ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• Giving children non-verbal clues about words boosts vocabularies
• Helping RNA escape from cells' recycling process could make it easier to shut off disease-causing genes
• 'Singing' rats show hope for older humans with age-related voice problems
• Reading DNA, backward and forward: Biologists reveal how cells control the direction in which the genome is read
• Molecule that reduces fats in blood identified
• An expansive physical setting increases a person's likelihood of dishonest behavior
• New 'biowire' technology matures human heart by mimicking fetal heartrate
• Rare pregnancy condition programs babies to become overweight in later life
• Brain cancer: Hunger for amino acids makes it more aggressive
• Potential treatment strategies for multiple sclerosis
• Second largest kidney exchange in history
• A valve inside a valve: A new heart valve can be implanted in people suffering with adult congenital heart disease without open heart surgery
• Pleasure response from chocolate: You can see it in the eyes
• Targeted viral therapy destroys breast cancer stem cells in preclinical experiments
• Promising new device detects disease with drop of blood
• In multiple sclerosis animal study, absence of gene leads to earlier, more severe disease
• Robo-pets may contribute to quality of life for those with dementia
• When AIDS viruses are transmitted despite treatment
• Powerful gene-editing tool appears to cause off-target mutations in human cells

Giving children non-verbal clues about words boosts vocabularies Posted: 24 Jun 2013 12:25 PM PDT The clues that parents give toddlers about words can make a big difference in how deep their vocabularies are when they enter school, new research shows. By using words to reference objects in the visual environment, parents can help young children learn new words, according to the research.

Helping RNA escape from cells' recycling process could make it easier to shut off disease-causing genes Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:48 AM PDT Helping RNA escape from cells' recycling process could make it easier to shut off disease-causing genes, says a new study.

'Singing' rats show hope for older humans with age-related voice problems Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:14 AM PDT New research from speech and hearing science professors shows training rats to "sing" could provide a model for voice therapy that will, in turn, help aging humans with vocal problems.

Reading DNA, backward and forward: Biologists reveal how cells control the direction in which the genome is read Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:14 AM PDT Biologists have discovered a mechanism that allows cells to read their own DNA in the correct direction and prevents them from copying most of the so-called "junk DNA" that makes up long stretches of our genome.

Molecule that reduces fats in blood identified Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:13 AM PDT Researchers have found that a regulatory RNA molecule interferes with the production of lipoproteins and, in a mouse model, reduces hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis.

An expansive physical setting increases a person's likelihood of dishonest behavior Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:31 AM PDT A new study reveals that expansive physical settings can cause individuals to feel more powerful, and in turn these feelings of power can elicit more dishonest behavior such as stealing, cheating, and even traffic violations.

New 'biowire' technology matures human heart by mimicking fetal heartrate Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:31 AM PDT A new method of maturing human heart cells that simulates the natural growth environment of heart cells while applying electrical pulses to mimic the heart rate of fetal humans has led researchers to an electrifying step forward for cardiac research.

Rare pregnancy condition programs babies to become overweight in later life Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:28 AM PDT Babies born to mothers who suffer from a rare metabolic complication during pregnancy are programmed to be overweight, according to a study part-funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Brain cancer: Hunger for amino acids makes it more aggressive Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:28 AM PDT An enzyme that facilitates the breakdown of specific amino acids makes brain cancers particularly aggressive. Scientists have discovered this in an attempt to find new targets for therapies against this dangerous disease.

Potential treatment strategies for multiple sclerosis Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:27 AM PDT Myelin, the fatty coating that protects neurons, is destroyed in diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Researchers have been striving to determine whether oligodendrocytes, cells that produce myelin, can be stimulated to make new myelin. Using live imaging in zebrafish to track oligodendrocytes, researchers discovered that oligodendrocytes coat neurons with myelin for only five hours after they are born. If the findings hold true in humans, they could lead to new treatment strategies for multiple sclerosis.

Second largest kidney exchange in history Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:18 AM PDT Earlier this month, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the National Kidney Registry, in partnership with 18 transplant centers across the country, successfully completed the second largest kidney exchange in history and the largest to be concluded in under 40 days. Dubbed Chain 221, the swap involved 56 participants (28 donors and 28 recipients). Four patients at Penn Medicine, including two long-lost grade-school friends, participated in the chain – two receiving new, healthy kidneys, and two donating their own kidneys to other recipients in the chain.

A valve inside a valve: A new heart valve can be implanted in people suffering with adult congenital heart disease without open heart surgery Posted: 24 Jun 2013 10:17 AM PDT A new heart valve that can be implanted inside an existing valve will help adults with congenital heart disease avoid open heart surgeries.

Pleasure response from chocolate: You can see it in the eyes Posted: 24 Jun 2013 08:10 AM PDT The brain's pleasure response to tasting food can be measured through the eyes using a common, low-cost ophthalmological tool, according to a new study.

Targeted viral therapy destroys breast cancer stem cells in preclinical experiments Posted: 24 Jun 2013 08:10 AM PDT A promising new treatment for breast cancer has been shown in cell culture and in animal models to selectively kill cancer stem cells at the original tumor site and in distant metastases with no toxic effects on healthy cells, including normal stem cells. Cancer stem cells are critical to a cancer's ability to recur following conventional chemotherapies and radiation therapy because they can quickly multiply and establish new tumors that are often therapy resistant.

Promising new device detects disease with drop of blood Posted: 24 Jun 2013 06:35 AM PDT Scientists are creating a prototype lab-on-a-chip that would someday enable a physician to detect disease or virus from just one drop of liquid, including blood.

In multiple sclerosis animal study, absence of gene leads to earlier, more severe disease Posted: 24 Jun 2013 06:34 AM PDT Scientists are reporting that they have identified the likely genetic mechanism that causes some patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to quickly progress to a debilitating stage of the disease while other patients progress much more slowly.

Robo-pets may contribute to quality of life for those with dementia Posted: 24 Jun 2013 04:57 AM PDT Robotic animals can help to improve the quality of life for people with dementia, according to new research.

When AIDS viruses are transmitted despite treatment Posted: 24 Jun 2013 04:57 AM PDT While antiretroviral drugs offer an efficient means of preventing the replication of HIV in the blood, shedding of HIV may occur in semen, so that other persons can become infected during unprotected sexual intercourse. This occurs in particular if the male genital tract also has other viral infections.

Powerful gene-editing tool appears to cause off-target mutations in human cells Posted: 23 Jun 2013 11:51 AM PDT Scientists have found a significant limitation to the use of CRISPR-Cas RGNs, production of unwanted DNA mutations at sites other than the desired target, which indicates a need to improve the specificity of the nucleases.

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