http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A team of American and Italian neuroscientists has identified a cellular change in the brain that accompanies obesity. The findings could explain the body's tendency to maintain undesirable weight levels, rather than an ideal weight, and identify possible targets for pharmacological efforts to address obesity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-key-shift-brain-overeat.html Medical research Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:14 EST news286466031 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers are finding that, long after a smoker leaves the premises, the toxicity caused by second-hand smoke remains and transforms into something even more deadly. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-toxicity-second-hand-smoker-premises.html Health Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:00:01 EST news281863688 Researchers detect characteristic constructional features in a family of sensors that process signals in the human body and control physiological processes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-glimpse-centres-cell.html Medical research Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:40:05 EST news280054611 New research links loneliness to a number of dysfunctional immune responses, suggesting that being lonely has the potential to harm overall health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-loneliness-chronic-stress-taxes-immune.html Psychology & Psychiatry Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:00:01 EST news277736696 Several drugs companies have ineffectively tried to produce antibodies that bind to the IGF-1 receptor on the cell surface, which has a critical part to play in the development of cancer. Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now ascertained how these antibodies work, and can explain why only some cancer patients are helped by IGF-1 blockers during clinical tests. The researchers also present a means by which drugs of this kind could help more cancer patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-setback-dogged-cancer-treatment.html Cancer Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:54:16 EST news273167641 Many of the body's processes follow a natural daily rhythm or so-called circadian clock. There are certain times of the day when a person is most alert, when blood pressure is highest, and when the heart is most efficient. Several rare gene mutations have been found that can adjust this clock in humans, responsible for entire families in which people wake up at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. and cannot stay up much after 8 at night. Now new research has, for the first time, identified a common gene variant that affects virtually the entire population, and which is responsible for up to an hour a day of your tendency to be an early riser or night owl. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-gene-distinguishes-early-birds-night.html Genetics Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:34:27 EST news272288055 Scientists have combined and translated two kinds of brain wave recordings into music, transforming one recording (EEG) to create the pitch and duration of a note, and the other (fMRI) to control the intensity of the music. The research, published November 14 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jing Lu and colleagues from the University of Electronic Science and Technology, China, reveals an improved method to reflect the physiological processes of the scale-free brain in music. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-remixed-brain-reveal-soundtrack-human.html Neuroscience Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:10:06 EST news272130506 Over the last 15 years, researchers have found a significant association between vascular diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes type 2, hyperlipidemia, and heart disease and an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. In a special issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, leading experts provide a comprehensive overview of the pathological, biochemical, and physiological processes that contribute to Alzheimer's disease risk and ways that may delay or reverse these age-related abnormalities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-vascular-disease-key-prevalence-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:45:12 EST news271356276 With Election Day 2012 just weeks away, a recent study provides scientific evidence that voting in national elections is actually a stressful event with measurable hormonal changes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-voting-national-elections-stress-emotional.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:02:12 EST news269175722 (Medical Xpress)—A new molecule designed to treat Alzheimer's disease has significant promise and is potentially the safest to date, according to researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-purdue-designed-molecule-closer-alzheimer-treatment.html Medical research Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:51:20 EST news268469464 Scientists at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany identified a novel strategy to target the oncologically relevant protein-cleaving enzyme Taspase1. Taspase1 levels are not only elevated in cancer cells of patients with head and neck tumors and other solid malignancies but the enzyme is also critical for the development of leukemias. Central to this concept is the approach to inhibit the enzyme's activity by 'gluing together' individual Taspase1 molecules. The results of a study undertaken by Professor Dr. Roland Stauber of the ENT Department at the Mainz University Medical Center were recently published in The FASEB Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-scientists-gain-insights-taspase1-function.html Cancer Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:02:30 EST news261136872 Fruit flies and humans both rely on hormones secreted by insulin-producing cells (IPCs) for metabolic maintenance and the regulation of numerous other physiological processes. In some ways, fly IPCs differ considerably from their mammalian counterparts; they emerge from different embryonic precursor cells, and reside within the brain rather than the pancreas. Yet, they also show striking functional similarities. Now, new findings from Takashi Nishimura and colleagues at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe have demonstrated that these cells employ highly similar molecular mechanisms to manage hormone production.  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-common-path-metabolic-maintenance.html Medical research Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:20:18 EST news258970808 Researchers in France and Sweden have discovered how one of the body's own proteins is involved in generating chronic pain in rats. The results, which also suggest therapeutic interventions to alleviate long-lasting pain, are reported in The EMBO Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-naturally-protein-role-chronic-pain.html Medical research Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:26:56 EST news258715600 This summer's action film, "The Amazing Spider-Man," is another match-up between the superhero and his nemesis the Lizard. Moviegoers and comic book fans alike will recall that the villain, AKA Dr. Curt Connors, was a surgeon who, after losing an arm, experimented with cell generation and reptilian DNA and was eventually able to grow back his missing limb. The latest issue of the journal Physiology contains a review article that looks at possible routes that unlock cellular regeneration in general, and the principles by which hair and feathers regenerate themselves in particular. The authors apply what is currently known about regenerative biology to the emerging field of regenerative medicine, which is being transformed from fantasy to reality. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-ways-animals-regenerate-hair-feathers.html Medical research Thu, 10 May 2012 11:07:51 EST news255866768 Fibronectin plays a major role in wound healing and embryonic development. The protein, which is located in the extracellular matrix of cells, has also been linked to pathological conditions including cancer and fibrosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-molecular-probes-fibronectin-disease.html Medical research Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:49:22 EST news254486952 Vitamin D is renowned for its role in creating strong bones and is a key regulator of serum calcium levels. Calcium is primarily obtained through diet and absorbed through the intestine and into the blood stream. In addition to building bone, calcium is required for a variety of important physiological processes. Vitamin D, which is detected by receptors in bone and intestinal cells, regulates the level of calcium in the blood stream and determines how much should be stored in the skeleton. Several recent clinical trials have examined the effects of vitamin D supplements on the prevention of bone fractures in the elderly; however, the results of these trials have not offered a consensus on the efficacy of these supplements. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-vitamin-d-double-edged-sword-osteoporosis.html Health Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:03 EST news254395905 For the more than 36 million people plagued by tinnitus, insomnia can have a negative effect on the condition, worsening the functional and emotional toll of chronic ringing, buzzing, hissing or clicking in the head and ears, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-insomnia-toll-tinnitus-patients.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:57:50 EST news254023059 As the United States nears another election day, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have determined scientifically, for the first time, that voting is a stressful event, inducing measurable hormonal changes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-voting-stress.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:20:26 EST news235225198 A study presented at SNM's 58th Annual Meeting focuses on the effect that breathing irregularities have on the accuracy of 4D positron emission tomography (PET) scans and outlines a PET imaging method that reduces "motion artifacts" or image blurring arising from respiratory motion. Non-gated PET imaging with 4D computed tomography may be useful for imaging patients who do not benefit from the use of respiratory gating, most notably patients with erratic breathing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-irregular-affect-accuracy-d-petct.html Cancer Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:50:01 EST news226584692 Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are two times more likely to have concurrent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than healthy controls -- an association which was sustained even when variables such as age, gender, smoking and obesity were controlled for, according to a study presented today at the EULAR 2011 Annual Congress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-link-rheumatoid-arthritis-copd.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 26 May 2011 08:04:29 EST news225615858 Gene expression is the process of converting the genetic information encoded in DNA into a final gene product such as a protein or any of several types of RNA. Scientists have long thought that the gene programs regulated by different physiological processes throughout the body are robustly pre-determined and relatively fixed for every specialized cell. But a new study by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reveals the unsuspected plasticity of some of these gene expression programs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-plasticity-hormonal-response-rapid-gene.html Genetics Sun, 15 May 2011 13:00:05 EST news224506358