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Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have studied which genes are expressed in overactive immune cells in mice with asthma-like inflammation of the airways. Their results, which are published in the journal Immunity, suggest that the synthesis and breakdown of fats plays an important part in the process. The job of the human immune system is to read our environment […]
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Scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have identified an enzyme in the brain that may be an intriguing target for interventions against Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. The researchers suggest that the enzyme, a serine/threonine kinase known as LIMK1, may play an important role in the degradation of dendritic spines, the connections between neurons in the brain. In […]
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A new study has found a pattern of molecules that appear in the blood before a seizure happens. This discovery may lead to the development of an early warning system, which would enable people with epilepsy to know when they are at risk of having a seizure. Researchers at FutureNeuro, the SFI Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases, […]
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For people diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, the outlook is about as grim as it gets: the average patient won’t live longer than a year. But a new study involving a targeted drug therapy has demonstrated it may be possible to significantly slow its spread, with a third of patients receiving the medication still alive two years into a clinical […]
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Effective methods of controlling mosquito populations are needed to help lower the worldwide burden of mosquito-borne diseases including Zika, chikungunya, and dengue. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have described a new statistical framework that can be used to assess mosquito control programs over broad time and space scales. The mosquito Aedes aegypti is the main vector for […]
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Embedded at the ends of chromosomes are structures called telomeres, which in normal cells become shorter as cells divide. Progressive shortening triggers cell proliferation arrest or death. Cancer cells adopt different strategies to overcome this control mechanism that keeps track of the number of times that a cell has divided. One of these strategies is the alternative lengthening of telomeres […]
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Morphine and other opioid-based painkillers are very effective at treating pain initially, but studies have shown that the drugs can make patients more pain-sensitive, prolonging their discomfort and increasing their risks of developing chronic pain. A new type of opioid developed by researchers at Tulane University and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System doesn’t have this side effect and […]
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Excessive noise is widely known to have negative effects on health, and children in neonatal intensive care units are among the most vulnerable. To help preterm infants make a smooth transition to life outside of the womb, some NICUs have instituted set quiet times to limit children’s exposure to potentially dangerous levels of noise. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, […]
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Religion can play a big role in the amount of alcohol consumption and the economic growth. Researchers have now investigated the development of drinking around the world. Result: Worldwide, about 40 percent of the people are abstinent. In a Boom Region of the alcohol consumption is increasing this dramatically. How harmful is alcohol for health can be, is already known […]
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Advancing technology is allowing scientists increasingly to search for tiny signs of cancer and other health issues in samples of patients’ blood and urine. These “liquid biopsies” are less invasive than a traditional biopsy, and can provide information about what’s happening throughout the body instead of just at a single site. Now researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer […]
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