Special Reports
'Animal clue' to teen pregnancies (02/23)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) The animal kingdom could give important clues to rising teenage pregnancy rates, Chicago scientists say. Stressful experiences in early life prematurely turn on female monkeys' maternal streaks, found one study.
Japan Found Bird Flu in Flies from 2004 Outbreak (02/23)
(TODAY.REUTERS.CO.UK) Japanese researchers found flies infected with the bird flu virus after an outbreak among chickens in Japan last year, a Health Ministry official said on Tuesday, a finding that underscores the ability of the deadly virus to jump between species.
'Mighty mice' to fight weak bones (02/23)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) US scientists have made a "mighty mouse" whose big muscles could help find a way to prevent bones weakening. It has 70% more muscle mass than normal mice as it lacks the myostatin gene that ensures muscles do not overgrow.
Signaling protein builds bigger, better bones in mice (02/23)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Leaping tall buildings in a single bound may be out of the question, but the genetically engineered "supermice" in Ormond MacDougald's laboratory at the University of Michigan Medical School are definitely stronger than average. With bone mass up to four times greater than ordinary mice, these research animals could hold the secret to new drugs for preventing or treating osteoporosis and other human diseases.
Genome-wide mouse study yields link to human leukemia (02/23)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Thanks to a handful of very special mice, scientists have discovered a new tumor suppressor gene and a unique chemical signature implicated in the development of human leukemia, findings that open up a “treasure box” of opportunity and possibility, study authors say.
Mouse 'Model' of AIDS Mimics Human Disease (02/23)
(TODAY.REUTERS.CO.UK) AIDS research has been hampered because mice, which usually provide an excellent model for studying human disease, cannot be infected with HIV. Now, researchers have created a modified HIV strain that can infect mice.
Marine seaweed can detoxify organic pollutants (02/23)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Researchers have discovered that marine seaweeds have a remarkable and previously unknown capacity to detoxify serious organic pollutants such as TNT or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and they may therefore be able to play an important role in protecting the ecological health of marine life.
UCLA Brain Scientists Crack Mystery Of How Alcohol Causes Intoxication (02/23)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Alcohol interferes with how brain cells communicate with one another, coordination, grogginess, impaired memory and loss of inhibitions associated with drunkenness. Yet researchers have been unable to pinpoint how alcohol causes this disruption in the brain.
Music, pets may soothe dementia patients (02/23)
(MSNBC.MSN.COM) Music, pets and aromatherapy should be used to calm agitated or delusional patients before turning to drugs that often prove ineffective or have unhealthy side effects, researchers said Tuesday.
New Highly Active Agents Against Sandfly Fever (02/23)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Leishmaniases and trypanosomiases are parasitic diseases which kill several thousands of people per year, mainly in developing countries. The effectiveness of existing treatments is being called into question owing to their toxicity and the emergence of resistance. A family of alkaloids, the quinolines, could be a worthwhile new therapeutic line to follow. Following on from the discovery of anti-leishmaniasis activity in natural quinolines, a research team of IRD, Pasteur Institute and CNRS scientists(1) carried out investigations on this chemical family. Some of the many quinolines synthesized in the laboratory have antiparasitic properties, especially against leishmaniases, others have antiretroviral activity. Biological trials in the mouse have already confirmed their properties and therapeutic efficacy.
Rats Infected As Newborns Grew Up Vulnerable To Memory Problems During An Immune Challenge (02/16)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Underscoring the value of good prenatal care, new research suggests that early infection may create a cognitive vulnerability that appears later during stress on the immune system. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have reported that rats who experienced a one-time infection as newborns didn't learn as well as adult rats who were not infected as pups, after their immunity was challenged. The research is in February's Behavioral Neuroscience, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Research May Hold Promise For Treating Alzheimer’s (02/16)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) A compound similar to the components of DNA may improve the chances that stem cells transplanted from a patient’s bone marrow to the brain will take over the functions of damaged cells and help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological illnesses.
“Smart” Clothing Materials Could Lead to Synthetics with Biomedical Applications (02/16)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) What makes a nanocomposite material “smart”? Consider clothing that can detect the presence of chemical weapons, automatically seal its own pores, and then clean and decontaminate itself. Today the U.S. Department of Defense is funding research for fabric materials that do all these things and are also stronger, more durable, and lighter than current uniforms.
Bacteria collection sheds light on urinary tract infections (02/16)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Food of animal origin, contaminated with E.coli, can lead to urinary tract infections in women, according to a team of bacteriologists. "We found out that UTIs may be caused by ingesting food contaminated with E. coli," said Dr. Chobi DebRoy, director of Penn State's Gastroenteric Disease Center. Previously, this link was not established, she noted.
U of T researcher links schizophrenia, gene mutations (02/16)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) The supersensitivity to dopamine that is characteristic of schizophrenia can be caused by mutations to a wide variety of genes, rather than alterations to just two or three specific genes, says a University of Toronto researcher.
New Organs Could Come from Pig Embryos - Study (02/16)
(REUTERS.CO.UK) Pig embryos could provide sources of new organ and tissue transplants for people, and they may pose fewer risks than using material from adult animals, Israeli researchers reported on Monday. They found that if cells were taken from pig embryos at precisely the right time, they grew into liver, pancreas and lung tissues in mice.
Our animal instincts (02/16)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) Why budding Valentines should look to the animal kingdom for tips on romantic attachment. Rabbits, deer, dogs, tigers... always at it, if you believe the innuendos.
Gene Therapy Restores Hearing to Deaf Guinea Pigs (02/16)
(FORBES.COM) For the first time, researchers have used gene therapy to grow new auditory hair cells that enabled deaf animals to hear. Many types of permanent hearing loss are due to damage to sensory hair cells in the inner ear. If this gene therapy is successful in additional studies, it may one day help restore significant hearing loss in humans, the researchers suggest.
HIV 'could destroy cancer cells' (02/16)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) US scientists hope to be able to use a harmless form of the Aids virus to seek and destroy cancer cells. A University of California team found an "impotent" version of HIV, with the disease-causing parts of it removed, tracked down cancer cells in mice.
Beer-drinking Rats Count Calories Better Than Many People, UF Researchers Say (02/09)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Football fans faced with a frosty pitcher of beer and a heaping platter of wings on Super Bowl Sunday often respond as if it were fourth-and-goal — they go for it. But weight-conscious people should heed the humble rat, which stays trim by instinctively cutting calories when indulging in alcoholic drinks, say researchers at the University of Florida’s psychology department and the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute.
Birds' brains more similar to those of mammals than previously thought (02/09)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) The brains of birds appear to be more similar to those of mammals than previously thought. An international consortium, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this week announced new language to identify brain structures in birds. This landmark change, the first such shift in a century, reflects new evidence about the function and evolution of the vertebrate brain, mapping out similarities between structures and cognitive abilities in avian brains and the brains of mammals. The Consortium report is published in the February 2005 issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Call for £100m UK stem cell fund (02/09)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) Leading UK scientists and entrepreneurs are calling for the creation of a charitable foundation to promote and fund stem cell research in Britain. They believe this could accelerate work on developing new therapies for diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, and for treating spinal injuries.
Dolly scientist wins human cloning research licence (02/09)
(GUARDIAN.CO.UK) The scientist who created Dolly the sheep said yesterday that he hoped a licence he had been granted to clone human embryos for research into motor neurone disease would pave the way for researchers to take an "invaluable shortcut" in tackling a range of diseases. Ian Wilmut was yesterday granted only the second licence in the UK to clone human embryos for medical research since cloning was legalised in 2001.
New Neurons Born In Adult Rat Cortex (02/09)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Recent evidence suggesting that antidepressants may act by triggering the birth of new neurons in the adult hippocampus,* the brain's memory hub, has heightened interest in such adult neurogenesis and raised the question: Could new neurons also be sprouting up in the parts of the adult brain involved in the thinking and mood disturbances of depression and anxiety?
Rat Whisking May Provide Insight Into Debilitating Eye Disorder (02/09)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Physicists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered a neural circuit in rats that could provide a powerful model for understanding a neurological condition known as blepharospasm-uncontrolled eye blinking that affects 50,000 people in the U.S. and leaves some patients functionally blind.
Light Drinker Gene Located (02/09)
(BETTERHUMANS.COM) A genetic mutation has been identified that affects alcohol tolerance in animals and may partly explain why some people get drunk off a beer while others need a six pack. Besides helping to explain such differences, the finding could lead to better treatments for alcohol poisoning and addiction.
Human trials for AIDS vaccine begin in Pune (02/09)
(ECONOMICTIMES.INDIATIMES.COM) PUNE: India today joined other countries in the fight against HIV/AIDS, when the first three volunteers were injected a vaccine against the disease. Plans are on to launch human trails for another drug candidate, MVA, from Chennai, in the next three months and a third candidate as well. MVA is awaiting regulatory clearances.
Bat Saliva Drug May Improve Stroke Outcome (02/09)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) The results of a small study suggest that desmoteplase, an investigational clot-busting drug derived from vampire bat saliva, safely restores blood supply to the brain when administered up to 9 hours after a stroke occurs. Dr. Anthony Furlan of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio said that the rate of blood flow restoration in stroke patients who were randomly assigned to intravenous treatment with desmoteplase was 53.3 percent, compared with 37.5 percent in patients randomly assigned to receive placebo.
Scientists cause chicken to inherit trait (02/09)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) South Korean scientists have successfully caused a chicken to inherit a transgenic trait injected into the bird's father. The chicken inherited a fluorescent character from its green-tinged transgenic father. The procedure has raised the possibility of mass-producing biomedical substances, the Korea Times reported Sunday.
Animal Study Shows Link Between Nicotine And Atrial Flutter (02/02)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) In a recent animal study, researchers from the Division of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles, have found that over time, the absorption of nicotine after myocardial infarction (MI) significantly increases the incidence of cardiac fibrosis in canine hearts. This reaction promotes a kind of rapid heart rhythm that has many similarities to typical human atrial flutter, a potentially life-threatening condition that affects approximately a quarter million Americans each year.
Drug Treatment Promising For Halting Huntington's-related Nerve Death (02/02)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that drugs commonly used to treat psychiatric illnesses and blood disorders in humans may protect the brain cells that die in people with Huntington's disease, possibly delaying the onset and slowing the progression of the disease.
Obesity Gene Identified in Mice (02/02)
(REUTERS.CO.UK) A gene that encodes a protein called lipin seems to promote obesity in mice, even when food intake remains stable, according to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Music, pets may soothe dementia patients (02/02)
(MSNBC.MSN.COM) Music, pets and aromatherapy should be used to calm agitated or delusional patients before turning to drugs that often prove ineffective or have unhealthy side effects, researchers said Tuesday.
Researchers Find New Genes Necessary to Make Embryo (02/02)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Researchers at New York University and the medical schools at Harvard and Yale universities have identified new genes necessary for embryonic development, according to findings published in the latest issue of Genome Research. This discovery is an important step toward a complete mapping of which parts of the genome are required for embryonic development. The new findings also probe into how genetic networks are built and how they could evolve.
Lupus Research Institute increases funding for innovative research (02/02)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Committed to its core belief that original thinking--idea-driven science--is the overarching need in lupus research, the Lupus Research Institute (LRI) is raising its individual novel research grant awards to $300,000.
Vaccine for cervical cancer could be ready 'within next five years' (02/02)
(NEWS.SCOTSMAN.COM) A vaccine for the most common form of cervical cancer could be available within five years, an oncology expert claimed yesterday. According to Dr Anne Szarewski, of Cancer Research UK, there are two vaccines in the final stages of completion by pharmaceutical companies.
Stem Cell Research Breakthrough At UW-Madison (02/02)
(HEALTHTALK.CA) Researchers in the United States have made a critical breakthrough in human embryonic stem research. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have turned human embryonic stem cells into spinal motor neurons.
Cell study probes cancer growth (02/02)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) Scientists have pieced together the process by which the energy producing part of cells can allow cancer to grow.
Antibody Curbs Late Anthrax Illness, in Rats (02/02)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) Synthetically produced antibodies that target a component of the anthrax toxin may reduce illness and death due anthrax exposure, even after shock has set in, rat studies indicate.
Special Reports:
Nobel Laureates Back Animal Research
Winners of Nobel prizes in physiology or medicine
overwhelmingly support responsible use of animals in research, according to
Seriously Ill For Medical
Research (SIMR) of Bedfordshire, England. SIMR has carried out a survey of
Nobel prize winners in physiology or medicine to find the views of top medical
researchers worldwide on the need for animals in medical research.
The centenary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896
seemed an ideal opportunity. "We are concerned that animal rights propaganda has
undue influence in the media, leading to confusion amongst the public and
patients about animal research. SIMR wants to help sort out science fact from
science fiction," said the late Andrew Blake of SIMR.
Questionnaires were sent to all living Nobel
laureates in medicine or physiology. They were asked to indicate their level of
agreement with five statements on the use of animals in medcal research. Their
responses show unanimous support on the need to use animals in medical research.
The complete survey results are available at the
SIMR website. To review the achievements of these great scientists, see a
Timeline
of Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine.
info@pirweb.org