http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. For men with type 2 diabetes, a cell type linked to allergic inflammation is closely linked to a key indicator of diabetic kidney disease (nephropathy), suggests a study in the November Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). "Allergy is a common disease that is increasing worldwide, so our findings may have important implications for diabetic nephropathy," comments Michiaki Fukui, MD (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan). http://www.physorg.com/news173640308.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:10:02 EST news173640308 Will neglecting to brush your teeth damage more than just your smile? Can failing to attack dental plaque increase your risk of heart damage? http://www.physorg.com/news173099258.html Medicine & Health Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:20:11 EST news173099258 For scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, what seemed like a disappointing result turned out to be an important discovery. Their findings, published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide conclusive proof that, when a muscle is injured, white blood cells called macrophages play a crucial role in its regeneration. The scientists also uncovered the genetic switch that controls this process, a finding that opens the door for new therapeutic approaches not only to sports injuries but also to diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. http://www.physorg.com/news172824387.html Medicine & Health Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:00:01 EST news172824387 After more than 50 experiments in mice, medical scientists at Johns Hopkins have mapped out the basic steps taken by a particular set of white blood cells in setting the pace of recovery after serious lung injury. http://www.physorg.com/news172780032.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:20:01 EST news172780032 (PhysOrg.com) -- An investigative drug deprived non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells of their ability to survive too long and multiply too fast, according to an early study published recently in the journal Experimental Hematology. http://www.physorg.com/news172754983.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:30:12 EST news172754983 Unravelling a microbe's multilayer defence mechanisms could lead to effective new treatments for potentially lethal fungal infections in cancer patients and others whose natural immunity is weakened. http://www.physorg.com/news171608024.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:54:26 EST news171608024 UCSF researchers have developed a new approach to identify specific genes that influence how cancer cells respond to drugs and how they become resistant. This strategy, which involves producing diverse genetic mutations that result in leukemia and associating specific mutations with treatment outcomes, will enable researchers to better understand how drug resistance occurs in leukemia and other cancers, and has important long-term implications for the development of more effective therapies. http://www.physorg.com/news171276596.html Medicine & Health Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:50:29 EST news171276596 Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered why older people may be so vulnerable to cancer and infections in the skin. The team from UCL has shown in human volunteers that defective immunity in the skin is caused by an inability to mobilise essential defences that would otherwise recognise threats and clear them before irreparable damage is done. This discovery could be important for preventing, managing or treating many age-related skin health problems. The study will be published in 31 August edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news170659774.html Medicine & Health Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:40:01 EST news170659774 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two of the most powerful approaches to cancer treatment -- a stem cell transplant and an immune system-stimulating vaccine -- appear to reinforce each other in patients with an aggressive, hard-to-control form of leukemia, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists have found. http://www.physorg.com/news170347656.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:10:01 EST news170347656 Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been linked to oxidative stress caused by dysregulation of the genes that control mitochondria. A study in the open access journal BMC Genomics has revealed alterations in respiration gene expression in the white blood cells of CKD patients. http://www.physorg.com/news170015916.html Medicine & Health Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:10:01 EST news170015916 Israeli scientists have developed new technology to fight biological identity theft after realising that DNA evidence found at crime scenes can be easily falsified. http://www.physorg.com/news169959943.html Biology Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:07:23 EST news169959943 (PhysOrg.com) -- In an advance that could help transform embryonic stem cells into a multipurpose medical tool, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have transformed these versatile cells into progenitors of white blood cells and into six types of mature white blood and immune cells. http://www.physorg.com/news169151069.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:00:02 EST news169151069 A virus discovered last year in a rare form of skin cancer has also been found in people with the second most common form of skin cancer among Americans, according to researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news168180173.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:44:34 EST news168180173 (PhysOrg.com) -- Turmeric - the key ingredient in curry - has been used in India for thousands of years to help treat colds, inflammation, arthritis and even cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news167932895.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:20:01 EST news167932895 For the 29,000 patients in the United States with metastatic colorectal cancer, chemotherapy with irinotecan is a standard treatment that has been shown to improve survival. But for more than one in 10 of these patients, a variation in their DNA means that this treatment could result in a severe reduction in their white blood cell count, leading to a high risk of bacterial infection and possible subsequent death. A new genetic test can identify those with the variation in order to lower the treatment dose -- however, it has been unclear whether the testing is worthwhile. http://www.physorg.com/news167911053.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:57:58 EST news167911053 Crack open the latest medical textbook to the chapter on type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes, and you'll be hard pressed to find the term "immunology" anywhere. This is because metabolic conditions and immunologic conditions are, with a few exceptions, distant cousins. http://www.physorg.com/news167835602.html Medicine & Health Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:00:42 EST news167835602 A middle-aged leukemia patient has became Chile's first patient to receive stem cells from an umbilical cord in a radical procedure that could cure the disease, health officials here said Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news167593047.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:37:45 EST news167593047 (PhysOrg.com) -- The accepted dogma has been that bone-forming cells, derived from the body's connective tissue, are the only cells able to form the skeleton. However, new research shows that specialized cells in the blood share a common origin with white blood cells derived from the bone marrow and that these bloodstream cells are capable of forming bone at sites distant from the original skeleton. This work, published online this month in the journal Stem Cells, represents the first example of how circulating cells may contribute to abnormal bone formation. http://www.physorg.com/news167579675.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:55:07 EST news167579675 Research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute into the mechanics of how two types of white blood cells grow and die is fundamentally changing the development of computer models that are used to predict how immune system cells respond to a pathogenic threat. http://www.physorg.com/news167390887.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:50:01 EST news167390887 From the start of the HIV epidemic, it appeared that some of the people who were infected with the virus were able to ward off the fatal effects of the disease longer than others. Recent studies have begun to unravel the cause of this phenomenon, and new research suggests that African Americans with the disease have a unique survival advantage if they have both a low white blood cell count (known as leukopenia) and a genetic variation that is found mainly in persons of African ancestry. This study was prepublished online on July 20, 2009, in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology. http://www.physorg.com/news167327532.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:30:01 EST news167327532 California and Arizona researchers have identified a gene variant that carries nearly twice the risk of developing an increasingly common type of blood cancer, according to a study published online today by the science journal Nature Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news167314531.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:16:02 EST news167314531 (PhysOrg.com) -- Anthrax, long feared for its potential as a biological weapon, has lost some of its mystery. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Chicago, have determined the structure of a protein crucial to the virulence of anthrax bacteria. http://www.physorg.com/news166803334.html Chemistry Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:16:12 EST news166803334 The anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin could hold promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, says a Saint Louis University doctor and researcher. http://www.physorg.com/news166290087.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:00:01 EST news166290087 New research describes a molecular tool that shows great promise as a therapeutic for human acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a notoriously treatment-resistant blood cancer. The study, published by Cell Press in the July 2nd issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, describes exciting preclinical studies in which a new therapeutic approach selectively attacks human cancer cells grown in the lab and in animal models of leukemia. http://www.physorg.com/news165756607.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:30:25 EST news165756607 A human growth factor that stimulates blood stem cells to proliferate in the bone marrow reverses memory impairment in mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital found. The granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) significantly reduced levels of the brain-clogging protein beta amyloid deposited in excess in the brains of the Alzheimer's mice, increased the production of new neurons and promoted nerve cell connections. http://www.physorg.com/news165684042.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:21:17 EST news165684042 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that babies born by planned Caesarean section experience changes to the DNA pool in their white blood cells, which could be connected to altered stress levels during this method of delivery. The findings, presented in the July issue of the scientific journal Acta Paediatrica, may be a part of an explanation for why babies born by Caesarean section have an increased risk of developing certain disease in later life. http://www.physorg.com/news165508836.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:40:01 EST news165508836 (PhysOrg.com) -- It is now possible to engineer tiny containers the size of a virus to deliver drugs and other materials with almost 100 percent efficiency to targeted cells in the bloodstream. http://www.physorg.com/news165158410.html Nanotechnology Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:20:47 EST news165158410 New research which suggests a direct link between smoking and brain damage will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry. Researchers, led by Debapriya Ghosh and Dr Anirban Basu from the Indian National Brain Research Center (NBRC), have found that a compound in tobacco provokes white blood cells in the central nervous system to attack healthy cells, leading to severe neurological damage. http://www.physorg.com/news164973127.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:52:31 EST news164973127 Despite great strides in treating childhood leukemia, a form of the disease called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) poses special challenges because of the high risk of leukemic cells invading the brain and spinal cord of children who relapse. Now, a new study in the June 18, 2009, issue of the journal Nature by scientists at NYU School of Medicine reveals the molecular agents behind this devastating infiltration of the central nervous system. The finding may lead to new drugs that block these agents and thus lower the risk of relapse. http://www.physorg.com/news164464446.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:10:05 EST news164464446 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of New Mexico Cancer Center researchers have identified a genetic mutation underlying one of the most common childhood cancers, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The discovery could lead to more effective treatments for a subset of ALL patients who experience minimal benefit with current therapies by using drugs that are already in clinical trials for similar blood diseases in adults. http://www.physorg.com/news163263827.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:04:46 EST news163263827