Other highlights in the April 19 JNCI
...tation Carriers BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutation carriers older than 40 years display a similar reduction in...risk of breast cancer for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers decreased by 14% with each additional birth for women ages 40 and older. This decrease is similar to...Controversial findings help explain evolution of life
...life ever could have begun, given that the genetic carriers were so easily mutated or destroyed during this very brief but very vulnerable time. "When the bases of DNA were first being formed billions of years ago, the atmosphere was actually quite hostile," Kong said. "It was a period prior to any protective...Scientists discover interplay between genes and viruses in tiny ocean plankton
...ations in different microbes." The distributors or carriers of new genes, the scientists suspect, are the massive numbers of viruses also known to exist in seawater. Some of them are adept at infecting ocean microbes like Prochlorococcus, the sea's most abundant plankton species. The ocean viruses, which carr...MIT: Oceans are a major gene swap-meet for plankton
..."hot spots" for gene exchange. The distributors or carriers of new genes, they suspect, are the massive numbers of viruses also known to exist in seawater, some of which are adept at infecting ocean microbes such as Prochlorococcus. Such viruses, which carry genes of their own and sometimes transport odd gene...US commercial genetic testing does not detect all cancer-associated mutations in certain genes
... is particularly important to distinguish mutation carriers from noncarriers with similarly severe family histories. Women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations are possible candidates for such surgeries. Genetic testing to identify harmful BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in as-yet unaffected women with severe family histo...UCSB researchers discover shape matters to macrophages
...for example could allow researchers to design drug carriers that can be purposefully retained by the body for a longer period of time, or could help researchers create vaccines that would be quickly removed to stimulate a rapid immune response....Biggest physics meeting of the year
...fe, reversible, high-density and low-cost hydrogen carriers (A5.3). Manos Mavrikakis (UW-Madison) will show how first-principles methods can be used to predict properties of materials and identify catalysts for specific applications needed for hydrogen fuel cells (A5.4). (A number of other sessions at the me...Researchers discover botulism toxin's insidious route into nerve cells
...l's interior. Synaptic vesicles are sac-like cargo carriers in neurons that haul neurotransmitters from the cell's interior to the synapses, which are the junctions between neurons. At the synapse, neurotransmitters are released, triggering nerve impulse in neighboring neurons. "Our uptake experiments with al...Coffee consumption linked to increased risk of heart attack for persons with certain gene variation
...1,114) and 54 percent of controls (n = 1,082) were carriers of the slow *1F allele. For carriers of the slow *1F allele, those who drank 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day had a 36 percent increased odds ...Weighting cancer drugs to make them hit tumors harder
...ystemic dose," said Chilkoti. "Macromolecular drug carriers are an attractive drug delivery system, because th...ssues." Of additional benefit, macromolecular drug carriers can be substituted for the toxic substances routinely mixed with chemotherapy to make it more solubl...Birth defects: 8 million annually worldwide
...osphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD). When two carriers of these diseases have offspring, there is a 25 percent chance that each child will receive both copies of the gene and be affected. The database prepared for the March of Dimes report details the prevalence rates and the numbers of affected births i...Other highlights in the January 18 JNCI
...hat the incidence of breast cancer in the mutation carriers increased from 19% to 72% between 1920 and 2002. ... time period, the risk of death for BRCA2 mutation carriers increased from 13% to 27%. The authors suggest that the main cause of the large increase in breast ...New approach for genetic screening for syndrome linked to cardiac irregularities and sudden death
...testing has been demonstrated by the evidence that carriers of LQTS mutations lacking QT interval prolongation (certain measurement on an electrocardiogram), who therefore escape clinical diagnosis, have a 10 percent risk of major cardiac events by age 40 years whenever left untreated, according to background...Pall blood filtration technology removes prions that can cause TSEs
...o date, but by the prevalence of people who may be carriers of the infectious prions. Protecting the blood supply from prions is a top priority since vCJD can be asymptomatic for many years and no one knows how many transfusion recipients may be receiving infected blood. There is no reliable test available ...Evidence for expanded color vision for some colorblind individuals
... chromosomes in each of their cells, women who are carriers of the deuteranamoly trait (and hence have one normal X chromosome) are predicted to express four types of cone photoreceptor--the three normal cone types, as well as the cone with a shifted wavelength sensitivity. Thought it is unclear whether this ...Gene at heart of bad outcomes in high blood pressure patients
...ve important clinical implications. "In our study, carriers of the genetic variation had an approximately 43 p... substudy, nearly a third of the participants were carriers of the tryptophan version of the alpha-adducin gene, a protein associated with the movement of ions,...Studies show apo A-I Milano gene transfer and antibody therapy cut atherosclerotic plaque
...tant form (apo A-I Milano) appeared to protect its carriers from cardiovascular disease. In 1994, Cedars-Sinai researchers led by Prediman K. Shah, M.D., director of the Division of Cardiology and the Atherosclerosis Research Center, showed for the first time that intravenous injection of a genetically engine...Grants to fund research on preparing for bioterrorist attack
...he immune system, or impair it long enough so that carriers have more time to pass it on to others. The right computer model can provide a precise, hands-on way of measuring just how good our theories are about how the system responds to a bioweapon, and how to strengthen our defenses." Beyond biodefense, Za...Hepatitis B accounts for 40 percent of 'missing' Asian women
...nsistent with existing scientific literature, that carriers of the hepatitis B virus are 1.5 times more likely to have a male child. This evidence includes both cross-country analyses and natural experimentation based on recent vaccination campaigns. In addition, hepatitis B is common in many Asian countries,......g from household pets such as cats which are known carriers of the bacteria. Between 2003 and 2004, DNA was extracted from the 33 OAL cases identified at the Asian Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. DNA extraction was also undertaken for a further 21 cases of a comparable, yet non-cancerous condition, non-neopl...