Duke University
By taking continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) readings for 24 hours after treating heart attack patients, researches have shown that giving a combination of a new drug that prevents platelets from clumping together, as well as a clot-busting drug, opens up clogged arteries faster and keeps them open longer.
Researchers have shown that an age-related loss of specific stem cells that continually repair damage to blood vessels is critical to determining the onset and progression of atherosclerosis. Stem cells are immature cells that have the potential to mature into a variety of different cells. This novel view of the disease, based on experiments in mice, constitutes a potential new avenue in the treatment of one of the leading causes of death and illness in the U.S., the researchers said.
Despite recent reports that hormone therapy does not offer protection for post-menopausal females against heart disease and heart attack, researchers from Duke University Medical Center have determined in mouse studies that non-hormone treated pre-menopausal females are, in fact, better protected from cardiac damage following ischemia compared to their male counterparts. The findings suggest that research should continue toward finding better ways to treat post-menopausal women to maintain such cardiac protection, the researchers said.
A diet rich in flaxseed seems to reduce the size, aggressiveness and severity of tumors in mice that have been genetically engineered to develop prostate cancer, according to new research from Duke University Medical Center. And in 3 percent of the mice, the flaxseed diet kept them from getting the disease at all. "The amount of flaxseed given to each mouse was 5 percent of its total food intake, which would be a very difficult amount for humans to eat," said a lead researcher. "[B]ut it does signal that we are on the right track and need to continue research in this area."
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, is a common condition, and a costly one. The gastrointestinal disorder accounts for 12 percent of primary care visits and costs our health care system $8 billion annually. Now a pilot study has found that paroxetine, a drug in the most common class of antidepressants, is effective and safe for treating IBS symptoms.
Researchers have created an ultracold gas that has the startling property of bursting outward in a preferred direction when released. According to the scientists, studying the properties of the "lopsided" gas could yield fundamental insights into how matter holds itself together at the subatomic level. Also, the research team leader said their data suggests the possibility that the gas is exhibiting a never-before-seen kind of superfluidity -- a property in which matter at extremely low-temperatures behaves in unusual ways
Elderly adults who perform as well as younger adults on certain cognitive tests appear to enlist the otherwise underused left half of the prefrontal cortex of their brain in order to maintain performance, neuroscientists have found. In contrast, elderly people who are not "high performers" on the tests resemble younger adults in showing a preferred usage of the right side of the prefrontal cortex.
An international team of scientists has discovered a novel genetic trait that protects its carriers against the deadliest forms of malaria, while people without the trait are more likely to succumb to its fatal consequences. This trait -- a mutation or "polymorphism" in the NOS2 gene -- controls the production of nitric oxide, a small chemical that can kill parasites and prevent malaria disease.
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that exercise -- without accompanying weight loss -- has a positive impact on improving cholesterol levels. Further, they report that it is the amount of activity, and not necessarily any changes in fitness or intensity of exercise, that is important for cholesterol improvement. In the process of their studies, the researchers also demonstrated that the standard lipid panels used by doctors to measure the so-called "bad" LDL and "good" HDL forms of cholesterol do not necessarily provide the most accurate information in determining one's risk of developing heart disease.
Many low birth-weight babies face serious health problems, but there are also risks of injury during delivery for large infants -- and their moms. A new study confirms that a mathematical equation using standard health data obtained from every woman during pregnancy can predict birth weight within eight percent of actual birth weight, which is just as accurate as ultrasound.
Duke University chemists say they've come up with a way to grow carbon nanotubes --- a.k.a. Buckytubes --- that vary in size far less than those produced previously. The technique could help with the development of nanostructures with electronic properties reliable enough to use in molecular-sized circuits.
Researchers have discovered that an important cellular "off-switch" that desensitizes receptors on the cell surface also regulates a second deactivation mechanism that had not been suspected before. Their finding that the off-switch, known as beta-arrestin, operates in two distinct ways may hint at a broader set of regulatory roles for the molecule.
A seemingly mild "insult" to the brain could sensitize neurons to attack by immune system proteins that are otherwise protective, researchers have found. The finding could explain why sufferers of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases significantly worsen following such insults. The scientists believe that drugs to selectively inhibit the immune proteins could reduce the rate of neural damage in a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases. Such drugs could also protect other organs against damage from autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system attacks body tissues.
Brain cell membranes have established "doorways" that accept or reject molecules trying to pass into the cell, researchers have founbd. The discovery fundamentally changes how researchers think about the behavior of neurons. It had been long believed that surface molecules such as receptors are enveloped right where they rest in the fatty membrane, to be drawn into the cell's interior.
Researchers have detailed the functioning of an enzyme that is a central component of a signaling pathway important for about 30 percent of cancers. The findings about how the enzyme, called farnesyl transferase (FTase), works could help improve the FTase-inhibiting drugs that pharmaceutical companies are now testing to fight a broad spectrum of cancers.
