Health & Medicine : Science World Report

Mar 14, 2012 10:43 AM EDT

New Compound Discovered that Rapidly Kills Liver Cancer

Scientists have identified a new compound that rapidly kills hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, the most common form of liver cancer and fifth most common cancer worldwide, while sparing healthy tissue. The compound, Factor Qunolinone Inhibitor 1 (FQI1), works by inhibiting an oncogene originally...

Mar 14, 2012 09:09 AM EDT

Scientists Produce Eye Structures from Human Blood-derived Stem Cells

For the first time, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made early retina structures containing proliferating neuroretinal progenitor cells using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from human blood.

Mar 14, 2012 07:29 AM EDT

Discovery of Mer Protein in Leukemia Cells' Nuclei May be New, Druggable Target

Since the mid-1990s, doctors have had the protein Mer in their sights â€“ it coats the outside of cancer cells, transmitting signals inside the cells that aid their uncontrolled growth. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study, recently published in the journal PLoS ONE, found another ho...

Mar 13, 2012 05:09 PM EDT

Cancer Epigenetics: Breakthrough in ID'ing Target Genes

Cancer is usually attributed to faulty genes, but growing evidence from the field of cancer epigenetics indicates a key role for the gene "silencing" proteins that stably turn genes off inside the cell nucleus. A new study from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) promises to speed r...

Mar 13, 2012 04:58 PM EDT

A New Approach to Faster Anticancer Drug Discovery

Tracking the genetic pathway of a disease offers a powerful, new approach to drug discovery, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine who used the approach to uncover a potential treatment for prostate cancer, using a drug currently marketed for congestiv...

Mar 13, 2012 04:22 PM EDT

Kessler Foundation MS Study Documents Negative Effect of Warmer Weather on Cognition

Warm weather may hinder cognitive performance in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to results of a Kessler Foundation study e-published online ahead of print by Neurology. An accompanying editorial by Meier & Christodoulou, MS and heat: The smoke and the fire, details the study's unique...

Mar 13, 2012 02:28 PM EDT

U-M Biologists Find Potential Drug that Speeds Cellular Recycling

A University of Michigan cell biologist and his colleagues have identified a potential drug that speeds up trash removal from the cell's recycling center, the lysosome. The finding suggests a new way to treat rare inherited metabolic disorders such as Niemann-Pick disease and mucolipidosis Type I...

Mar 13, 2012 02:13 PM EDT

Post-exposure Antibody Treatment Protects Primates from Ebola, Marburg Viruses

Army scientists have demonstrated, for the first time, that antibody-based therapies can successfully protect monkeys from the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses. In addition, the animals were fully protected even when treatment was administered two days post-infection, an accomplishment unmatched by ...

Mar 13, 2012 12:50 PM EDT

JoVE Shows How Researchers Open the Brain to New Treatments

One of the trickiest parts of treating brain conditions is the blood brain barrier, a blockade of cells that prevent both harmful toxins and helpful pharmaceuticals from getting to the body's control center. But, a technique published in JoVE, uses an MRI machine to guide the use of microbubbles and...

Mar 13, 2012 12:10 PM EDT

Prolonged Space Travel Causes Brain and Eye Abnormalities in Astronauts

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the eyes and brains of 27 astronauts who have spent prolonged periods of time in space revealed optical abnormalities similar to those that can occur in intracranial hypertension of unknown cause, a potentially serious condition in which pressure builds within the...

Mar 13, 2012 11:19 AM EDT

Research Suggests New Therapeutic Approach for Spinal Cord Injury

A new study suggests that administering FTY720, an oral drug that has shown promise in trials for human multiple sclerosis, significantly improves locomotor recovery in mice with spinal cord injury (SCI). The research suggests a possible new avenue to counteract the degeneration of the spinal cord i...

Mar 13, 2012 10:43 AM EDT

Research Aims for Better Diagnosis of Language Impairments

Dr. Christine Dollaghan, a professor at The University of Texas at Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders and the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is author of a paper in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. The study evaluated data collected from a large sample ...