Special Reports
Dead dogs brought back to life! (06/29)
(HINDUSTANTIMES.COM) Zombies rising from the dead may no longer be the plot of a horror flick as now, scientists have discovered a way to bring dead dogs back to life. Using a so-called suspended animation technique, they emptied the dead animals' veins of blood and filled them with ice-cold saline solution to preserve the tissues and organs, reports the Daily Mail.
Online Analytical Toolbox For Cancer And Other Biomedical Research (06/29)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) A new website, biogeowarehouse.cse.psu.edu, offers a prototype for online access to an analytical toolbox that enables biomedical researchers to integrate dissimilar data from a variety of sources and extract the most useful information from it by posing queries.
Antibiotics Help Combat Dangerous Tropical Disease (06/29)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) The disease is triggered off by the bite of an infected mosquito: together with its anticoagulant the mosquito pumps threadworm larvae into its host's body. These gravitate towards the lymph nodes, where they grow into threadworms which may be up to ten centimetres long. The body reacts by producing inflammation which halts the flow of lymphatic fluid. The consequence of this is that arms, legs and genitals swell to monstrous proportions – hence the name elephantiasis. More than 120 million people worldwide are infected with the pathogen wuchereria bancrofti.
Embryo Stem Cells Yield Bone and Muscle Repair Kit (06/29)
(BETTERHUMANS.COM) Researchers have derived unlimited numbers of potent cells for treating bone, cartilage and muscle conditions. The cells are purified mesenchymal precursor cells, which can give rise to fat, cartilage, bone and skeletal muscle cells.
Cancer Drug Slows Poxvirus In Mice (06/29)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Mice given a relatively new cancer drug can survive an otherwise lethal dose of vaccinia virus, a relative of smallpox virus, report scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings, say the investigators, suggest that Gleevec or similar drugs might be useful in preventing adverse side effects of smallpox vaccine. The classic smallpox vaccine is made from live, weakened vaccinia virus and is not recommended for people with compromised immunity, except in emergency situations where they may have been exposed to smallpox virus.
Visceral leishmaniasis - successful vaccine trial in dogs (06/29)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Visceral leishmaniasis, which is the most severe form of the leishmaniases, hits an annual total of 500 000 people, mostly in the developing countries. It is caused by the parasite Leishmania infantum. A flagellate protozoan, it uses as vector an insect resembling a midge, the sand fly, colonizing the intestine and then the salivary glands. The female insect feeds on mammals' blood. It can thus pass the parasite on to humans by a single bite. Once in the blood stream, L. infantum passes into particular cells of the immune system, the macrophages. These eventually burst, releasing the parasites which move on to penetrate other cells. The infected subject suffers bouts of fever, anaemia, enlarged spleen and liver, and weight loss. In the absence of treatment, these clinical signs usually announce a fatal outcome.
FDA gives Astex cancer drug IND (06/29)
(DRUGRESEARCHER.COM) Astex has announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the clinical development of its cell cycle inhibitor, AT7519, for the treatment of cancer. The go-ahead by the regulatory body signals the start of research into a cell cycle inhibitor that targets key Cyclin Dependent Kinases (CDKs) resulting in tumour shrinkage.
New mad cow case raises talk of ID system (06/29)
(MSNBC.COM) The latest case of mad cow disease has brought new talk of a national livestock tracking system, something the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says the beef industry can create more quickly than the government.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/DsLOf4MbX1xfr8/New-Vaccine-Could-Protect-Against-Lassa-Fever.xhtml (06/29)
(TECHNEWSWORLD.COM) Bioweapon treatments cannot be tested for effectiveness in humans because doing so would require intentionally exposing people to deadly diseases. Therefore, determining whether a product protects people will have to be based on animal studies, and the results might not always be accurate.
Zebrafish give cancer spread clue (06/29)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) A tiny tropical fish is giving scientists clues about how the most serious form of skin cancer develops. A team from the University of Iowa and Northwestern University found embryos of zebrafish contain molecular cues that can stop tumours developing.
Sperm Stem Cells Could Restore Cancer Kids' Fertility (06/22)
(BETTERHUMANS.COM) Transplanting sperm stem cells has shown promise in a mouse study aimed at preventing infertility in boys who undergo chemotherapy. While more than 70% of children survive childhood leukemia, chemotherapy can impair the formation of sperm and cause infertility in males.
Insects develop resistance to engineered crops (06/22)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Genetically modified crops containing two insecticidal proteins in a single plant efficiently kill insects. But when crops engineered with just one of those toxins grow nearby, insects may more rapidly develop resistance to all the insect-killing plants, report Cornell University researchers.
Mutation In Mouse Circulatory Gene Mimics A Form Of Congenital Heart Disease (06/22)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Mutations in a critical gene that controls heart and blood vessel development in mouse embryos mimics a type of congenital heart disease in humans, according to new research led by Michael S. Parmacek, MD, Director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Congenital heart disease (CHD) occurs in approximately one in one hundred newborn infants. Knowing the basic genetic causes of congenital heart disease will allow for the development of CHD prenatal diagnosis, as well as treatments to prevent or correct infant and adult heart disease.
Fish oil not suitable in some heart cases (06/22)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) U.S. researchers in Oregon have found that fish oil, recommended for some heart conditions, is actually unsuitable for people with abnormal heart rhythms.
Mice May Bring on Wheezing in Some Kids (06/22)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) Children of parents with a history of asthma or allergies appear to be at greater risk of asthma if they're exposed to mouse allergens in the first year of life, Boston-based researchers report.
Gates Awards $5.4M to New Biotech Venture (06/22)
(APNEWS.MYWAY.COM) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Tuesday that it had awarded $5.4 million to a new biotechnology venture fund created by the industry's chief lobbyist and trade association.
Parasites give clues to cancer treatments (06/22)
(DRUGRESEARCHER.COM) New drug treatments and therapies for the management of bowel cancer is a distinct possibility after researchers made a surprising discovery about the immune system that details how the body expels parasitic worms.
For pregnant moms, low-mercury fish is intelligent choice (06/22)
(BLOGGINGBABY.COM) In a newly released Harvard study, doctors have concluded that women who eat fish at least twice a week can boost the intelligence of their newborn. The study, conducted among 135 Boston-area women, showed that women who ate fish at least twice a week during the second trimester had babies with the highest intelligence scores. It is important to note that the fish consumed among the mothers in the test had mercury levels below 1.2 parts per million.
SARS patients needed to test new durg (06/22)
(CHINADAILY.COM.CN) An ingredient in a drug once used to treat schizophrenia can counteract the SARS virus, a team of domestic and international scientists said yesterday. The team said the ingredient will be used to develop a new drug, but they said research can not advance from the laboratory to clinical stage without patients.
Chimp virus 'may help Aids fight' (06/22)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) Part of a virus which affects chimpanzees could help speed up the race to find an Aids vaccine. Scientists across the world are still trying to develop a vaccine, but when one is found it will need a way of being delivered to the body.
Drinking for just eight weeks impairs learning and memory in mice (06/15)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Both human and animal studies have shown that chronic alcohol consumption can produce deficits in learning and memory. Rodent studies, for example, have shown that chronic alcohol consumption for six months or more can produce permanent deficits and neural damage. A rodent study in the June issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research is the first to show that continuous drinking for as little as eight weeks can produce deficits in learning and memory that last up to 12 weeks after drinking stopped.
Molecular Miners Find Pain Relief Drugs From The Sea (06/15)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) A cone snail toxin discovered by Melbourne researchers has proven to have great potential for easing pain and could provide an improved treatment for neuropathic pain associated with diabetes.
Ebola Virus: From Wildlife To Dogs (06/15)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Since 1976 the Ebola virus has caused some lethal human epidemics in Central Africa. Research now indicates that humans do not become directly contaminated from the animal reservoir, which is an any case still unknown, but from infected carcasses of chimpanzees, gorillas and certain forest antelopes.
Turmeric Fights Breast Cancer in Mice - Study (06/15)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) Turmeric, a yellow spice used widely in Indian cooking, stops the spread of cancer in mice, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Curcumin, an active compound found in turmeric, helped stop the spread of breast cancer tumor cells to the lungs of mice.
Scientists See Human Kidney Development Through Fruit Fly Eyes (06/15)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) The laws of physics combine with the mutual attraction of two proteins to create the honeycomb pattern of fruit fly eyes, say molecular biologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This same combination of forces forms the delicate filtering structures of the mammalian kidney.
Rodent DNA may shed light on fathering (06/15)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) U.S. researchers say information about DNA in prairie voles explains why some are faithful partners and good fathers while others are less reliable. The range of behavior is influenced by a genetic mechanism that helps the rodents make quick evolutionary adaptations, the researchers from Emory University report in the new issue of Science. Reporting on the findings, The New York Times said the mechanism is regulated by a highly variable section of DNA involved in controlling a gene.
Human Tests of Experimental TB Drug Starts (06/15)
(APNEWS.MYWAY.COM) Volunteers have begun receiving an experimental tuberculosis drug that developers hope will turn the tide against the disease, which kills 2 million people each year. The experimental therapy is the product of a consortium of nonprofit organizations, U.S. government agencies and two drug makers who have come together to beat a disease that disproportionately afflicts people in developing countries.
Fish oil may harm defibrillator patients - study (06/15)
(REUTERS.COM) Fish oil appears to do more harm than good for heart patients who have surgically implanted defibrillators to shock their weakened hearts back into rhythm, researchers said on Tuesday. In a study of 200 patients with the electrical devices, half took fish oil supplements and the other half olive oil. Those who consumed fish oil had more episodes of dangerous heart arrhythmia that often precede heart attacks.
Cancer drug may prevent miscarriage (06/15)
(TELEGRAPH.CO.UK) A drug used to treat cancer may be able to prevent miscarriage and premature birth, researchers said yesterday. Scientists believe that Trichostatin A (TSA), which is used to treat bowel, breast and lung cancer, can interrupt the chain of events that causes a miscarriage.
Plants tweaked to produce SARS vaccine (06/15)
(REUTERS.COM) A vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), produced in genetically engineered tomato and tobacco plants, triggers anti-SARS antibodies in mice, according to a new report. Severe acute respiratory syndrome emerged in China's southern Guangdong province in November 2002 and spread as far as Canada by the following April. Before it was brought under control, the previously unknown virus killed 774 people and made about 8,000 sick.
Wonder Woman geckos reproduce without sex, outperform sexual lizards (06/08)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Usually when you give up something, there's a price to pay. Not so in the case of the Australian Bynoe's gecko. This line of all-female geckos doesn't need sex or a male to reproduce and, contrary to expectations, these "Wonder Woman" geckos can run farther and faster than their sexually reproducing relatives. The research findings are published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology (Vol. 78, 3, May/June 2005) by Michael Kearney, Rebecca Wahl and Kellar Autumn.
Studying Glial Cells In The Roundworm May Provide Insight Into Human Brain Diseases (06/08)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) The key to understanding our brains may lie within a one-millimeter long worm, new research from Rockefeller University indicates. Reporting in the June issue of Developmental Cell, Shai Shaham, Ph.D., and graduate student Elliot Perens use the roundworm, C. elegans, to investigate the mysterious glial cell, which makes up 90 percent of the human brain and, when it malfunctions, can contribute to diseases like Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.
Gene Change Alters Sex Orientation in Fruit Flies (06/08)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) Altering a single gene in a fruit fly can turn its sexual orientation around, causing male flies to lose interest in females, and females to display male mating rituals to other females, according to a study published in the journal Cell on Friday.
Vaccines protect monkeys from Ebola, Marburg: study (06/08)
(CBC.CA) Canadian and American researchers are reporting a discovery in fighting the diseases caused by the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses. They've developed two vaccines that protected monkeys from the viruses, according to a study published in this month's edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
Sperm may hold key to cancer, study suggests (06/08)
(MSNBC.MSN.COM) The evolutionary path that separated humans from chimps 5 million years ago may have made human sperm survive better but paradoxically may have made humans prone to cancer.
Animal model exhibits course of epilepsy (06/08)
(NEWS.WEBINDIA123.COM) An animal model of epilepsy demonstrated that the course of the disorder closely parallels that of one of the most common forms of epilepsy in humans. This model indicated how a careful evaluation of children with a typical febrile seizures and early identification of kids, who are at the risk of developing epilepsy, could prevent its development later on.
'Deadly' virus among monkeys (06/08)
(NEWS24.COM) Taiwanese officials on Monday warned hikers and tourists not to feed wild monkeys, saying a potentially deadly virus had been discovered among some 30 Taiwanese macaques. The animals, in Shou Mountain near the southern city of Kaohsiung, had been put in quarantine after they were found to carry CHV-1 virus.
'Walking' octopus inspires soft robots (06/08)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) The surprise discovery that octopi can "walk" along the sea bed on two tentacles has inspired scientists seeking to create of a new generation of soft, flexible robots. Two species of octopus have been observed moving in an upright bipedal stride since the discovery was announced in March this year.
Infected Host Not Key to West Nile's Spread (06/08)
(FORBES.COM) In a study that surprised its authors as much as anyone, scientists have discovered that the West Nile virus can be transmitted almost instantaneously between mosquitoes feeding side-by-side on an animal, even if that animal is not infected.
Sponging dolphins learn from mum (06/08)
(NEWS.BBC.CO.UK) Female bottlenose dolphins are taught by their mothers to use marine sponges to look for food, according to a study. The finding represents the first case of material culture observed in a marine mammal species.
Fish Oil Holds Promise In Alzheimer's Fight (06/01)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Even our grandmothers told us fish was "brain food"--and now scientists have evidence to back the claim. Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found that a diet high in docosahexenoic acid, or DHA--an omega-3 fatty acid found in relatively high concentrations in cold-water fish--dramatically slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in mice. Specifically, DHA cut the harmful brain plaques that mark the disease. The results appear in the March 23 online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Lack of NM23 Gene Expression Contributes to Metastasis in Mouse Model of Cancer (06/01)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) Lack of expression of the mouse equivalent of the human gene NM23 promotes metastasis in a mouse model of liver cancer, according to a new study. The NM23 gene is thought to suppress the metastatic spread of solid tumors. Marie-Lise Lacombe, Ph.D., of INSERM in Paris, and colleagues used transgenic mice that lacked the mouse NM23-M1 gene (the mouse equivalent of NM23) in two mouse models of liver cancer to examine the role of NM23 in hepatic tumor development and metastatic dissemination.
Inner Life Of Sea Squirts: Innovative Study Finds Way To 'Bio-synthesize' An Anti-cancer Compound (06/01)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) In a project that could have far-reaching implications for natural-product drug development, scientists have shown how a microbe that lives inside sea squirts could be used to biosynthesize a chemical compound that may help fight cancer.
New technique appears to stop abnormal blood vessel growth (06/01)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) A manmade protein with a tail of amino acids delivered to target cells can dramatically reduce blood vessel growth that obstructs vision or feeds a tumor, researchers have found. This new approach to inhibiting blood vessel growth, or angiogenesis, delivers "intraceptors" that sequester VEGF, a "linchpin" protein needed to make blood vessels, says Dr. Balamurali K. Ambati, corneal specialist at the Medical College of Georgia and corresponding author on the study.
Targeting Mutant B-Raf Protein Reduces Melanoma Development (06/01)
(SCIENCEDAILY.COM) Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine have identified the mechanism by which the most mutated gene in melanoma, called v599EB-Raf, aids melanoma tumor development demonstrating its importance as a therapeutic target.
Antibiotic Might Stop Diabetic Eye Damage (06/01)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) Experiments in rats suggest that minocycline, an antibiotic, could curb a common cause of vision problems in people with diabetes. Minocycline is a "strong candidate for further consideration as a therapeutic drug in reducing the retinal complications of diabetes," Dr. J. Kyle Krady and colleagues from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey write in the medical journal Diabetes.
Leprosy Microbes Lead Scientists to Immune Discovery (06/01)
(MEDICALNEWSTODAY.COM) With the unusual opportunity that human leprosy infections provide for study of human immune responses, scientists have discovered how the body's early warning system prompts a rapid immune response by two separate armies of defensive cells. The finding helps explain why, when threatened by microbes like the leprosy bug, this initial defense sometimes succeeds in limiting the damage, but in other cases yields to a dangerous, spreading infection.
Chemical linked to reproductive problems (06/01)
(NLM.NIH.GOV) A U.S. study finds boys exposed to a common class of chemicals before birth are more likely to have development problems with their reproductive organs. The paper published Friday in Environmental Health Perspectives is the first to look at the effect of phthalates on humans, USA Today reported. Earlier research has linked the chemical to birth defects in rodents.
Longevity Boost Tied to Specific Nutrients (06/01)
(BETTERHUMANS.COM) Cutting fat and protein extends fly lifespan without cutting calories, providing further insight into the effects of diet on longevity. Caloric restriction is known to extend lifespan in many organisms.
Breast cancer linked to exposure to bisphenol-A (06/01)
(PRW.COM) US scientists have linked bisphenol-A, the chemical widely used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and epoxy resins, with an increased risk of breast cancer. The study, published in the journal Endocrinology last week, delivered doses of bisphenol-A to pregnant mice and investigated the effect on the breast tissue of their baby mice.
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