ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

Factor in naked mole rat's cells enhances protein integrity

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT

A factor in naked mole rat cells could be one of the secrets to how the rodent defies aging, researchers say. Naked mole rats, which burrow through underground tunnels in their native East Africa, are nearly hairless rodents. They live as long as 32 years. Naked mole rats maintain cancer-free good health and reproductive potential well into their third decade of life.

Surprising discovery: HIV hides in gut, evading eradication

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT

Some surprising discoveries about the body's initial responses to HIV infection have been made by researchers. One of the biggest obstacles to complete viral eradication and immune recovery is the stable HIV reservoir in the gut. There is very little information about the early viral invasion and the establishment of the gut reservoir. "We want to understand what enables the virus to invade the gut, cause inflammation and kill the immune cells," said the study's lead author.

Report advocates improved police training

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT

A new report identifies ways to improve the mental health training and education that police personnel receive. "The most important part of the report and what comes after is making sure people living with mental illness are involved in the delivery of training," says one expert.

Antidepressants show potential for postoperative pain

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT

Anesthesiologists examine studies where antidepressants were prescribed for pain after surgery. Clinical trials are often used to answer questions about the efficacy of the off-label uses of drugs. In the case of antidepressants, their effects on postsurgical pain continue to be an area of research interest.

Preventing cancer from forming 'tentacles' stops dangerous spread

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT

'Invadopodia' play a key role in the spread of cancer, a team of researchers reports. The study shows preventing these tentacle-like structures from forming can stop the spread of cancer entirely.

Options for weight loss your primary care doctor might not know about

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:53 PM PDT

Despite US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for screening and treating obesity, there are many barriers, several of which may be ameliorated through technological approaches according to a new study.

Efficacy of new gene therapy approach for toxin exposures shown in mouse study

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:53 PM PDT

Gene therapy may offer significant advantages in prevention and treatment of botulism exposure over current methods, new research shows. "We envision this treatment approach having a broad range of applications such as protecting military personnel from biothreat agents or protecting the public from other toxin-mediated diseases such as C. difficile and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections," said the lead researcher.

Vaccine for Ebola? Experts answer questions

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:53 PM PDT

To learn more about this outbreak and the creation of new human vaccines, infectious disease experts who have led vaccine studies for such global pathogens as cholera, West Nile virus, dengue, typhoid fever and anthrax speak to reporters and answer questions.

Pioneer strategy for creating new materials

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 10:59 AM PDT

Making something new is never easy. Scientists constantly theorize about new materials, but when the material is manufactured it doesn't always work as expected. To create a new strategy for designing materials, scientists combined two different approaches at two different facilities to synthesize new materials. This new strategy gives faster feedback on what growth schemes are best, thus shortening the timeframe to manufacture a new, stable material for energy transport and conversion applications.

How Ebola blocks immune system

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 10:54 AM PDT

Researchers have identified one way the Ebola virus dodges the body's antiviral defenses, providing important insight that could lead to new therapies.

Revealing novel mode of action for osteoporosis drug

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 10:54 AM PDT

Raloxifene is a US Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for decreasing fracture risk in osteoporosis. While raloxifene is as effective at reducing fracture risk as other current treatments, this works only partially by suppressing bone loss. X-ray studies revealed an additional mechanism underlying raloxifene action, providing an explanation for how this drug can achieve equivalent clinical benefit.

New biodiversity metric defined by researchers

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 10:54 AM PDT

To understand how the repeated climatic shifts over the last 120,000 years may have influenced today's patterns of genetic diversity, a team of researchers developed a new biodiversity metric called 'phylogeographic endemism.'

Leading Ebola researcher says there's an effective treatment for Ebola

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 10:54 AM PDT

A leading US Ebola researcher has gone on record stating that a blend of three monoclonal antibodies can completely protect monkeys against a lethal dose of Ebola virus up to five days after infection, at a time when the disease is severe.

Ready for mating at the right time: How pheromones signal mating cues in tilapia

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 08:59 AM PDT

Fish rely on pheromones to trigger social responses and to coordinate reproductive behavior in males and females. Scientists have now identified such a signal molecule in the urine of male Mozambique tilapia: this pheromone boosts hormone production and accelerates oocyte maturation in reproductive females.

MERS: Low transmissibility, dangerous illness

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 07:33 AM PDT

The MERS coronavirus has caused disease outbreaks across the Arabian Peninsula and spread to Europe several times. The severe pneumonia virus has claimed the lives of several hundred people since its discovery in 2012. For a long time, scientists have been puzzled over how easily the pathogen spreads from human to human. An international team of researchers has now come to the conclusion that the rate of human transmission is low.

Intervention needed for survivors of childhood burns

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 07:32 AM PDT

Adults who have been hospitalized for a burn as a child experience higher than usual rates of depression and suicidal thoughts, according to new research. A 30-year follow up of childhood burns victims has found that 42% of people surveyed had suffered some form of mental illness and 30% suffered depression at some stage in their lives.

Assortativity signatures of transcription factor networks contribute to robustness

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 07:32 AM PDT

The type and number of connections in transcription factor networks (TFNs) have been studied to evaluate the role assortativity plays on robustness. The study found that the assortativity signature contributes to a network's resilience against mutations. Transcription factors (TFs) are proteins that initiate and regulate the expression of a gene. To achieve their genetic mission, TFs also regulate one another's expression.

New model predicts patients with type 1 diabetes who will go on to develop major complications

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 03:48 PM PDT

A new model has been developed for predicting which patients with type 1 diabetes will go on to develop major complications, through easily and routinely measured risk factors. "The risk estimates can guide surveillance recommendations, inform patients and allow efficient design and analysis of clinical trials," the author say.

Cellphone addiction harming academic performance is 'an increasingly realistic possibility'

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 03:47 PM PDT

Women college students spend an average of 10 hours a day on their cellphones, with men college students spending nearly eight hours, according to a study on cellphone activity. "As cellphone functions increase, addictions to this seemingly indispensable piece of technology become an increasingly realistic possibility," researchers noted.

Exit strategy: Is it time to rethink the VA healthcare system?

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

As the federal government plans its exit strategy from the war, now may be the time for it to rethink its role in providing health care to veterans, says an expert. The VA incurs high fixed costs of a brick-and-mortar health care system, the largest salaried workforce in the federal government, and a large administration.

After Great Recession, Americans are unhappy, worried, pessimistic, study finds

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

The protracted and uneven recovery from the Great Recession has led most Americans to conclude that the US economy has undergone a permanent change for the worse, according to a new national study. Seven in 10 now say the recession's impact is permanent, up from half in 2009 when the recession officially ended.

Prions can trigger 'stuck' wine fermentations, researchers find

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

A biochemical communication system that crosses from bacteria to yeast, making use of prions, has been discovered. It is responsible for a chronic winemaking problem known as 'stuck fermentation' and may also have implications for better understanding metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, in humans.

Socially-assistive robots help kids with autism learn by providing personalized prompts

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

Children with autism spectrum disorders showed improved or maintained performance in learning imitative behavior by interacting with humanoid robots that provided graded cueing, an occupational therapy technique that shapes behavior by providing increasingly specific cues to help a person learn new skills.

Deadly remedy: Warning issued about Chinese herbal medicine

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

A herbal preparation prescribed by a Chinese herbal medication practitioner in Melbourne for back pain resulted in life-threatening heart changes, prompting a team of intensive care and emergency physicians to call for appropriate patient education by practitioners who prescribe complementary medications.

Breakthrough in RSV research with drug trial

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

A new clinical trial of a drug was shown to safely reduce the viral load and clinical illness of healthy adult volunteers intranasally infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in young children in the United States and worldwide. It hospitalizes 125,000 children in the United States each year, and was the cause for 1.5 million outpatient visits.

New type of cell movement discovered

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 11:27 AM PDT

Scientists have used an innovative technique to study how cells move in a three-dimensional matrix, similar to the structure of certain tissues, such as the skin. They discovered an entirely new type of cell movement whereby the nucleus helps propel cells through the matrix like a piston in an engine.

HIV Lessons from the Mississippi Baby

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 11:26 AM PDT

The news in July, 2014 that HIV had returned in a Mississippi toddler after a two-year treatment-free remission dashed the hopes of clinicians, HIV researchers and the public at large tantalized by the possibility of a cure. But a new commentary by two leading HIV experts argues that despite its disappointing outcome, the Mississippi case and two other recent HIV "rebounds" in adults, have yielded critical lessons about the virus' most perplexing — and maddening — feature: its ability to form cure-defying viral hideouts.

Breastfeeding study shows need for effective peer counseling programs

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 10:58 AM PDT

The support of peer groups and clinicians is critical to the development of effective breastfeeding programs, according to recent research. A qualitative study of 21 mothers determined that role models for successful breastfeeding help positively shape the outcomes of mothers of infants.

Researchers find animal model for understudied type of muscular dystrophy

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 10:58 AM PDT

An animal research model has been developed for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) to be used for muscle regeneration research as well as studies of the effectiveness of potential therapies for FSHD.

Respiratory infection controls being used for Ebola patients are unnecessary, may contribute to public panic

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 10:55 AM PDT

Respiratory infection control measures -- which have been adopted by most health agencies to deal with the Ebola epidemic in west Africa -- are unnecessary, and may heighten panic and fear among the public, according to the authors of a new paper.

How studying damage to prefrontal lobe has helped unlock the brain's mysteries

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 10:55 AM PDT

Until the last few decades, the frontal lobes of the brain were shrouded in mystery and erroneously thought of as nonessential for normal function. Now a review highlights groundbreaking studies of patients with brain damage that reveal how distinct areas of the frontal lobes are critical for a person's ability to learn, multitask, control emotions, socialize, and make decisions. The findings have helped experts rehabilitate patients experiencing damage to this brain region.

Cicada study discovers two genomes that function as one

Posted: 28 Aug 2014 10:55 AM PDT

While studying cicadas, researchers discovered that Hodgkinia had subtly become more complex through a speciation event, in which the original lineage split to produce two separate but interdependent species of Hodgkinia. What was previously thought to be a tripartite, or a three-way symbiosis, is now proven to actually be a four-way symbiosis.