Curing Death by Curing Aging Archives Page 36

New Theory Of How Viruses May Contribute To Cancer (10/25/2007)

A new study suggests that viruses may contribute to cancer by causing excessive death to normal cells while promoting the growth of surviving cells with cancerous traits. Viruses may act as forces of natural selection by wiping out normal cells that support the replication of viruses and leaving behind those cells that have acquired defects in their circuitry. When this process is repeated over and over, cancer can develop. ...> Full Article

Viral Infections May Be Linked To Obesity (10/25/2007)

Experts don't dispute the important role that diet and activity play in maintaining a healthy weight. But can poor eating habits and a less active lifestyle fully explain the prevalence of obesity in the United States today? That question has led some researchers to ask whether there might be other causes for this serious problem. ...> Full Article

Study reveals genetic link to diet (10/25/2007)

Our diet is largely determined by genetic factors, according to a new study. In particular, garlic lovers, coffee drinkers and those who eat plenty of fruit and vegetables are likely to have inherited their tastes from their parents. ...> Full Article

Pace of AIDS progression not dependent on viral load alone (10/25/2007)

Armed with genetic information from more than 3,500 HIV-1-infected subjects and healthy individuals, a large multidisciplinary team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; the U.S. military; Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard; The University of California, San Francisco; Australia; Colombia; and Argentina reported this week that two genes influence AIDS progression rates by affecting not just the extent of viral replication but also the strength of the body's immune response. ...> Full Article

Researchers find obesity genes hidden in discarded data (10/25/2007)

Previously hidden obesity-related genes have been uncovered from old experiments by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The finding suggests that useful information about many medical disorders may be languishing in mountains of discarded data. ...> Full Article

A Longer-living, Healthier Mouse That Could Hold Clues To Human Aging (10/24/2007)

A study by scientists in the UK show that mice lacking the insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 are more resistant to aging than normal mice. The research adds to a growing body of work showing the importance of insulin signaling pathways as an aging mechanism in mammals - and potentially humans. ...> Full Article

Projected supply of pandemic influenza vaccine sharply increases (10/24/2007)

Recent scientific advances and increased vaccine manufacturing capacity have prompted experts to increase their projections of how many pandemic influenza vaccine courses can be made available in the coming years. ...> Full Article

Common Virus May Help Doctors Treat Deadly Brain Tumors (10/24/2007)

A common human virus may prove useful in attacking the deadliest form of brain tumors, according to study conducted by researchers at Duke's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. The researchers said the finding is an important step in developing a vaccine that can attack the tumors by enlisting the help of the body's immune system. ...> Full Article

Balancing act protects vulnerable cells from cancer (10/24/2007)

When a cell loses some of its weapons to fight cancer, it can still look healthy and act normally — if not forever, at least for a while. In research published in the October 15 issue of Cancer Cell, Rockefeller University scientists show how cells lacking a key receptor in a tumor-suppressing pathway maintain a balance between cell growth and cell death, how they lose this balance and why this loss happens more frequently in some tissues than in others. ...> Full Article

New fatal genetic heart disease discovered (10/23/2007)

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown congenital disease that is caused by a genetic defect resulting in muscle cells not being able to store energy from sugar. In the worst case, the disease can lead to the heart stopping. ...> Full Article

Eating To Live, Living To Eat: Genes May Make Some People More Motivated To Eat, Perhaps Overeat (10/23/2007)

Obesity researchers find clues to individual risk factors; gene studies could lead to better, tailored treatment ...> Full Article

Shedding Light on Breast Cancer (10/23/2007)

Exposure to sunlight may decrease risk of advanced breast cancer by half, according to a new study. ...> Full Article

Researchers knock out HIV (10/22/2007)

With the latest advances in treatment, doctors have discovered that they can successfully neutralise the HIV virus. The so-called 'combination therapy' prevents the HIV virus from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population. To date, it represents the most significant treatment for patients suffering from HIV. ...> Full Article

Grant furthers efforts to develop more effective treatments for metastatic prostate cancer (10/22/2007)

The Prostate Cancer Foundation has awarded a multi-institutional team of researchers, including from Dana-Farber, a $5 million grant to study whether nanoparticles, each no larger than 1/1,000 of a hair follicle cross section, can precisely deliver chemotherapy to cancer cells, thus sparing healthy cells. ...> Full Article

Protein Transforms Sperm into Battering Rams (10/22/2007)

For sperm to penetrate an egg, they must first compress into a tight ball before springing into action. Researchers have now discovered a protein that can affect how DNA is packaged inside sperm so that they can scrunch up tightly enough to pierce the outer layer of the egg during fertilization. ...> Full Article

West Nile virus' spread through nerve cells linked to serious complication (10/21/2007)

Scientists believe they have found an explanation for a puzzling and serious complication of West Nile virus infection. ...> Full Article

Immune cells fighting chronic infections become progressively 'exhausted,' ineffective (10/21/2007)

A new study of immune cells battling a chronic viral infection shows that the cells, called T cells, become exhausted by the fight in specific ways, undergoing profound changes that make them progressively less effective over time. ...> Full Article

Cross-species transplant in rhesus macaques is step toward diabetes cure for humans (10/21/2007)

With an eye on curing diabetes, scientists have successfully transplanted embryonic pig pancreatic cells destined to produce insulin into diabetic macaque monkeys - all without the need for risky immune suppression drugs that prevent rejection. ...> Full Article

Researchers battle African 'sleeping sickness' (10/20/2007)

A team of researchers will attempt to identify future hotspots of "sleeping sickness" in Kenya by developing a new model that ultimately could be used to predict the path of other diseases. ...> Full Article

Discovery of New Antiviral Mechanism in Mammals May Improve Treatment of Hepatitis C Infections (10/20/2007)

A team of researchers have discovered a completely new mechanism that mammalian cells employ to fight infections of the Hepatitis C virus, which affects approximately 2.7 million Americans and 170 million people worldwide. ...> Full Article

The Latest About Male Infertility and Testosterone (10/20/2007)

Two reports shed new light on male infertility. A first report shows that a common cause of male infertility-varicoceles, or varicose veins in the scrotum-also results in a depletion of testosterone. In a second related finding, researchers demonstrate that once a common, simple surgery is used to treat varicoceles and thereby restore fertility, testosterone levels are also improved. ...> Full Article

Researchers seek volunteers for malaria vaccine study (10/19/2007)

The experimental malaria vaccine uses a type of adenovirus that does not usually infect humans, so people receiving the vaccine should not have any immune response. ...> Full Article

Researcher Receives Grant to Develop Technologies for Exploring Epigenetic Regulation of the Human Genome (10/19/2007)

Research to develop tools for understanding glitches in epigenetic control mechanisms that have been found in every type of cancer that researchers have examined to date. ...> Full Article

Scientists Identify New Gene Associated with Lung Cancer (10/19/2007)

The first research to show the involvement of a gene known as Dmp1 in human lung cancer will hopefully lead to an increased understanding on what goes wrong at the cellular level to cause the disease. ...> Full Article

Study identifies pathway required for normal reproductive development (10/19/2007)

Gene defects cause infertility, lack of sense of smell in humans and mice ...> Full Article

Drug-resistant staph infection appears more widespread than previously thought (10/19/2007)

Infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) appears to be more prevalent than previously believed, affecting certain populations disproportionately and is being found more often outside of health care settings. ...> Full Article

Predicting melanoma spread (10/19/2007)

A new online tool will allow doctors to predict how melanoma can spread around the body. ...> Full Article

Enzyme's cancer-promoting activities linked to inactivation of 'genome guardian' (10/18/2007)

The enzyme WIP1 becomes cancer-causing when there is too much of it, preventing the p53 gene from protecting the genome against dangerous DNA mutations. ...> Full Article

Gene defects could be new cause of male infertility (10/18/2007)

Scientists have identified a gene crucial to the final step of the formation of a functional sperm cell. ...> Full Article

Slowing Down The Development Of Heart Disease (10/18/2007)

Scientists have shown that a protein called transthyretin (TTR) that is present in the blood may accelerate the development of atherosclerosis -- a potentially fatal heart disease in which the arteries are progressively narrowed and hardened over time, reducing blood flow to the heart. ...> Full Article