Curing Death by Curing Aging Archives Page 56

Flu virus trots globe during off season (9/21/2007)

The influenza A virus does not lie dormant during summer but migrates globally and mixes with other viral strains before returning to the Northern Hemisphere as a genetically different virus, according to biologists who say the finding settles a key debate on what the virus does during the summer off season when it is not infecting people. ...> Full Article

Heat shock proteins are co-opted for cancer (9/21/2007)

A Jekyll-Hyde mechanism that both protects healthy cells and enables cancer cells could be the basis for new cancer-fighting drugs. ...> Full Article

Liver Cancer Marker Could Yield Blood Test for Early Detection (9/20/2007)

In the face of an emerging liver cancer crisis in Asia, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a test that could help millions. Due to widespread hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, nearly 10 percent of China's population is at high risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver cancer with low survival rates if not detected and treated early. Researchers report on a new blood screening technique that could make it possible to detect early-stage liver cancer and predict how well a patient will do following treatment. ...> Full Article

Test for Lung Cancer Looks for Discomforting Quiet among Protective Genes (9/20/2007)

When it is quiet - "almost too quiet" - in movies, it is a sign that something is about to go wrong for the good guys. This holds true for the genes that protect against lung cancer, as researchers at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio, have learned. They identified a panel of 15 genes that could serve to predict cancer; if enough of their collective activity becomes quiet - almost too quiet -- it could mean they are being suppressed by other factors in the cell, a step that may lead to cancer. ...> Full Article

To Evade Chemotherapy, Some Cancer Cells Mimic Stem Cells (9/20/2007)

Anti-cancer treatments often effectively shrink the size of tumors, but some might have an opposite effect, actually expanding the small population of cancer stem cells believed to drive the disease, according to findings presented today in Atlanta, Georgia at the American Association for Cancer Research's second International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development. ...> Full Article

Researcher's Drug Strategy for Huntington's Disease (9/20/2007)

Drug prototype appears to relieve symptoms in animal models of Huntington's disease. ...> Full Article

Disease Mechanism Found for Hantavirus Infections (9/20/2007)

Researchers have discovered a mechanism by which deer mice might escape disease despite being infected with the virus. ...> Full Article

Impact of New Cancer Vaccine to be Evaluated in Rochester (9/20/2007)

Rochester has been chosen as one of four national sites to monitor the effectiveness of the new cervical cancer vaccine. The project, which is funded by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will be jointly conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the New York State Department of Health. ...> Full Article

New cell death pathway involved in sperm development (9/20/2007)

New research has uncovered a new pathway that regulates cell death proteins, yielding new knowledge about caspase function as well as insights into the causes of human infertility. ...> Full Article

Communication in Cancer World is Key to Survival (9/19/2007)

New Report Says Need is Greater as Information Grows ...> Full Article

A New Technology for Cancer Screening Listens for the Signs of Cancer (9/19/2007)

Cancer-sensing devices built as cheaply and efficiently as wristwatches - using many of the same operating principles - could change the way clinicians detect, treat and monitor cancer in patients. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created an acoustic sensor that can report the presence of small amounts of mesothelin, a molecule associated with a number of cancers including mesothelioma, as they attach to the sensor's surface. ...> Full Article

Cell death in sparrow brains may provide clues in age-related human diseases (9/19/2007)

A remarkable change takes place in the brains of tiny songbirds every year, and some day the mechanism controlling that change may help researchers develop treatments for age-related degenerative diseases of the brain such as Parkinson's and dementia. ...> Full Article

Researchers discover gene mutation thought to control energy levels (9/19/2007)

Medical researchers have discovered a mutation in a gene that is widely considered to be the major controller of energy levels in our bodies. The discovery has significant implications for people suffering from diabetes and for endurance athletes. ...> Full Article

Geneticist to seek obesity link in Alaska Natives (9/19/2007)

Geneticist to study how polyunsaturated fatty acids and physical activity may modify genetic risk factors thought to play a role in the development of obesity. ...> Full Article

Biopsy, not Screening, Detects Prostate Cancer (9/19/2007)

While PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests have become widely used to screen for prostate cancer, a biopsy is what actually determines the presence of prostate cancer. Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether or not PSA screening reduces prostate cancer deaths. ...> Full Article

Preliminary research suggests frequent hemodialysis at night may improve some outcomes for patients with end-stage kidney disease (9/19/2007)

Patients who received hemodialysis at night six times a week for treatment of end-stage kidney disease had improvements on certain outcomes, including reduced need for blood pressure medications and improvement in selected quality of life measures, compared to patients who received conventional hemodialysis three times weekly ...> Full Article

T vs. B: Re-engineered Human T Cells Effectively Target and Kill Cancerous B Cells (9/19/2007)

Human white blood cells, engineered to recognize other malignant immune cells, could provide a novel therapy for patients with highly lethal B cell cancers such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). By administering repeated doses of T cells designed to express an artificial receptor which recognizes human B cells, the researchers were able to eradicate cancer in 44 percent of mice bearing human ALL tumors. ...> Full Article

New antibiotic drug combo to speed up treatment of tuberculosis (9/19/2007)

A team of tuberculosis experts at Johns Hopkins and in Brazil have evidence that substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the regimen of drugs used to treat the highly contagious form of lung disease could dramatically shorten the time needed to cure the illness from six months to four. ...> Full Article

If You Think Cancer Genes Are Simple, You Don't Know JAK (9/18/2007)

Gene linked to leukemia, lymphoma more powerful, subtle than once thought ...> Full Article

NIH Awards Einstein Researcher Multi-Million Dollar Grant To Extend Our Understanding of Exceptional Longevity (9/18/2007)

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has been awarded a grant of more than $9.25 million from the National Institutes of Health to further the medical school's study of centenarians and the biology of aging. ...> Full Article

Team Reports Possible Key to Autoimmune Disease (9/18/2007)

Body's own DNA coupled with a peptide ignites immune response usually aimed at fighting infection ...> Full Article

Scientists reveal DNA-enzyme interaction with first ever real time footage (9/18/2007)

Scientists reveal DNA-enzyme interaction with first ever real time footage ...> Full Article

Gene Abnormality Tied to Getting Parkinson's Disease at a Younger Age (9/18/2007)

People with a certain gene mutation are more likely to get Parkinson's disease before the age of 50 compared to those without the gene abnormality, according to a study published in the September 18, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. ...> Full Article

Genes and disease? It's what you do with what you have (9/18/2007)

The importance of gene regulation for common human disease ...> Full Article

Sugar Helping Profs Map New Ground Against Deadly Bug (9/18/2007)

Sugar may help the medicine go down, but what about a medicine that targets sugar to "take down" disease-causing bacteria? ...> Full Article

Unraveling interconnected paths to disease (9/18/2007)

Under new NIH initiative, Broad Institute scientists partner with researchers nationwide to unveil genetic and environmental triggers of human disease ...> Full Article

Prostate cancer treatment trial reaches recruitment milestone (9/17/2007)

Australia and New Zealand's largest cancer trial has reached a significant milestone, meeting its recruitment target 16 months earlier than expected. ...> Full Article

Study suggests brain tumors need treatment with multiple targeted drugs (9/17/2007)

Researchers have shown that several, rather than just one, cell-growth switches are simultaneously overactive in many brain tumors and other solid tumors, explaining why treatment with just a single "targeted" switch-blocking drug often yields disappointing results. The laboratory finding argues for quickly moving to clinical trials that combine three or more such targeted drugs for such cancers to shut down all the malfunctioning growth switches. ...> Full Article

Probing a Chink in the Immunological Armor (9/17/2007)

Herpes simplex virus is a common pathogen - infecting about eight out of every 10 adults. Most people who are infected develop nothing more than a bothersome cold sore. But for some, infection with the virus can develop into herpes simplex encephalitis, which can lead to mental retardation, epilepsy and possibly death. ...> Full Article

Penn School of Medicine Receives $2.3 Million to Study Biological Indicators of Exposure to Cigarette Smoke (9/17/2007)

researchers propose to screen smokers, non-smokers and those regularly in contact with second-hand smoke for a variety of biochemical markers. The plan is to develop a panel of biochemicals, or biomarkers, that indicate if a person has been exposed to smoke to then distinguish between a group of non-smokers and disease-free tobacco smokers. ...> Full Article