ScienceDaily: Top Health News

---

• Groundbreaking pain research
• Worm research: Right combination of sugars regulates brain development
• Circadian clock is key to firing up cell's furnace
• Scientists reveal how beta-amyloid may cause Alzheimer's
• Disarming HIV with a pop
• Could dog food additive prevent disabling chemo side effect?
• New insights into the ribosome; important implications for disease
• Strategy for helping 'tired' cells affected by mitochondrial disease
• Protein 'motif' crucial to telomerase activity
• New protein knowledge offers hope for better cancer treatment
• How lethal bird flu viruses evolved
• Endocrine-disrupting chemicals pose global health threat, experts say
• Researchers tease apart workings of a common gene
• World Cup football (soccer) is a risk factor for domestic violence
• Islet cell transplant procedure offers improved outcomes for type 1 diabetes
• A brake in the head: New insights into the working of the brain
• Immune cells open window to breast cancer risk
• Promising way to boost body's immune surveillance via p53 in fight against cancer
• Bracing is effective in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis, study suggests
• Researchers develop a method that automatically delimits areas of brain in medical images
• Blood biomarker could mark severe cognitive decline, quicker progression among Parkinson’s patients
• Can vitamin B supplements help stave off stroke?
• Nanoscale neuronal activity measured for first time
• Interference with cellular recycling leads to cancer growth, chemo resistance

Groundbreaking pain research Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:22 AM PDT The bodies of mammals, including humans, respond to injury by releasing endogenous opioids -- compounds that mitigate acute pain. A team of researchers has uncovered groundbreaking new information about how the body responds to traumatic injury with the development of a surprisingly long-lasting opioid mechanism of natural chronic pain control. Remarkably, the body develops both physical and physiological dependence on this opioid system, just as it does to opiate narcotic drugs.

Worm research: Right combination of sugars regulates brain development Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:22 AM PDT If the development of our nervous system is disturbed, we risk developing serious neurological diseases, impairing our sensory systems, movement control or cognitive functions. This is true for all organisms with a well-developed nervous system, from human to worm. New research reveals how a tiny molecule called mir-79 regulates neural development in roundworms.

Circadian clock is key to firing up cell's furnace Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:21 AM PDT Each of our cells has an energy furnace, and it is called a mitochondrion. A research team now has identified a new mode of timekeeping that involves priming the cell's furnace to properly use stored fuel when we are not eating. The interdisciplinary team has identified the "match" and "flint" responsible for lighting this tiny furnace. And the match is only available when the circadian clock says so, underscoring the importance of the biological timing system to metabolism.

Scientists reveal how beta-amyloid may cause Alzheimer's Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:21 AM PDT Scientists have shown how a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, begins destroying synapses before it clumps into plaques that lead to nerve cell death.

Disarming HIV with a pop Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:06 AM PDT Pinning down an effective way to combat the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, the viral precursor to AIDS, has long been challenge task for scientists and physicians, because the virus is an elusive one that mutates frequently and, as a result, quickly becomes immune to medication. A team of researchers is trying to get one step ahead of the virus with a microbicide they've created that can trick HIV into "popping" itself into oblivion.

Could dog food additive prevent disabling chemo side effect? Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:06 AM PDT Working with cells in test tubes and in mice, researchers have discovered that a chemical commonly used as a dog food preservative may prevent the kind of painful nerve damage found in the hands and feet of four out of five cancer patients taking the chemotherapy drug Taxol.

New insights into the ribosome; important implications for disease Posted: 19 Sep 2013 09:23 AM PDT In a first-of-its-kind study that broadly examines the composition of the riboproteome, a scientific team reveals previously unappreciated components of the ribosome, uncovering a large and dynamic structure that, among other things, can be altered in cancer.

Strategy for helping 'tired' cells affected by mitochondrial disease Posted: 19 Sep 2013 09:23 AM PDT New research findings have the potential to change the lives of patients with mitochondrial diseases, a group of pathologies characterized by malfunction of mitochondria, the organelles that supply the energy vital for cell function.

Protein 'motif' crucial to telomerase activity Posted: 19 Sep 2013 09:23 AM PDT In an effort to understand and control telomerase activity, researchers have discovered a protein "motif," named TFLY, which is crucial to the function of telomerase. Altering this motif disrupts telomerase function, they found, a fact that they believe will help them in their efforts to identify inhibitors of telomerase with potential cancer therapeutic properties.

New protein knowledge offers hope for better cancer treatment Posted: 19 Sep 2013 09:22 AM PDT Researchers have developed a sophisticated method for identifying modified proteins that affect a cell's ability to repair DNA damage. This offers hope for improving treatment options for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer using the latest type of treatments involving the so-called PARP inhibitors.

How lethal bird flu viruses evolved Posted: 19 Sep 2013 09:22 AM PDT An in-depth evolutionary analysis of whole-genome sequences of different types of avian flu viruses has revealed that new H7N9 viruses emerged from distinct H9N2 viruses in a two-step process, first occurring in wild birds and then continuing in domestic birds.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals pose global health threat, experts say Posted: 19 Sep 2013 09:19 AM PDT Endocrine experts agreed that endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) pose a threat to human health and to the ecosystems of Earth. The editorial comes in response to a commentary (Dietrich et al. Chem Biol Interact) signed by a number of editors of toxicology journals that dismisses the state-of-the-science on EDCs and argues for the status quo in the regulation of these hazardous substances.

Researchers tease apart workings of a common gene Posted: 19 Sep 2013 08:27 AM PDT Researchers have discovered why a tiny alteration in a brain gene, found in 20 percent of the population, contributes to the risk for anxiety, depression and memory loss.

World Cup football (soccer) is a risk factor for domestic violence Posted: 19 Sep 2013 08:27 AM PDT Domestic abuse increases during England World Cup football matches – especially if the team lose.

Islet cell transplant procedure offers improved outcomes for type 1 diabetes Posted: 19 Sep 2013 07:58 AM PDT The latest approach to islet transplantation has produced substantially improved results for patients with type 1 diabetes, and may offer a more durable alternative to a whole pancreas transplant. Participants in the study received islet cells isolated from the pancreas of organ donors to help their bodies produce insulin. The new approach, which allowed the harvested cells a short period of rest prior to transplant, resulted in increased levels of insulin production to the degree that patients were able to discontinue daily insulin injections.

A brake in the head: New insights into the working of the brain Posted: 19 Sep 2013 07:58 AM PDT Scientists have managed to acquire new insights into the functioning of a region in the brain that normally is involved in spatial orientation, but is damaged by the Alzheimer's disease. They investigated how nerve signals are suppressed inside the so-called entorhinal cortex. According to the researchers, this neuronal inhibition leads nerve cells to synchronize their activity.

Immune cells open window to breast cancer risk Posted: 19 Sep 2013 07:54 AM PDT Researchers have made a major discovery that highlights the important role played by immune cells in the risk of developing breast cancer.

Promising way to boost body's immune surveillance via p53 in fight against cancer Posted: 19 Sep 2013 06:37 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a new mechanism involving p53, the famous tumor suppressor, to fight against aggressive cancers. This strategy works by sabotaging the ability of the cancer cells to hide from the immune system. This research opens a new avenue to improve targeted cancer therapy by harnessing the body's own immune system to control and eliminate cancer cells.

Bracing is effective in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis, study suggests Posted: 19 Sep 2013 05:58 AM PDT A multi-center study examining whether wearing back braces would prevent the need for spinal correction surgery in children with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis was cut short when early results were overwhelmingly in favor of bracing.

Researchers develop a method that automatically delimits areas of brain in medical images Posted: 19 Sep 2013 05:54 AM PDT Researchers have developed a method that improves the delimitation of tumors in medical images.

Blood biomarker could mark severe cognitive decline, quicker progression among Parkinson’s patients Posted: 18 Sep 2013 03:01 PM PDT A genetic mutation, known as GBA, that leads to early onset of Parkinson's disease and severe cognitive impairment (in about 4 to 7 percent of all patients with the disease) also alters how specific lipids, ceramides and glucosylceramides are metabolized. Researchers have found that Parkinson's patients who do not carry the genetic mutation also have higher levels of these lipids in the blood, and high blood levels were also more likely to have cognitive impairment and dementia.

Can vitamin B supplements help stave off stroke? Posted: 18 Sep 2013 02:55 PM PDT New evidence suggests that taking vitamin B supplements may help reduce the risk of stroke.

Nanoscale neuronal activity measured for first time Posted: 18 Sep 2013 10:06 AM PDT A new technique that allows scientists to measure the electrical activity in the communication junctions of the nervous systems has been developed, and offers a new and unique viewpoint into something not seen before in science.

Interference with cellular recycling leads to cancer growth, chemo resistance Posted: 18 Sep 2013 10:05 AM PDT Overactivity of a protein that normally cues cells to divide sabotages the body's natural cellular recycling process, leading to heightened cancer growth and chemotherapy resistance, researchers have found.

You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Top Health News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610