A virus that infects major freshwater bacteria appears to use stolen bits of immune system DNA to highjack their hosts' immune response.

Microbiologists have discovered that the virus, Cyanophage N1, carries a DNA sequence--a CRISPR--that is generally used by bacteria to fight off viral infection.

"This is the first evidence we've seen that a virus can donate an immunity system via CRISPR," says University of British Columbia virologist Curtis Suttle. "This is like a hacker compromising a computer system, and then immediately patching it to ensure other hackers can't break in."

Sophia Antipolis - June 14, 2016: Fifteen minutes of daily exercise is associated with a 22% lower risk of death and may be a reasonable target for older adults, reveals research presented today at the EuroPRevent 2016 meeting by Dr David Hupin, a physician in the Department of Clinical and Exercise Physiology, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne in Saint-Etienne, France.1

"Age is not an excuse to do no exercise," said Dr Hupin. "It is well established that regular physical activity has a better overall effect on health than any medical treatment. But less than half of older adults achieve the recommended minimum of 150 minutes moderate intensity or 75 minutes vigorous intensity exercise each week."

In a study appearing in the June 14 issue of JAMA, Angela Sauaia, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, and colleagues examined patterns of gunshot wound-associated severity and mortality at a Colorado urban trauma center.

Long-acting opioids are associated with a significantly increased risk of death when compared with alternative medications for moderate-to-severe chronic pain, according to a Vanderbilt study released today in JAMA.

Not only did long-acting opioids increase the risk of unintentional overdose deaths, but they were also shown to increase mortality from cardiorespiratory events and other causes.

Lead author Wayne Ray, Ph.D., and colleagues with the Vanderbilt Department of Health Policy studied Tennessee Medicaid patients between 1999-2012 with chronic pain, primarily back and other musculoskeletal pain, who did not have cancer or other serious illnesses.

British taxpayers spend billions for the health care of an increasingly overweight population. The World Health Organisation predicts that almost three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2030.

Graham MacGregor is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary, University of London was trained as a nephrologist but then became interested in blood pressure control mechanisms, particularly related to the renin-angiotensin system, the mechanisms whereby salt puts up blood pressure. Now he says he knows a magic bullet for halting obesity: unsurprisingly it is in line with all of the latest fad claims in media.

Nearly 15 percent of opioid-naïve patients hospitalized under Medicare are discharged with a new prescription for opioids, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Among those patients who received a prescription, 40 percent were still taking opioids 90 days after discharge. The rate of prescription varied almost twofold between hospitals, with some hospitals discharging as many as 20 percent of patients with a prescription for opioids.

Despite growing concern about the public health costs of long-term opioid use, little has been known about how often the painkillers are prescribed. Even appropriate short-term prescriptions can lead to long-term use and, potentially, abuse.