http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The propensity of proteins to stick together in large clumps—termed "protein aggregation"—is the culprit behind a variety of conditions including Huntington's, Alzheimer's, and mad cow diseases. With this notoriety, protein aggregation is considered to be a bad accident of nature that happens when protein structure is mismanaged. But new research published online on June 13th in the Cell Press journal Developmental Cell shows that, when kept in balance, protein aggregation has beneficial functions that allow cells to organize themselves in both time and space. The findings will be valuable as researchers design treatments for diseases that involve this process. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-culprit-implicated-neurodegenerative-diseases-critical.html Medical research Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:00:32 EST news290343618 (HealthDay)—Patients with Cushing's syndrome have abnormal brain metabolites suggestive of neuronal dysfunction even after they appeared to have been cured, according to a study presented at the annual European Congress of Endocrinology, held from April 27 to May 1 in Copenhagen. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-ece-abnormal-metabolites-cushing-patients.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 03 May 2013 13:45:29 EST news286807502 (HealthDay)—Gattex (teduglutide) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat nutritional problems caused by short bowel syndrome. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-gattex-short-bowel-syndrome.html Medications Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:30:01 EST news275416457 Chronic, debilitating pain and potential organ failure are what approximately 100,000 sickle cell patients in the United States live with each day. Yutaka Niihara, M.D., M.P.H. - lead investigator at The Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) and co-founder of Emmaus Medical, Inc., an LA BioMed spin-off company - is developing a low-cost, noninvasive treatment that helps provide relief for patients suffering from the debilitating effects of sickle cell disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-therapy-ease-pain-sickle-cell.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:08:06 EST news267790071 Misfolded proteins can cause various neurodegenerative diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) or Huntington's disease, which are characterized by a progressive loss of neurons in the brain. Researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, together with their colleagues of the Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France, have now identified 21 proteins that specifically bind to a protein called ataxin-1. Twelve of these proteins enhance the misfolding of ataxin-1 and thus promote the formation of harmful protein aggregate structures, whereas nine of them prevent the misfolding. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-protein-misfolding.html Genetics Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:47:48 EST news267180459 (HealthDay) -- Levels of some amino acids are associated with glycemia and insulin resistance and predict the development of type 2 diabetes in men, according to a study published online May 2 in Diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-amino-acid-linked-diabetes.html Diabetes Wed, 09 May 2012 14:30:01 EST news255786955