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191,281 articles from EurekAlert

Best treatment for MS may depend on disease subtype

Relatively new drugs now help some patients, but not others, with the most common form of multiple sclerosis. That may be because patients with the same symptoms experience different types of inflammation, suggests a new study in animals from the University of Michigan. If the differences are found in people, future treatments may be tailored to specific subtypes of the disease.

Bringing stability to the protein defective in phenylketonuria

Phenylketonuria is an inherited disease characterized by progressive mental retardation and seizures because the individual is deficient in the protein PAH. Most of the genetic mutations that cause PKU do so because the PAH protein that is generated by the mutated gene is not stable enough to function. New data now suggest that it might be possible to stabilize the mutated PAH protein in...

Calpain inhibitors never forget: Improving memory in Alzheimer's disease mice

Overactivation of proteins known as calpains, which are involved in memory formation, has been linked to Alzheimer disease. Researchers have now shown that two different drugs that inhibit calpains can improve memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, leading them to suggest drugs that target calpains might stop or slow down the memory loss that occurs as Alzheimer's disease progresses.

Death, division or cancer? Newly discovered checkpoint process holds the line in cell division

Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, have discovered a novel biochemical activity involved in controlling cell division, which they've called the mitotic checkpoint factor 2. While the proteins involved in MCF2 remain to be determined, their findings offer insight into a fundamental question of biology, which may also help to...

Designer diet for prostate cancer

For the first time, a research group at the Institute of Food Research led by Professor Richard Mithen has provided an explanation of how eating broccoli might reduce cancer risk based upon studies in men, as opposed to trying to extrapolate from animal models. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer for males in western countries. The research has provided an insight into why eating...

Discovery of gene mechanism could bring about new ways to treat metastatic cancer

Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Massey Cancer Center researchers have uncovered how a gene, melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24 (mda-7/IL-24), induces a bystander effect that kills cancer cells not directly receiving mda-7/IL-24 without harming healthy ones, a discovery that could lead to new therapeutic strategies to fight metastatic disease.

Do the hyper-coordinate planar transition metal atoms exist?

Quantum chemical methods are generally useful and versatile for discovering new compounds having particular chemical bonding configurations. Luo Qiong of Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, has established that the coordination of the transition metals, cobalt, iron and nickel, are raised to eight or nine by centering them in a perfect Dnh (n=8 or 9) boron ring.

Does this make me look fat?

The peer groups teenage girls identify with determine how they decide to control their own figure. So reports a new study just published online in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, a Springer publication. Also influencing weight control behavior is girls' own definition of normal body weight and their perception of what others consider normal body weight.

Editors' leadership role impacts on quality of biomedical research journals

The factors allowing a journal to achieve high quality are not fully understood, but good editorial practices such as accurate and author-helpful peer review and in-house editing are thought to be important. Now, a new study provides quantitative evidence that another aspect of good editorial practice -- editors' expectations that articles adhere to international standards for quality reporting --...

Flaws in the barcoded technology used to reduce medication administration errors identified

In the first study of its kind, researchers led by The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Ross Koppel, Ph.D. studied how hospital nurses actually use bar-coded technology that matches the right patient with the right dose of the right medication. The surprising result is that the design and implementation of the technology, which is often relied upon as a "cure-all" for medication...

Fungi the cause of many outbreaks of disease but mostly ignored

Many people, scientists among them, are largely unaware of the roles fungi play in the world around us. Research on fungi and fungal diseases are seriously neglected as a result -- a situation with grave negative repercussions for human health, agriculture, and the environment -- according to a new report from the American Academy of Microbiology.

Gender differences and heart disease

Women may respond less favorably than men to cardiovascular disease drug-treatments for enlarged heart, according to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center physician-scientists.

Human influences challenge penguin populations

Warming in Antarctica, as well as mining, commercial fishing, and oil and gas development at lower latitudes, threaten Penguin populations throughout the Southern Hemishere, according to an assessment published in the July/August 2008 issue of BioScience.

Insights into micromillimeters

"TIGA," the new high-tech imaging center at the University of Heidelberg founded in cooperation with the Japanese company Hamamatsu, provides deep insights: a high-tech robot makes it possible for the first time to automatically reproduce and evaluate tissue slices only micromillimeters thick -- an important aid for researchers in understanding cancer or in following in detail the effect of...

Invasive treatment appears beneficial for men and high-risk women with certain coronary syndromes

An analysis of previous studies indicates that among men and high-risk women with a certain type of heart attack or angina an invasive treatment strategy (such as cardiac catheterization) is associated with reduced risk of rehospitalization, heart attack or death, whereas low-risk women may have an increased risk of heart attack or death with this treatment, according to an article in the July 2...