More men than women develop Parkinson’s disease and new work presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies says that it is do to sex differences in how brain cells change. Parkinson’s disease affects about 9 million people and becomes increasingly prevalent with age.
An analysis comparing the individual differences between over 40 strains of Zika virus (30 isolated from humans, 10 from mosquitoes, and 1 from monkeys) has identified significant changes in both amino acid and nucleotide sequences during the past half-century. The data, published April 15 in Cell Host & Microbe, support a strong divergence between the Asian and African lineages as well as human and mosquito isolates of the virus, and will likely be helpful as researchers flush out how a relatively unknown pathogen led to the current outbreak.
Athens, Greece - 15 April 2016: Patients have poor knowledge of warfarin which may increase their risk of serious side effects, according to research presented today at EuroHeartCare 2016 by Dr Kjersti Oterhals, a nurse researcher at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway.1
"The stroke and bleeding complications from warfarin can be fatal," said Dr Oterhals. "Worldwide warfarin causes the most deaths from drug-related side effects. Patients need to know what foods and drugs have an impact on how warfarin works, and what to do if they have symptoms of an overdose or underdose."
In a new study, environmental pollutants found in fish were shown to obstruct the human body's natural defense system to expel harmful toxins. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego-led research team suggests that this information should be used to better assess the human health risks from eating contaminated seafood. The study was published in the April 15 issue of the journal Science Advances.
A protein found in cells of nearly all plants and animals, called P-gp, acts as the cell's bouncer by expelling foreign chemicals from the body. P-gp is well known for its ability to transport therapeutic drugs out of cancer cells and, in some cases, rendering these cells resistant to multiple drugs at once.
Disastrous floods in the Balkans two years ago are likely linked to the temporary slowdown of giant airstreams, scientists found. These wind patterns, circling the globe in the form of huge waves between the Equator and the North Pole, normally move eastwards, but practically stopped for several days then -- at the same time, a weather system got stuck over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia that poured out record amounts of rain. The study adds evidence that so-called planetary wave resonance is a key mechanism for causing extreme weather events in summer. Further, the scientists showed that extreme rainfall events are strongly increasing in the Balkans, even more than the globally observed rise.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The ubiquitous nutrition facts panel has graced food packages for many years. But can it be improved?
Results from a study led by Michigan State University and featured in a recent issue of the journal Food Policy indicates the answer is, "Yes."
Obesity is a serious and growing global health crisis. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 40 percent of the world's adults are overweight - a number that's doubled since 1980. While many factors contribute to this epidemic, improving food labeling could be one tool to fight it.
April 16, 2016, Barcelona, Spain: Data presented today demonstrate that choosing a different combination of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment for Hepatitis C can eradicate the virus at four weeks in patients who had already failed on previous medication regimens.
The results were presented at The International Liver CongressTM in Barcelona, Spain and suggest that with the amount of DAAs available, the right combinations must be chosen for the right patients in order to eradicate the virus from the body.
A new study presented today demonstrates the potential challenge posed to public health systems across Europe as a result of the prevalence of Hepatitis B among new refugee populations.
With nearly 1,000,000 asylum applications lodged in Germany alone last year, the European Union (EU) is experiencing an unprecedented wave of immigration by refugees and asylum seekers. With many coming from the mid-east, health authorities in the EU face serious challenges in responding to the spread of communicable diseases among both refugee and native populations.
The hip fracture risk of farmers is lower than the general population , according to a study in Sweden, one of the few countries which tracks hip fractures through a national registry, making it possible to assess how hip fracture risk across the country according to occupation, economic status, level of education, latitude, and urban versus rural living.
Hip fracture risk is known to be correlated to physical activity, but that's one of the variables which the registries can't accurately track, since self-reported surveys about exercise are as useless in epidemiology as they are in food and various hazard claims.
The swirling skies of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night illustrate a mystery that has eluded biologists for more than a century--why do we perceive the color blue in the dimly lit night sky? A newly discovered mechanism of color vision in mice might help answer this question, Caltech researchers say.
The work, which was done in the laboratory of Markus Meister, Anne P. and Benjamin F. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences, will be published on April 14 in the print edition of the journal Nature.
Intestinal worms beneficially influence the composition of gut microbiota in the presence of inflammatory bowel disease, a new study suggests. The findings provide important insights into how intestinal worms, or helminths, manipulate the gut microbiota in a way that is beneficial for its host. Building upon previous research, Deepshika Ramanan and colleagues found that mice deficient in the gene Nod2, which are used to model Crohn's disease, develop abnormalities in their small intestines, including a compromised layer of mucus and changes to intestinal cell morphology. These alterations allowed for greater colonization by the bacteria Bacteroides vulgatus.
Scientists have mapped how thousands of genetic mutations can affect a cell's chances of survival.
The study involving yeast reveals how different combinations of mutations in a single gene can influence whether the cell lives or dies.
It is the first time scientists have been able to measure the effects of every possible combination of mutations in a gene.
An article in the latest edition of the journal Science describes an innovative form of heat engine that operates using only one single atom. The engine is the result of experiments undertaken by the QUANTUM work group at the Institute of Physics of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in collaboration with theoretical physicists of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU).
Heat engines have played an important role in shaping society ever since the Industrial Revolution. As in the case of motor vehicle engines, they transform thermal energy into mechanical force, and our modern lifestyle would be impossible without them. At the same time, progress in miniaturization is resulting in the creation of ever smaller devices.
