Parkinson's disease and epilepsy strike millions of people each year. They also affect countless dogs, and veterinarians are working to find ways to treat these and other neurological diseases in both species. Veterinary researchers are investigating the causes and potential treatments for a number of diseases that can be fatal in both humans and animals.
The American College of Preventive Medicine has found there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine population prostate screening with digital rectal examination or measurement of the serum tumor marker, prostatespecific antigen. ACPM advises that clinicians caring for men, especially African-American men and those with a family history, should provide information about the potential benefits and harms of screening and limits of current evidence to allow for them to make an informed decision about screening.
A gel that could prevent the painful and disfiguring contractions of skin grafts used to treat burns has been developed. When skin is irreparably damaged by burns, skin taken from other areas of the patient's body -- or created by tissue engineering -- is grafted onto the burned area. Although grafts often heal successfully, the skin shrinks significantly in nearly a third of patients. The process is painful and disabling, and particularly common in children.
An estimated one in 20 patients undergoing a common operation to boost blood supply to the heart and to ward off repeat heart attacks may do better if their surgeons also remold the heart to a near normal size, by cutting and suturing together stretched muscle and scar tissue resulting from the initial attack, according to cardiac surgeons at Johns Hopkins.
Osteoporosis, a common age-related disease, is being investigated by a group of biomechanical engineers. In the frame of a clinical study, the evolution of vertebral bone density was monitored in patients. The researchers developed a simulation model, and computed the increase in bone strength on the basis of the measured bone density. Looking for the effect of Teriparatide medication, they demonstrated with the help of high-resolution CT images an increase in bone strength of up to 30%.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has reported that key indicators of health for people with cystic fibrosis -- including lung function and nutritional status -- are rising nationwide across its accredited care center network. In fact, the outlook for people with CF continues to improve steadily each year.
In early 2007 a marine chemist reported in the Journal of Natural Products that a new natural compound derived from an uncommon deep-sea sponge was extremely effective at inhibiting cancer cell growth. A Northwestern University synthetic chemist, made the molecule in the lab and discovered the reported structure was incorrect. He then determined the real structure of neopeltolide, information that will help researchers learn how the new compound works and possibly lead to new, more-effective anti-cancer drugs.
A new study aims to determine whether a new drug based on carbon nanotubes can help prevent people from dying of acute radiation injury following radiation exposure. The study was commissioned after preliminary tests found the drug was greater than 5,000 times more effective at reducing the effects of acute radiation injury than the most effective drugs currently available.
A wave of new NASA research on tsunamis has yielded an innovative method to improve existing tsunami warning systems, and a potentially groundbreaking new theory on the source of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Dendritic cells are responsible for directing the body's immune response, and they're activated through receptors on their surfaces. Now, in research that may have implications for novel disease therapies, scientists have shown that the balance of two different versions of these Fc³ receptors -- activating versus inhibitory -- appears to affect production of an important set of genes, called interferon-response genes, including one believed to play an important role in autoimmunity and cancer. The researchers believe that manipulating the ratio of these receptors could lead to new therapies for these disorders.
Scientists have found one possible way to induce quantum dots to emit photons faster and more consistently, without their characteristic blinking. The advance could make quantum dots more sensitive as fluorescent tags in biomedical tests and single-molecule studies and steadier sources of single photons for quantum encryption.
A stressed-out mouse tends to be a bit timid, tentative, even fearful. For that matter, so does a stressed-out human. Our ability to learn from frightening situations is part of what helps us avoid them in the future. When that learning process goes awry, it can lead to depression and a decreased ability to recognize dangerous situations. Now, research by Rockefeller scientists has pinned down a protein in the hippocampus -- a part of the brain that controls memory, learning and fear -- that's essential for maintaining this stress response.
A young star is speeding away from the Milky Way so fast that astronomers have been puzzled by where it came from; based on its young age it has traveled too far to have come from our galaxy. The researchers have determined that it came from our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The result suggests that it was ejected from that galaxy by a yet-to-be-observed massive black hole.
The odds of surviving cancer of the pancreas increase dramatically for patients whose tumors are smallest, according to a new study -- the first study to specifically evaluate the link between tumor size and survival rates for one of the most common and deadly cancers.
