http://medicalxpress.com/research-news/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on medicine research, health research, medicine, health and medical science. Widely available in pharmacies and health stores, phosphatidylserine is a natural food supplement produced from beef, oysters, and soy. Proven to improve cognition and slow memory loss, it's a popular treatment for older people experiencing memory impairment. Now a team headed by Prof. Gil Ast and Dr. Ron Bochner of Tel Aviv University's Department of Human Molecular Genetics have discovered that the same supplement improves the functioning of genes involved in degenerative brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease and Familial Dysautonomia (FD). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-common-food-supplement-degenerative-brain.html Medical research Tue, 21 May 2013 12:20:01 EST news288356860 Researchers at Emory University have identified a protein that stimulates a pair of "orphan receptors" found in the brain, solving a long-standing biological puzzle and possibly leading to future treatments for neurological diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-family-pair-orphan-receptors-brain.html Medical research Tue, 21 May 2013 11:49:55 EST news288355780 Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-insight-dazzling-impact-insulin-cells.html Medical research Tue, 21 May 2013 11:25:38 EST news288354330 Nearly 20 percent of kidneys that are recovered from deceased donors in the U.S. are refused for transplant due to factors ranging from scarring in small blood vessels of the kidney's filtering units to the organ going too long without blood or oxygen. But, what if instead of being discarded, these organs could be "recycled" to help solve the critical shortage of donor organs? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-source-kidneys-transplant.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 16:20:04 EST news288284721 Discovering that mouse hair has a circadian clock - a 24-hour cycle of growth followed by restorative repair - researchers suspect that hair loss in humans from toxic cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy might be minimized if these treatments are given late in the day. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-discovery-circadian-clock-mice-hair.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 15:53:42 EST news288284014 Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-salamanders-solution-regeneration.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:10 EST news288270588 New research from the University of Southampton has shown that blind and visually impaired people have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that used by bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-people-potential.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 12:21:27 EST news288271271 When tumours metastasise, they can block lymphatic vessels, as researchers from ETH Zurich have discovered using a new method. The lymphatic fluid subsequently has to find a new path through the tissue. Such "detours" could well be the reason why metastasis misdiagnoses can occur in hospitals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-lymphatic-fluid-detour.html Medical research Mon, 20 May 2013 07:18:59 EST news288253128 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. Researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret "high-dimensional" data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry. The method, published in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology, has particular relevance to cancer research and therapeutics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-tool-complex-dimensional-images.html Medical research Sun, 19 May 2013 13:10:01 EST news288172425 In 2008 researchers from the University of Southern Denmark showed that the drug thioridazine, which has previously been used to treat schizophrenia, is also a powerful weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococci (Staphylococcus aureus). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scizophrenia-medicine-antibiotics-resistant-bacteria.html Medical research Fri, 17 May 2013 17:06:57 EST news288029204 New findings by researchers carrying out experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science's Advanced Photon Source (APS) help explain why some drugs that interact with two kinds of human serotonin receptors have had unexpectedly complex and sometimes harmful effects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-serotonin-receptors-drug-effects-lsd.html Medical research Fri, 17 May 2013 09:52:09 EST news287998719 Peptide molecules derived from the body's natural immune system can help boost the body's defence against life-threatening blood poisoning, joint University research has uncovered. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-blood-poisoning.html Medical research Fri, 17 May 2013 09:20:01 EST news287998200 A new Montréal study conducted by Dr. May Faraj, associate research professor at the Université de Montréal and invited scientist at the IRCM, along with her research team and medical collaborators, shows that the number of particles carrying bad cholesterol in the blood is an important factor in promoting the risk for type 2 diabetes in obese individuals. Their results are published in the May issue of the Journal of Lipid Research. This scientific breakthrough may help prevent diabetes by targeting treatments to higher-risk individuals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-mechanism-diabetes-obese-individuals.html Medical research Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:05 EST news287997845 Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology report details on the biological mechanisms through which cells degrade own cellular material, allowing them to survive starvation conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-insight-cell-survival.html Medical research Fri, 17 May 2013 08:23:25 EST news287997679 With obesity reaching epidemic levels in some parts of the world, scientists have only begun to understand why it is such a persistent condition. A study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry adds substantially to the story by reporting the discovery of a molecular chain of events in the brains of obese rats that undermined their ability to suppress appetite and to increase calorie burning. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-vicious-obesity-sustained-brain-biochemistry.html Medical research Thu, 16 May 2013 10:26:28 EST news287918780 (Medical Xpress)—The endothelium, the cellular layer lining the body's blood vessels, is extremely resilient. Measuring just a few hundred nanometers in thickness, this super-tenuous structure routinely withstands blood flow, hydrostatic pressure, stretch and tissue compression to create a unique and highly dynamic barrier that maintains the organization necessary to partition tissues from the body's circulatory system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-endothelium-thyself-fresh-resilient-tissue.html Medical research Thu, 16 May 2013 06:58:10 EST news287906284 Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio have identified four genes in baboons that influence levels of "bad" cholesterol. This discovery could lead to the development of new drugs to reduce the risk of heart disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-genes-indentified-bad-cholesterol.html Medical research Wed, 15 May 2013 13:50:01 EST news287843705 Melbourne scientists have made the surprise discovery that malaria parasites can 'talk' to each other – a social behaviour to ensure the parasite's survival and improve its chances of being transmitted to other humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-idle-chatter-malaria-parasites.html Medical research Wed, 15 May 2013 13:28:48 EST news287843320 Transplant researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine challenge a long-held assumption about how biologic pathways trigger immune system rejection of donor organs in a report published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Their study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, suggests a different paradigm is needed to develop better anti-rejection therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-transplant-experts-assumption-pathway.html Medical research Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:01 EST news287824032 (Medical Xpress)—Akkermansia muciniphila is one of the many microbes that live in our intestines. This bacterium, which feeds on the intestine's mucus lining, comprises between 3 and 5 percent of the gut microbes of healthy mammals. There is an inverse correlation between body weight and abundance of A. muciniphila in mice and humans. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Patrice Cani of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and his colleagues reveal that levels of this bacterium are very low in mice genetically predisposed to obesity. Restoring Akkermansia to normal levels leads to fat reduction and reduced insulin resistance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-gut-microbe-obesity.html Medical research Tue, 14 May 2013 13:47:11 EST news287758014 A small ensemble of musicians can produce an infinite number of melodies, harmonies and rhythms. So too, do a handful of workhorse signaling pathways that interact to construct multiple structures that comprise the vertebrate body. In fact, crosstalk between two of those pathways—those governed by proteins known as Notch and BMP (for Bone Morphogenetic Protein) receptors—occurs over and over in processes as diverse as forming a tooth, sculpting a heart valve and building a brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-musicians-brand-tune.html Medical research Tue, 14 May 2013 13:24:28 EST news287756639 Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. The brain acts as timekeeper, keeping the cellular clock in sync with the outside world so that it can govern our appetites, sleep, moods and much more. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-body-clocks-depressed-people-cell.html Medical research Mon, 13 May 2013 15:00:18 EST news287657541 Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), one type of "blue baby" syndrome, is a potentially deadly congenital disorder that occurs when pulmonary veins don't connect normally to the left atrium of the heart. This results in poorly oxygenated blood throughout the body, and TAPVC babies are born cyanotic - blue-colored - from lack of oxygen. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-mutation-wrong-way-plumbing-blue-baby-syndrome.html Medical research Sun, 12 May 2013 13:00:14 EST news287573743 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and physicians continue to document that some patients experience fuzzy thinking and memory loss while taking statins, a class of global top-selling cholesterol-lowering drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-reveals-cholesterol-drug-side-effects.html Medical research Fri, 10 May 2013 14:06:55 EST news287413604 (Medical Xpress)—Blocking the expression of just one protein in the brain delays the onset of paralysis in mice with a form of multiple sclerosis, say researchers at the School of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-blocking-protein-onset-multiple-sclerosis.html Medical research Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:01 EST news287389936 Two Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers – one a stem cell biologist and one a practicing cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital – have identified a protein in the blood of mice and humans that may prove to be the first effective treatment for the form of age-related heart failure that affects millions of Americans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-protein-reverses-effects-aging-mouse.html Medical research Thu, 09 May 2013 12:00:14 EST news287306804 Researchers discovered that small pieces of genetic material called microRNAs link the two defining characteristics of fit muscles: the ability to burn sugar and fat and the ability to switch between slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers. The team used two complementary mouse models—the "marathon mouse" and the "couch potato mouse"—to make this discovery. But what's more, they also found that active people have higher levels of one of these microRNAs than sedentary people. These findings, published May 8 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest microRNAs could be targeted for the development of new medical interventions aimed at improving muscle fitness in people with chronic illness or injury. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-differences-marathon-mice-couch-potato.html Medical research Wed, 08 May 2013 11:03:06 EST news287229778 A key type of human brain cell developed in the laboratory grows seamlessly when transplanted into the brains of mice, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered, raising hope that these cells might one day be used to treat people with Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and possibly even Alzheimer's disease, as well as and complications of spinal cord injury such as chronic pain and spasticity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-human-brain-cells-lab-mice.html Medical research Wed, 08 May 2013 09:15:46 EST news287223336 Through the serendipity of science, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a potential treatment for deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infections that uses the same approach that HIV uses to infect cells. The National Institutes of Health-supported discovery will be described in the June issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. It is especially promising in the development of a potential treatment for lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-discovery-potential-drug-resistant-bacteria.html Medical research Tue, 07 May 2013 15:25:26 EST news287159117 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists' picture of how a gene strongly linked to Alzheimer's disease harms the brain may have to be revised, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-perspective-role-major-alzheimer-gene.html Medical research Tue, 07 May 2013 07:32:39 EST news287130751