EurekAlert! - National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Nature Genetics
Key genetic error found in family of blood cancers
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have uncovered a critical genetic mutation in some patients with myelodysplastic syndromes -- a group of blood cancers that can progress to a fatal form of leukemia.

National Institutes of Health, Howard Huges Medical Institute

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Cell Reports
Gene discovery explains how fruitflies retreat from heat
A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center uncovered naturally occurring variations of a gene named TRPA1 that is important for the function of pain-sensing neurons throughout the animal kingdom. They tested the variants in larva and two with variants rolled away from heat at about 102 degrees F.

NIH/National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Ruth K. Broad Biomedical Research Foundation, National Institute of General Medicine, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

American Journal of Public Health
Diabetes risk reduced among Latinos in UMass clinical study
An inexpensive, culturally sensitive diabetes prevention program created by researchers at UMass Medical School reduced pre-diabetes indicators in a Latino population at risk for developing diabetes.

NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

American Journal of Public Health
Teens choose water when calorie count of sugary beverages is easier to understand
Providing easily understandable caloric information, specifically in the form of a physical activity equivalent, may reduce the likelihood of sugar-sweetened beverage purchases among adolescents by as much as half

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Environmental Health Perspectives
Researchers identify phthalates in numeruous medicines and supplements
Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center, in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, have found numerous prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements use certain chemicals called phthalates as inactive ingredients in their products. The findings appear on-line in Environmental Health Perspective.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011
New light on medicinal benefits of plants
Scientists are about to make publicly available all the data they have so far on the genetic blueprint of medicinal plants and what beneficial properties are encoded. Project partner Dr. Sarah O'Connor at the John Innes Centre will now work towards the first full genetic sequence of a medicinal plant and will experiment with combining beneficial properties to create the first new-to-nature compounds derived from plants. A priority focus will be compounds with anticancer activity.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Nature Immunology
UIC researchers discover how cells limit inflammation in lung injury
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have found in an animal model of acute lung injury a molecular mechanism that allows cells of the immune system to reduce tissue damage from inflammation.

Parker B. Francis Fellowship Program, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Science
Tool detects patterns hidden in vast data sets
Researchers from the Broad Institute and Harvard University have developed a tool that can tackle large data sets in a way that no other software program can. Part of a suite of statistical tools called MINE, it can tease out multiple patterns hidden in health information, statistics amassed from a season of major league baseball, data on the changing bacterial landscape of the gut, and more. The researchers report their findings in Science.

Packard Foundation, Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, National Science Foundation, European Research Council, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Adolescent drinking may be as important a risk factor for criminal activity as illicit drug use
Alcohol use has often been linked to criminal activity on the part of both perpetrators as well as victims. While this relationship has been well documented among adults, fewer studies have explored this relationship among adolescents. A new study has found a strong relationship between drinking during adolescence and the commission of crimes, and criminal victimization, for both genders.

NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011

New England Journal of Medicine
University of Maryland finds restricting post-surgery blood transfusion is safe for some hip patients
More than half of the older, anemic patients in a New England Journal of Medicine study did not need blood transfusions as they recovered from hip surgery, according to new research co-authored by University of Maryland School of Medicine scientists. The study found no significant difference in rate of recovery between patients who received transfusions at a moderate level of anemia and those who did not receive transfusions until their anemia was more advanced.

NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011
Work in cells, animals, patients reveals toxin's role in asthma
A swell of evidence from labs and clinical studies is suggesting that a common respiratory bacterial pathogen and the toxin it makes are worsening many asthma cases.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, National Trauma Institute

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011

Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Missouri Botanical Garden scientists examine toxicity of medicinal plants in Peru
Many developing countries rely on traditional medicine as an accessible and affordable treatment option for human maladies. However, until now, scientific data has not existed to evaluate the potential toxicity of medicinal plant species in Peru. Scientists from the William L. Brown Center of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis led a study using brine shrimp to determine the toxicity of 341 Northern Peruvian plant species commonly ingested in traditional medicine.

National Institutes of Health/MHIRT program, San Diego State University

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011

Current Directions in Psychological Science
The ability to love takes root in earliest infancy
The ability to trust, love, and resolve conflict with loved ones starts in childhood -- way earlier than you may think. That is one message of a new review of the literature in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011

American Journal of Pathology
BUSM researchers find link between pulmonary inflammation, diesel exhaust, house dust
A study conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine has found that diesel exhaust particulates and house dust extract causes pulmonary inflammation that aggravates asthma. The study led by principle investigator Jiyoun Kim, Ph.D., professor of pathology, was published in the December issue of the American Journal of Pathology and was selected by the editorial board as the only article for an in-depth discussion in the journal's commentary section.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011

Cell Host & Microbe
Gladstone scientists identify human proteins that may fuel HIV/AIDS transmission
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered new protein fragments in semen that enhance the ability of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to infect new cells -- a discovery that one day could help curb the global spread of this deadly pathogen.

US Army Medical Research and Material Command, Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, Giannini Foundation, National Institutes of Health, German Ministry of Science