This medical condition is currently endemic in 21 countries across Latin America killing more people in the region each year than any other parasite-born disease including malaria. Moreover its prevalence is growing in non-endemic developed countries including Australia, USA, Japan, Spain and more with around 8 million cases and 100 million people at risk. The [...]
Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) treated with alemtuzumab show sustained reduction in relapses and disability after five years, according to results reported at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) annual meeting (14 October; Gothenburg, Sweden). The CAMMS223 study randomised 334 patients with early, active relapsing remitting MS to alemtuzumab (at [...]
Scientists have uncovered an alternative source for some of the damage associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable neuroinflammatory disorder. The research, published online by Cell Press on September 23rd in the journal Immunity, reveals a direct interaction between immune cells and neurons that plays a significant role in neuronal injury and may respond to [...]
A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet suggests that bipolar disorder – or manic-depressive disorder – does not increase the risk of committing violent crime. Instead, the over-representation of individuals with bipolar disorder in violent crime statistics is almost entirely attributable to concurrent substance abuse. The public debate on violent crime usually assumes that violence [...]
Scientists from the UK’s University College London (UCL) have discovered that people who are good at introspection, such as reflecting on their ideas, emotions and behaviour, the so-called “thinking about thinking” processes that set us apart from other animals, have a bigger associated area of the brain. You can read how Dr Geraint Rees, a [...]
Two studies published recently suggest there could be something wrong with the way ADHD is diagnosed in young children in the US, one found that nearly 1 million kids are potentially misdiagnosed just because they are the youngest in their kindergarten year, with the youngest in class twice as likely to be on stimulant medication, [...]
Neurobiologists funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have discovered a potential cure for degenerative vision diseases leading to terminal blindness. The solution, however, may be rooted in an unconventional therapeutic approach. Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, are manipulating the proteins that cause blindness in mice. The [...]
The National Institute of Allergy and Infections Disease has awarded a five-year $31 million contract to National Jewish Health, which is leading a consortium of academic medical centers seeking to better understand skin infections associated with atopic dermatitis. The researchers will focus on antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and widespread viral infections of the skin, [...]
Researchers at Oregon State University and the California Institute of Technology have discovered that a genetic regulator which is critical to many life functions also plays a key role in the formation of “T cells,” a type of white blood cell that’s important in immune function. The discovery, announced in the journal Science, suggests that [...]
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly malignant digestive tumor with a very poor prognosis. Hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1α (HIF-1α) is involved in malignant progression in many solid tumors, including PDAC, upregulation of HIF-1α accelerates PDAC progression, but the exact regulatory mechanisms of HIF-1αin PDAC has not been unequivocally addressed. Recently, an increasing number of studies [...]
