Incoming News

A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two. But this latest study also poses an interesting question: Could AD in its "preclinical stages" also lead to SDB and explain the increased prevalence of SDB in the elderly? The study was presented at the ATS 2013 International Conference May 17-22, 2013 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania "It's really a chicken and egg story," said Ricardo S...

Optimal treatment of sleep apnea in patients with prediabetes improves blood sugar (glucose) levels and thus can reduce cardiometabolic risk, according to a study presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference May 17-22, 2013 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have identified a potential new risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea: asthma. Using data from the National Institutes of Health (Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)-funded Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study, which has been following approximately 1,500 people since 1988, researchers found that patients who had asthma were 1.70 times (95% CI=1.15-2.51) more likely to develop sleep apnea after eight years...

Gourmands and foodies everywhere have long recognized ginger as a great way to add a little peppery zing to both sweet and savory dishes; now, a study from researchers at Columbia University shows purified components of the spicy root also may have properties that help asthma patients breathe more easily. The results of the study were presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference May 17-22, 2013 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Asthma is characterized by bronchoconstriction, a tightening of the bronchial tubes that carry air into and out of the lungs...

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed a promising method to distinguish between pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis - two disorders that are difficult to tell apart. A molecular marker obtained from pancreatic "juices" can identify almost all cases of pancreatic cancer, their study shows. The findings were being presented at Digestive Disease Week 2013 in Orlando, Fla. "Many researchers have been working on such a diagnostic test for a long time - for me, it has been 20 years," says lead investigator Massimo Raimondo, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida...

In their quest to learn more about the variability of cells between and within tissues, biomedical scientists have devised tools capable of simultaneously measuring dozens of characteristics of individual cells. These technologies have led to new challenges, however, as scientists now struggle with how to make sense of the resulting trove of data. Now a solution may be at hand...

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have turned their view of osteoarthritis (OA) inside out. Literally. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, they now have evidence that the bone underneath the cartilage is also a key player and exacerbates the damage. In a proof-of-concept experiment, they found that blocking the action of a critical bone regulation protein in mice halts progression of the disease...

Whole-cell pertussis vaccines were more effective at protecting against pertussis than acellular pertussis vaccines during a large recent outbreak, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in Pediatrics. Whole-cell pertussis vaccines, also called DTwP, were available from the 1940s to 1990s, but were associated with safety concerns that ultimately led to the development of acellular pertussis vaccines, which are also called DTaP. By the late 1990s, the United States had switched from whole-cell to acellular vaccines for all five recommended infant and childhood doses...

A novel study reports that white men and women of European descent inherit common foot disorders, such as bunions (hallux valgus) and lesser toe deformities, including hammer or claw toe. Findings from the Framingham Foot Study - the first to estimate the heritability of foot disorders in humans - appear in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Previous studies show that as many as 60% of older adults have foot disorders which may limit mobility and reduce their quality of life...

A new measure of the heterogeneity - the variety of genetic mutations - of cells within a tumor appears to predict treatment outcomes of patients with the most common type of head and neck cancer. In the May 20 issue of the journal Cancer, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary describe how their measure was a better predictor of survival than most traditional risk factors in a small group of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck...

Emergency physicians are key decisionmakers for nearly half of all hospital admissions, highlighting a critical role they can play in reducing health care costs, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation. Hospital admissions from the ER increased by 17 percent over seven years, accounting for nearly all the growth in hospital admissions between 2003 and 2009. Hospital inpatient care is a key driver of health care costs, accounting for 31 percent of the nation's health care expenses...

Whole-cell pertussis vaccines were more effective at protecting against pertussis than acellular pertussis vaccines during a large recent outbreak, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in Pediatrics. Whole-cell pertussis vaccines, also called DTwP, were available from the 1940s to 1990s, but were associated with safety concerns that ultimately led to the development of acellular pertussis vaccines, which are also called DTaP. By the late 1990s, the United States had switched from whole-cell to acellular vaccines for all five recommended infant and childhood doses...

Confirmed: Primary endpoint of significantly improving overall survival not met Merck Serono, a division of Merck, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced detailed results from the randomized Phase III START* trial of its investigational MUC1 antigen-specific cancer immunotherapy L-BLP25 (formerly referred to as Stimuvax) in patients with unresectable, locally advanced Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These results will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2013 Annual Meeting in Chicago...

The use of genome-wide analysis (GWA), where the entirety of an individual's DNA is examined to look for the genomic mutations or variants which can cause health problems is a massively useful technology for diagnosing disease. However, it can also pose major ethical problems if used incorrectly, say new recommendations from the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) published on line in the European Journal of Human Genetics...

Expert systems estimate drug uptake in humans (bioavailability) more precisely than animal experiments In drug discovery today new drugs are tested on animals, such as rats, dogs and monkeys, to determine whether they are effective and possess sufficient oral bioavailability in these animals. Up to now, it has been unclear whether animal studies are transferable to humans...

The vaccine based on Cytos' Virus-Like Particle technology may open the door to accelerated production of influenza vaccines in Singapore Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Switzerland's Cytos Biotechnology AG today announced that the first healthy volunteer has been dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial with their H1N1 influenza vaccine candidate based on Cytos' proprietary bacteriophage Qbeta virus-like particle (VLP) technology...

Findings Suggest VEGF Inhibition via TGF-β1 May Be Beneficial, Reports The American Journal of Pathology The most common cause of failure after glaucoma surgery is scarring at the surgical site, so researchers are actively looking for ways to minimize or prevent scar formation. Previous work had suggested that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) activates fibrosis, whereas VEGF inhibition results in reduced scar formation and better surgical results...

Melbourne researchers have identified an immune protein that has the potential to stop or reverse the development of type 1 diabetes in its early stages, before insulin-producing cells have been destroyed. The discovery has wider repercussions, as the protein is responsible for protecting the body against excessive immune responses, and could be used to treat, or even prevent, other immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis...

According to new research published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, people who consume diets rich in fiber are at an increased risk of contracting Escherichia coli (E. coli) which can lead to O157:H7 infection and severe disease. Escherichia coli, which is also known as E. coli, is a bacterium that is found in the gut of endotherms (warm blooded organisms). Most E. coli strains are of no harm to human health, except for serotype O157:H7, which is a leading cause of food poisoning in humans and can eventually become life-threatening...

A new, highly sensitive blood test that quickly detects even the lowest levels of malaria parasites in the body could make a dramatic difference in efforts to tackle the disease in the UK and across the world, according to new research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases...