http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. It's a sad but familiar scene near the grounds of many medical campuses: hospital-gowned patients, some toting rolling IV poles, huddled in clumps under bus shelters or warming areas, smoking cigarettes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-habits-die-hard-cancer-patients.html Cancer Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:50:15 EST news273156596 Understanding how any disease progresses is one of the first and most important steps towards finding treatments to stop it. This has been the case for such brain-degenerating conditions as Alzheimer's disease. Now, after several years of incremental study, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have been able to piece together important steps in how Parkinson's disease (PD) spreads from cell to cell and leads to nerve cell death. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-parkinson-disease-protein-neuron-death.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:00:02 EST news272209898 Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, researchers at Luleå University of Technology in collaboration with Warwick University in the UK for the first time in the world managed to analyse hydrogen bonds in tiny fibrils of Amyloid-beta peptide , which probably causes Alzheimer's disease. Thanks to these new results, there is a successful method avaliable – for analysis of structure of Amyloid-beta peptides in their most toxic form, that is, when they are most dangerous for the brain neurons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-amyloid-beta-peptide-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:15:14 EST news271325694 Scientists have developed a prototype ultra-sensitive sensor that would enable doctors to detect the early stages of diseases and viruses with the naked eye, according to research published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-early-stage-diseases-naked-eye.html Cancer Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:30:00 EST news270653370 Italian, Swiss and Austrian authorities on Wednesday halted the sale of flu vaccines made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-italy-switzerland-austria-sales-novartis.html Medications Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:50:23 EST news270312606 (Medical Xpress)—Exactly how Alzheimer's disease kills brain cells is still somewhat of a mystery, but University of Michigan researchers have uncovered a clue that supports the idea that small proteins prick holes into neurons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-alzheimer-brain-cells.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:45:02 EST news269675093 (Medical Xpress)—Efforts to treat disorders like Lou Gehrig's disease, Paget's disease, inclusion body myopathy and dementia will receive a considerable boost from a new research model created by UC Irvine scientists. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-aid-degenerative-disease.html Medical research Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:13:22 EST news268402331 Atherosclerosis – the hardening of arteries that is a primary cause of cardiovascular disease and death – has long been presumed to be the fateful consequence of complicated interactions between overabundant cholesterol and resulting inflammation in the heart and blood vessels. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-high-cholesterol-upends-assumptions.html Medical research Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:00:15 EST news267965258 UC Davis researchers have found novel compounds that disrupt the formation of amyloid, the clumps of protein in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease believed to be important in causing the disease's characteristic mental decline. The so-called "spin-labeled fluorene compounds" are an important new target for researchers and physicians focused on diagnosing, treating and studying the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-molecule-blocks-pathway-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:00:01 EST news255022953 Children who are bullied in childhood are up to three times more likely to self harm up to the age of 12, a study published today on BMJ suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-bullied-children.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:30:04 EST news254676999 Scientists have identified a link between different strains of malaria parasites that cause severe disease, which could help develop vaccines or drugs against life-threatening cases of the infection. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scientists-achilles-heel-life-threatening-malaria.html Medical research Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:40:01 EST news254135556 (Medical Xpress) -- Penn researchers have shown that brain tissue from a Parkinson's disease mouse model , as well as synthetically produced disease protein fibrils, injected into young, symptom-free PD mice led to spreading of PD pathology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-parkinson-protein-disease-animal.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:26:57 EST news253891518 Researchers, led by scientists from Johns Hopkins, have found five previously unknown gene mutations believed to be associated with elevated blood platelet counts in African-Americans, findings they say could someday lead to the development of new drugs to help prevent coronary artery disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-gene-mutations-linked-platelet-african.html Genetics Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:29:50 EST news249845383 Purdue University researchers revealed how a mutation in a protein shuts down a protective function needed to prevent the death of neurons in Parkinson's disease, possibly opening the door to new drug strategies to treat the disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-purdue-reveal-role-protein-mutation.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:39:26 EST news249050344 Alzheimer's disease drugs now being tested in clinical trials may have potentially adverse side effects, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. A study with mice suggests the drugs could act like a bad electrician, causing neurons to be miswired and interfering with their ability to send messages to the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-alzheimer-drugs-adverse-side-effects.html Neuroscience Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:14:36 EST news248789659 Analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid can detect whether a person has Alzheimer's disease before symptoms appear. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have studied biomarkers that offer more reliable diagnosis and, in the longer term, the possibility of effective new treatments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-csf-alzheimer-early.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:13:51 EST news243609196 High levels of tau protein in fluid bathing the brain are linked to poor recovery after head trauma, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Fondazione IRCCS Ca Granda-Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, Italy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-high-tau-protein-linked-poor.html Neuroscience Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:19:02 EST news243015531 About 90 percent of cancer deaths are caused by secondary tumors, known as metastases, which spread from the original tumor site. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-uncovering-key-player-metastasis.html Cancer Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:40:04 EST news240562107 A new study finds that a protein key to Parkinson's disease has likely been mischaracterized. The protein, alpha-synuclein, appears to have a radically different structure in healthy cells than previously thought, challenging existing disease paradigms and suggesting a new therapeutic approach. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-clue-parkinson-key-protein.html Medical research Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:01:28 EST news232544567 When normal proteins form protein clumps in the body, then alarm bells start ringing. Such clumps, called "amyloids," are closely associated with Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes. If doctors knew how these proteins form clumps, then they might be able to treat such diseases more efficiently. The physicist Adrian Keller and his colleagues at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and the university in Aarhus, Denmark, have succeeded in taking a major step in that direction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-pursuit-dangerous-clumps.html Medical research Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:46:29 EST news231065153 A small protein called SUMO might prevent the protein aggregations that typify Parkinson's disease (PD), according to a new study in the July 11, 2011, issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-sumo-defeats-protein-aggregates-typify.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:50:22 EST news229607392 In type 2 diabetes, a protein called amylin forms dense clumps that shut down insulin-producing cells, wreaking havoc on the control of blood sugar. But zinc has a knack for preventing amylin from misbehaving. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-diabetes-zinc-effects-kinky-two-faced.html Medical research Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:47:04 EST news228674805