Commonly used blood pressure medication prevents aortic aneurysm in mice with Marfan syndrome
...nd studied mice with the gene for Marfan syndrome, allowing for much of the research on the condition to conti...nto its individual steps or biological mechanisms, allowing the identification of a medicine that could break the chain of events. "If molecular-based therapy c...JCI table of contents, April 6, 2006
...the development of CTLs that "tolerate" the virus, allowing lifelong viral persistence. Now, in a study appearing April 6 in advance of print publication in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Daniel D. Pinschewer and colleagues at University Hospital of Zrich, report a new mechanism to ex...Nano-particles effective in killing cancer with one-two punch of chemotherapeutics
...own in the acidic environment of the cancer cells, allowing us to target these drugs within tumor cells." One key feature of molecular mechanism involves putting pores in the cancer cell's membranes and has been simulated with supercomputers by Michael F. Klein and Goundla Srinivas of Penn's Department of C...Numerical processing similar in children and adults, brain scans reveal
...ry and praise. The children were first prepared by allowing them to crawl into a fake scanner built by Pelphrey from spare fMRI parts and decorated to look like a spaceship. There, the children watched a cartoon, which would only play when they kept their heads perfectly still. The fake scanner even made the ...Study shows more than half of esophageal cancer patients now survive
...ple, the ring malfunctions consistently over time, allowing acid to irritate the cells lining the esophagus, which causes "heartburn" pain and GERD. Acid can also cause long-term changes in the esophageal cells that make them pre-cancerous, with the patches of abnormal cells known as Barrett's esophagus. Abou...New research finds direct link between high cholesterol and prostate cancer
...d gallstones. Dr Bravi said: "We found that, after allowing for any potential confounding factors, men with prostate cancer were around 50% more likely to have had high cholesterol levels[2] than our non-prostate cancer controls. The association was somewhat stronger for men whose high cholesterol levels had ...Novel virus entry mechanism could lead to new drugs against poxviruses
...erial College London team discovered the mechanism allowing Vaccinia virus to shed its outer lipid membrane an...-fusogenic disruption of the virus outer envelope, allowing the poxvirus to enter the cell. As well as discovering how the double membrane problem is solved, t...Delayed aortic trauma repair may improve survival
...c aortic trauma injuries could be safely repaired, allowing surgeons to first address related--and often fatal--injuries. If all three layers of the aorta rupture immediately, Dr. Reed explains, the patient dies almost instantly from blood loss. If the outer layer remains intact, however, a weakened area cal...Little difference between human insulin and faster-acting drugs
...f said. "Where the analogs have an advantage is in allowing the insulin regimen and delivery to fit easier into people's life and lifestyle," he said. Schooff said rapid analogs also are the drugs most often available with insulin pumps, devices that deliver insulin through a small mechanical device worn on t...Watching the brain switch off 'self'
...ot in enabling perceptual awareness, but rather in allowing the individual to reflect upon sensory experiences, to judge their possible significance to the self, and, not less importantly for consciousness research, to allow the individual to report about the occurrence of his or her sensory experience to the...Preconception health care can improve the lives of mothers and babies
...regnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes, allowing doctors to offer women additional services to redu... high blood pressure can be diagnosed and managed, allowing the mother to maintain good health while protecting the health of her future children. Medications m...Easy to use emergency mobile device for people at risk
...ection itself was shown to be particularly robust, allowing connectivity for emergency calls in places where normal mobile phones were unable to establish a connection. The system was tested last year with around a hundred elderly users in the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany who were each given the device f...Faster, more efficient searching of medical images
...long-term goal was to contribute to software tools allowing doctors and hospital technicians to quickly search and match X-rays, magnetic resonance images and computed 3D tomography scans, particularly of the craniofacial region. "Let's say a doctor has a new patient with a broken bone," says coordinator, Mad...University of Utah to help build bionic arm
...ainder of the amputated arm and then to the brain, allowing the person using it to sense the arm's motion and location, and to feel objects with the mechanical hand and fingers. The neural interface device between the arm and the person wearing it would be implanted in what is left of the amputated arm or s...Study first to show potential of light-activated gene therapy for knee injuries
...t can be captured and transmitted through a cable, allowing for arthroscopic approaches, where short wavelength UV cannot. In arthroscopy, surgeons examine the injury with a fiber optic cable through the small incision, and in many cases make the repair through the same incision. Traditional surgery requires ...Terahertz imaging may reduce breast cancer surgeries
...to eliminate the need for subsequent procedures by allowing the surgeon to analyze tissue samples during the initial excision procedure. Terahertz light is located between the infrared and microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The researchers found that by placing a slice of excised breast tissu...MIT nanoparticles may help detect, treat tumors
... magnetic signal than do individual nanoparticles, allowing detection by MRI. "We inject nanoparticles that will self-assemble when they are exposed to proteases inside of invasive tumors," said Sangeeta N. Bhatia, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology (...T cell 'brakes' lost during human evolution
...seem to have shut off these brakes on our T cells, allowing them to become hyper-active." Human T cells respond much more robustly than chimpanzee cells do, a disparity that could be explained by the absence of human T cell Siglecs. The explanation for this human-specific evolutionary loss of Siglecs is curr...Scientist works to improve treatment for brain tumors
...s delivered to the tumor through small cathethers, allowing physicians to determine the amount and specific location of treatment. "With the help of this research grant, we hope to optimize the clinical delivery of the advanced form of the drug," said Debinski. Debinski directs the Wake Forest Brain Tumor C...Study finds middle-aged Americans not as healthy as English counterparts
...es were limited to non-Hispanic white populations, allowing the researchers to control for special issues in different racial/ethnic communities in both countries. "This study challenges the theory that the greater heterogeneity of the U.S. population is the major reason the United States is behind other indu...