Cooling analgesia harnessed to relieve chronic pain
... simply applied in small doses to the skin, have a dramatic natural painkilling effect. The researchers showed that the analgesic effect occurs through activation of a recently identified protein, called TRPM8, that is expressed in nerve cells in the skin and responds to both cool temperatures and cooling che...'Mint' pain killer takes leaf out of ancient medical texts
... which have the same properties as mint oil have a dramatic pain-killing effect when applied in small doses to the skin. Unlike conventional pain killers, these compounds are likely to have minimal toxic side-effects, especially because they are applied externally to the skin. This should mean they are ideal ...Newly discovered gene may hold clues to evolution of human brain capacity
... the cerebral cortex and may even help explain the dramatic expansion of this part of the brain during human evolution. "At this point, we can only speculate about this gene's role in the evolution of the human brain, but it's exciting to find a new gene involved in brain development, and it's especially ex...Research pinpoints West Nile virus antibody binding site
...at before the virus fuses, the E protein undergoes dramatic structural repositioning and that the antibodies might inhibit those changes, preventing infection. "We have a model for understanding how this inhibition process may work," Rossmann said. "We think it's likely that the antibody blocks the position...Finding paves way for better treatment of autoimmune disease
...nflammatory bowel disease, the symptoms, including dramatic weight loss, went away. Animals showed no classic signs of inflammation, just a significant increase in regulatory cells. MCG researchers have obtained funding from the Arthritis Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to see if th...A humble aquarium fish may be the key to new therapies for birth defects
...tially toxic material. The consequences were quite dramatic because copper-containing enzymes play a number of critical roles in the life of the cell. They are involved in the process by which a cell burns sugars and disposes of the carbon dioxide and water byproducts. They are required to produce pigmentatio...Ecological effects of Gulf Coast hurricanes
...ve to decide if they want "business as usual" or a dramatic change in the way people accept the limitations and realities of dynamic coastal areas. During his presentation, Keddy will lay out what he sees as the connections between hurricanes, human irrationality, and Gulf Coast ecosystems. "From the Americ...Hunt for DNA amplified in cancers uncovers important target gene
...upstream genes or the overexpression of Yki causes dramatic overgrowth of cells in the Drosophila eye or wing....le to show that the overexpression of YAP caused a dramatic change in cell behavior associated with invasion into the protein matrix. This type of invasive acti...Evidence of rapid evolution is found at the tips of chromosomes
...iously removed TRF2 from mouse cells and seen many dramatic phenotypes," says de Lange, "all of the telomeres ligate together; there is a massive DNA damage response and the cells basically die. We argued that if the function of TRF2 was to bring POT1 to the DNA, then we should observe the same phenotype if w...Shorter tuberculosis therapies could lead to substantial reductions in cases and deaths
...results showed that shorter regimens could produce dramatic benefits at the population level by reducing patients' opportunities to default from treatment and therefore improving their own outcomes as well as curtailing transmission to others. Other possible indirect benefits were explored in alternative scen...Different genes may cause autism in boys and girls
...o early intervention, which could have a much more dramatic effect. "Also, when a gene is discovered, you discover the underlying biology of autism at the molecular level. Once you understand the biology you can develop a prevention strategy including medical approaches. Genetic research is a good strategy...Mosquito spray increases toxicity of pyrethroids in creek, study finds
... creeks," Weston said. Weston does not foresee a dramatic change in mosquito control strategies as a result of this study's findings, particularly when weighing the risks of mosquito-borne diseases. "Public health risk still trumps everything, and pyrethrin and PBO exposed to sunlight degrade easily into in...Scientists map the flight of the bumblebee
...rs have been declining in the last 50 years due to dramatic changes in the landscape caused by intense farming. Bees are a crucial part of wildlife communities - known as ecosystems - because they pollinate plants in their search for their food, nectar and pollen from flowers. Worldwide, up to 40 per cen...Gene breakthrough heralds better prospect for malaria solution
... insects Wolbachia infection has diverse and often dramatic results which all cause an increase in Wolbachia transmission for the simple reason that these bacteria are only transmitted through the maternal line, from mother to daughter. In twospot ladybirds Wolbachia kill male offspring leaving the survivi...When biology gets 'Quirky,' scientists turn to math
... were surprised to see that we could create such a dramatic switch just by changing the reactant supply rate a tiny amount. "Keep in mind that this is in the absence of any methotrexate at all," he continued. "To understand what happens in the presence of the anti-cancer drug, one should be aware of the qui...Power plants are major influence in regional mercury emissions
..., overall emissions declined by 20 percent. The dramatic annual changes in mercury emissions, the study's authors say, cannot be explained climatologically by air flow patterns that would bring either clean or polluted air into the region. Mild winters and a correspondent decrease in the need for regiona...Johns Hopkins researchers find link between cell's energy use and genome health
...d die. "We were completely unprepared for such a dramatic event," says Jef Boeke, Ph.D., Sc.D., a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Hopkins and author of the study. "We've never seen anything that can turn off that many genes in a cell at once." The unexpected finding linking both gene usage ...Yale dean addresses biggest environmental threats in new book
...sequence for the natural environment. First is the dramatic increase in consumption of the earth's natural resources, the so-called "renewable resources" of forests, air, soils, fish, animal life and fresh water. The second change has been the exponential growth of pollution. "It is the combination of high ...UGA researchers find that hunting can increase the severity of wildlife disease epidemics
...and the next mating season. The effect can be so dramatic that in some cases hunting can increase not only the proportion of infections and deaths, but also the absolute numbers. For example, their model shows that in the case of swine fever, a highly infectious disease threatening boars and pigs in Europe,......group went on to show that mice lacking aP2 have a dramatic reduction in airway inflammation in a model of asthma. In addition, the infiltration into the airways of inflammatory molecules such as leukocytes and eosinophils was highly dependent on aP2 function in mice. The data emphasize the importance of lipi...