Lyme disease receptor identified in tick guts
...irochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which also cause arthritis in humans. The purpose of the study, published November 12 in the journal Cell, was to identify how Lyme disease pathogens survive inside ticks. "We identified a receptor inside the tick gut that the spirochete bacteria use to colonize or ...Sex versus survival: A tradeoff at geographical range limits
...bled-edged nature of these sterility mutations can cause them to spread quickly in northern populations where sex is not very useful. This shows how complex traits such as sexual reproduction can quickly degenerate and even disappear when they are no longer useful. Evolutionary biologists have long viewed...Nuclear imaging offers possibility for early detection of patients with coronary heart disease
... wall." They said, "These abnormalities may be the cause of future severe cardiovascular events the PET/CT scan may be potentially useful in early detection of disease, prevention, monitoring response to therapy and prognosis." This preliminary study, which took more than three years, could establish a ro...Small seasonal changes can lead to big flu outbreaks
...ay be difficult or even impossible to pin down the cause of seasonality in influenza epidemics," Earn expla...sease spreads through communities. The underlying cause of seasonal fluctuations in transmission may be too small to measure."...November nutrition news from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts
...way. Free radicals are thought to be a fundamental cause of many degenerative diseases and the aging process and can be produced naturally in the body over time, or they can be caused by environmental factors--such as air pollution, cigarette smoking, and pesticides. Antioxidants, found in many fruits and ...Delays in cutting greenhouse gasses could harm environment
...shoots that target and returns to it by 2200 would cause warming of 1.5 degrees -- enough to severely damag... small temperature increases. Higher targets could cause warming beyond 2.5 degrees, which could affect many more ecosystems as well as the global ocean curr...JCI table of contents, November 15 2004
New gene mutation found to cause "bubble boy disease" Approximately one in every m... bubble. A number of genetic abnormalities can cause SCID. The two most common forms are linked to the X chromosome. Patients with abnormalities on this ...New gene mutation found to cause 'bubble boy disease'
...free bubble. A number of genetic abnormalities can cause SCID. The two most common forms are linked to the X chromosome. Patients with abnormalities on this chromosome either lack an enzyme called adenosine deaminase, or lack the ability to produce IL-2 receptor gamma chain, a molecule that T cells need to...New protein identified in development of lung cancer
... Villalona, noting that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and claims more than one million lives worldwide every year....Army-funded effort examines androgen's role in bone loss
...oking and bone marrow malignancies are believed to cause androgen deficiency. All in addition to reduced hormone secretion from the testes, a condition called hypogonadism are associated with osteoporosis development in men. The disease also is a side effect of androgen deprivation therapy, a commo...Dinosaurs in bullet-proof vests
...This reduces the stability of the bones and is one cause of the well-known phenomenon of brittle bones among the elderly. Torsten Scheyer explains, 'Ankylosauruses have these osteons, too, but in contrast to humans these are also strengthened with fibres.' Possibly these collagen fibres are the reason why ...Poisoning solved after millions of years
...r of disease or fatal debility. Until recently the cause of death was assumed to be, inter alia, gases of v...sche Zeitschrift which sheds light on the possible cause of death. While examining the fossils the researchers became aware that the deaths must have occurre...Sick Kids researchers confirm that cancer stem cells initiate and grow brain tumours
...MiCE) at Sick Kids. Brain tumours are the leading cause of cancer mortality in children and remain difficult to cure despite advances in surgery and drug treatments. In adults, most brain tumours are also among the harshest cancers with formidable resistance to most therapies. "Next, we are going to study...Researchers discover defense mechanisms in some plants believed bred out by humans
...rding to size, the researchers then found that the cause of aggregation was another protein, the beta-glucosidase aggregating factor (BGAF), which NULL lines produced in excess. They isolated BGAF and proved its aggregating activity. After further study, the scientists found that BGAF was a hybrid p...Diamonds are a urologist's best friend
...orbert Laube explains. Several species of bacteria cause a steep increase in the urine pH value by their metabolism. The result is that salts and other substances which are normally found in suspension in the urine are precipitated and form a deposit. After only one week some catheters look like the inside...Antipsychotic drugs stop fatal viral infection in brain cells
..., and found that it worked. But chlorprozamine can cause serious side effects, such as lowered blood pressure, stiffness and tremors, so Atwood and his team tested seven similar drugs. They found that three others, most notably the antipsychotic clozapine, also prevented infection in human glial cells with...Down Syndrome protein reduces tumor growth
...al growth factor and the serine protease thrombin, cause endothelial cells to increase their expression of genes involved in proliferation, inflammation, and thrombosis. Dr. Minami and his colleagues found that these agonists also turn on a gene that produces Down Syndrome Critical Region 1 (DSCR-1), and t...UCSB researchers advance understanding of urinary tract infections
...effort to discover the mechanisms by which E. coli cause urinary tract infections. The findings, the result of two years of study, are published in the November 19 issue of the journal Molecular Cell. In this study, the scientists all associated with the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmenta...'Blind' cells see the light; maybe someday humans will, too
...amer said, noting that insertion of electrodes can cause problems with biocompatibility. Electrodes also are large and tend to stimulate an entire bank of cells at once, which would limit the resolution. "How well electrodes would work depends on the density of the electrode array and how well you can marr......slide. "We found seafloor evidence that will cause tsunami modelers to rethink the cause and characteristics of the 1946 tsunami," said Tony Rathburn, a research associate scientist at Scri...