Pregnancy hormone estriol shows promise as multiple sclerosis treatment in first human trials
...tive for only relapsing remitting MS. "MS doesn't cut life short, it kills the quality of life," Voskuhl said. "Early treatment is crucial to preventing disabling symptoms. Finding an easily administered oral treatment is important, in part, because patients are less likely to delay treatment if it invo...Researchers engineer virus that blocks common genetic defect
...e original, correct splice sites and uses these to cut and paste the correct globin message. "In our approach the defect in the RNA is 'masked,' thereby effectively 'repaired.' This is different from replacing the gene with a good copy, which will then produce additional RNA and hemoglobin," Kole said. "...After massive experiment, results favor wildlife corridors
...to spread across natural landscapes that have been cut into pieces by roads, development, logging or other disturbances. The idea is that corridors not only allow animals to find new resources, they also prevent the isolation of species isolation that can lead to localized extinction if the habitat frag...Proposed remedy for forest fires puts economic interests first
...n this task with permission to cut economically desirable trees in the same area. "President Bush has said that if American taxpayers want to save money, some of those big trees need to be included in the deal," Koontz said....Laboratory study explains clinical promise of anti-angiogenesis cancer drug
... vitro, or cell-culture, approaches. In one, rings cut from the aortas of rats (a kind of tissue that's l...up the NFkB molecule, they found that TM treatment cut the production of those proteins significantly. And when they looked at the interleukin and growth f...UC researchers confirm coast redwood and Douglas fir as hosts for sudden oak death pathogen
...her fungal infections. "The tree had already been cut down to a stump by the time we conducted the tests...on't know if P. ramorum came in after the tree was cut or if the pathogen had infected the tree when it was still alive," said Rizzo. "It is impossible to ...Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, September 2002
MILITARY ORNL aims to cut gun barrel casualties . . . Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 300,000-watt plasma arc lamp and a touch of science could help the Army solve a problem that's causing major casualties to heavy artillery barrels. The problem is that normal wear from ...New UNC study suggests multivitamin use during pregnancy cuts childhood tumor risk
... women who take multivitamins during pregnancy can cut their children's risk of the tumor by 30 percent to 40 percent. Researchers could not pinpoint which vitamin or vitamins were most responsible for the reduced risk, but say their findings support and are consistent with earlier studies indicating vi...Shark fin soup: Scientists now can tell which kind of shark
...hark catches, many commercial fishing boats simply cut off a shark's fins a practice known as finning and toss the mortally wounded fish back into the ocean. The new test uses a common genetic amplification method known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, to identify six species of shark commonly c...Researchers aim to control treatment-resistant head lice
...things on little hair tufts," Clark said. "We just cut little hair tufts and make teepees out of them and the head lice kind of sit on this membrane and they think they're on a scalp and they wander down and take a blood meal and then go back up." The controlled environment allows the scientists to exami...'Jumping genes' create ripples in the genome - and perhaps species' evolution
...t of insertion caused chunks of existing DNA to be cut out and, in one location, caused neighboring DNA to be inverted, as though it had been removed and re-inserted backwards, say the researchers. "These things are happening by mechanisms never before described," says Boeke, who as a postdoc more than a...Surprise, surprise, surprise: Hopkins scientists unexpectedly create epilepsy in rats
...uction was slowed, and levels of the chemical were cut in half in specific areas of the brain compared to normal animals. Studying the electrical activity of the brain revealed rapid spikes at the same time as freezing and staring episodes - "textbook epileptic seizures," says Rothstein. "Despite recogn...Generating genetic diversity in the nervous system
...nown as "cis-splicing," whereby a variable exon is cut out and joined, or "spliced," to the constant region of that same pre-mRNA transcript. Ultimately, this process enables a neuron to manipulate the Pcdh gene structure to generate a number of mRNAs, each containing different variable regions, which wi...Antioxidant protects islet cells used in transplants for diabetes
... conditions," said Dr. Crapo. Islet-cell loss was cut in half over a six-day period, from 60% to 30%, when the antioxidants were applied during isolation of the islet cells. The antioxidants also improved the effectiveness of the islet-cell transplants. When large amounts of islet cells (700-1,000 islet...Sprawl may threaten wildlife in reserves
...ea could degrade the best habitat for birds and so cut their population growth below sustainable levels. "Our findings suggest that alteration and destruction of the remaining productive habitats outside nature reserves will pose dire threats to many wildlife populations," say Andrew Hansen and Jay Rote...'Rock-paper-scissors' preserves biodiversity in bacterial neighborhoods
...ual one-upmanship: rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper and paper covers rock. In the July 11 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Stanford and Yale report that certain bacteria can play their own version of that game. Populations chase each other around the petri dish in a set of incessant s...National study halted since health risks exceed benefits in postmenopausal women on estrogen
...hat taking estrogen plus progestin long-term might cut the risk of heart attacks in postmenopausal women by 40 percent to 50 percent, Ontjes said. Estrogen is given to many women at the time of menopause to ease uncomfortable symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Progestin is usually added t...Snail venom heralds new era of pain treatment
...d transmits the pain you feel if, for example, you cut yourself, break a bone or suffer internal injuries. Cone shells are found in reefs around the world. They are the hunters of their realm, using a modified mouth-part to harpoon their prey and inject into them a paralyzing toxin. About 30 humans hav...New UNC study reveals screening tests can boost early discovery of AIDS virus
...ult. We hope that this type of testing can help us cut the risk for the unsuspecting partners of acutely infected patients. "In addition, these people can potentially benefit themselves if we know to start them quickly and aggressively on anti-retroviral treatment," Pilcher said. "Several very exciting b...Efficient plastic nuggets key to agricultural plastic waste disposal
...e energy required to preprocess the plastic and to cut the pieces in the calculations; the nuggets still supply 20 times the energy used to make them, according to Garthe. Preprocessing for the prototype plant is currently done by cutting up the plastics and hand feeding them into the hopper where a feed...