ScienceDaily Health Headlines -- for Saturday, February 26, 2011

ScienceDaily Health Headlines

for Saturday, February 26, 2011

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Targeting T cells effectively blocks multiple sclerosis in mice (February 25, 2011) -- In an effort to develop therapeutic remedies for multiple sclerosis, scientists debate two possible interventional approaches -- but they're on opposite sides of the spectrum. Researchers however, think they have now reached a definitive conclusion as to which approach is correct, putting an end to a long-disputed issue. They found that targeting white blood cells of the immune system known as T cells is the effective approach to block the disease in an animal model of MS. ... > full story

Scientists find a new way insulin-producing cells die (February 25, 2011) -- Diabetes researchers discover another way that insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas can be destroyed -- by the secretions of neighboring alpha cells. ... > full story

Staring contests are automatic: People lock eyes to establish dominance (February 25, 2011) -- Imagine that you're in a bar and you accidentally knock over your neighbor's beer. He turns around and stares at you, looking for confrontation. Do you buy him a new drink, or do you try to out-stare him to make him back off? New research suggests that the dominance behavior exhibited by staring someone down can be reflexive. ... > full story

Newborn heart muscle can grow back by itself, study shows (February 25, 2011) -- In a promising science-fiction-meets-real-world juxtaposition, researchers have discovered that the mammalian newborn heart can heal itself completely. ... > full story

Low vitamin D levels linked to allergies in kids (February 25, 2011) -- A study of more than 3,000 children shows that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased likelihood that children will develop allergies, according to a new article. ... > full story

Simpler way of making proteins could lead to new nanomedicine agents (February 25, 2011) -- Researchers have developed a simple method of making short protein chains with spiral structures that can also dissolve in water, two desirable traits not often found together. The researchers observed that as they increased the length of the side chains with charges on the end, the polypeptides' propensity for forming helices also increased. Such structures could have applications as building blocks for self-assembling nanostructures and as agents for drug and gene delivery. ... > full story

HIV makes protein that may help virus's resurgence (February 25, 2011) -- New research enhances the current knowledge of how human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1), which causes AIDS, controls the cell cycle of cells that it infects. The new findings may shed light on how the virus reactivates after entering a dormant state, called latency. Better understanding of the biological events that revive HIV from latency may eventually lead to better treatments for people with HIV infection. ... > full story

Redesign of US donor-liver network could boost transplants by several hundred per year (February 25, 2011) -- Researchers redesigned the U.S.'s haphazard donor-liver distribution network to better account for urban and rural population differences, geographic distance, and the anticipated supply of and demand for donor livers. They calculated a rearrangement could result in up to 14 percent more people each year receiving the transplants they need. ... > full story

Obesity and diabetes are a downside of human evolution, research suggests (February 25, 2011) -- As if the recent prediction that half of Americans will have diabetes or pre-diabetes by the year 2020 isn't alarming, a new genetic discovery provides a disturbing explanation as to why: we took an evolutionary "wrong turn." In the report, scientists show that human evolution leading to the loss of function in a gene called "CMAH" may make humans more prone to obesity and diabetes than other mammals. ... > full story

New long-acting local anesthetic derived from algae effectively blocks pain in surgical patients (February 25, 2011) -- Medical researchers bringing surgical patients closer to having a long-acting local anesthetic. In a randomized, double-blind trial, patients given neosaxitoxin, a new local anesthetic derived from algae, had significantly less postoperative pain and recovered about two days sooner than those given the commonly used local anesthetic bupivacaine. ... > full story

Multiple childbirth linked to increased risk of rare, aggressive 'triple-negative' breast cancer (February 25, 2011) -- Full-term pregnancy has long been associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, but a new study finds that the more times a woman gives birth, the higher her risk of "triple-negative" breast cancer, a relatively uncommon but particularly aggressive subtype of the disease. Conversely, women who never give birth have a 40 percent lower risk of such breast cancer. ... > full story

Chemical compounds in trees can fight deadly staph infections in humans (February 25, 2011) -- A research team has found an antibiotic in the Eastern Red Cedar tree that is effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a "superbug" that is resistant to most medications. ... > full story