Tag Archives: mla

Hormones impact stress, memories, understanding social cues

Today’s new findings show that: Maternal stress can reduce levels of a chemical in the placenta that influences many other functions, such as development in mice. Additionally, the chemical could serve as a biomarker for maternal stress, a known risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and schizophrenia Estrogen replacement therapy in post-menopausal women may help prevent stress-related memory loss Other recent findings discussed show that: Tamoxifen, a drug used to treat breast cancer, may protect against cognitive loss in post-menopausal women Estrogens, commonly thought of as a female reproductive hormone, are produced in the brains of males and females. …

Potential drug target to nip cancer in the bud

The research was conducted by Dr Dmitry Bulavin and his team at A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), with their findings published in the 14 October 2013 issue of the scientific journal, Cancer Cell. The team discovered that Wip1 phosphatase is a key factor that causes point mutations to sprout in human cancers. These types of mutations stem from errors that are made during DNA replication in the body, causing one base-pair in the DNA sequence to be altered. These mutations can cause cancers to take root, or to become resilient to treatment. …

Scientists decipher how the immune system induces liver damage during hepatitis

A study published today in the online edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and carried out by Erwin Wagner’s team, Director of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme and holder of an ERC Advanced Grant, shows how the immune system ‘attacks’ liver cells during hepatitis by using the AP-1 gene JunB. Latifa Bakiri, one of the study’s authors and a researcher in Wagner’s laboratory details: "The activation of the JunB/AP-1 gene in a subset of immune cells, called NK cells, increases the production of interferon-gamma that attacks liver cells while the organ is suffering from hepatitis." With this discovery, the study’s authors propose a new mechanism by which AP-1 acts as a double-edged sword in the liver: it’s a first line of defence against viruses that cause the disease, but also encourages liver damage depending on the diet or genetics of the patient. …

Long term results of trial for patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer

Prof. Bernard Nordlinger of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ambroise Paré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Université de Versailles, Boulogne- Billancourt, France, and member of the EORTC Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Group says, "Surgery is currently the only potentially curative treatment for resectable liver metastases, yet only 15-20% of patients with hepatic metastases are initially eligible for a radical surgical treatment. Furthermore, less than one half of patients who do receive such treatment achieve 5-year survival after resection. This is likely due to the presence of residual disease, so it is thought that adjuvant chemotherapy could help these patients." EORTC intergroup trial 40983 recruited 364 patients between the ages of 18-80 years with colorectal cancer and up to four liver metastases. …

Machines learn to detect breast cancer

Duo Zhou, a biostatistician at pharmaceutical company Pfizer in New York and colleagues Dinesh Mital and Shankar Srinivasan of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, point out that data pattern recognition is widely used in machine-learning applications in science. Computer algorithms trained on historical data can be used to analyze current information and detect patterns and then predict possible future patterns. However, this powerful knowledge discovery technology is little used in medicine…

Interaction between two leukemia drugs explained

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a form of blood cancer based on a genetic disorder that leads to the overproduction of white blood cells. Ninety-five percent of affected patients can be treated successfully with the Novartis drug imatinib, also known as Gleevec®. Imatinib is an inhibitor that blocks the ATP-binding site of the tyrosine kinase Abl in affected blood cells, thereby suppressing their overactivity. Consequently, the pathological overproduction of leucocytes is stopped and the blood count normalizes…

Brain tumor removal through hole smaller than dime

Gavin Britz, MBBCh, MPH, FAANS, chairman of neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, used a minimally-invasive technique to remove a vascular lesion from deep within the 44-year-old patient’s brain, the first to use this technique in the region. Traditionally, vascular lesions or brain tumors that are located deep within the brain can cause damage just by surgical removal. "With this new approach, we can navigate through millions of important brain fibers and tracts to access deep areas of the brain where these benign tumors or hemorrhages are located with minimal injury to normal brain," said Britz. "Ryan’s surgery took less than an hour." Houston Methodist neurosurgeons Britz and David Baskin, M.D., director of the Kenneth R. …

Leadership void, not lack of money, slows efforts to address cervical cancer

"We focus on cervical cancer because it is likely the ‘low-hanging fruit’ opportunity to beat a cancer in this generation," said Beth Meyerson, a health policy expert at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington. "We have the tools of HPV vaccination, screening and treatment; but uninsured women and women of color experience huge health disparities. This is the signal that we have a health system problem." Meyerson and her research colleagues conducted interviews with 15 professionals working in programs involving cervical cancer. …