in preschool Posted: 17 Aug 2012 05:39 AM PDT Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with wheeze and asthma in preschool children, even among children who were not exposed to maternal smoking late in pregnancy or after birth, according to a new study.

What’s your lifetime risk of developing kidney failure? Posted: 16 Aug 2012 05:14 PM PDT Kidney failure is on the rise and currently afflicts 2 million people worldwide.

Potential new drug for ulcerative colitis Posted: 15 Aug 2012 02:40 PM PDT An investigational drug currently under FDA review for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has now shown positive results in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis.

Tracking the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure through to nine years of age Posted: 15 Aug 2012 01:16 PM PDT Although studies of alcohol's effects on fetal growth have consistently demonstrated deficits that persist through infancy, the data on long-term postnatal growth from human studies have been inconsistent. A new study of the effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure on growth and body composition throughout childhood has found growth restrictions that persist through to nine years of age, as well as a delay in weight gain during infancy, both of which were exacerbated by iron deficiency.

Novel technique demonstrates interactions between malaria parasite and HIV Posted: 15 Aug 2012 10:17 AM PDT A new video article describes a novel technique to study the interactions between HIV-1 and P. falciparum in cultured human cells, will allow scientists to explore different parameters of co-infection by the two microbes.

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