EurekAlert! - National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Brief exercise immediately enhances memory, UCI study finds
A short burst of moderate exercise enhances the consolidation of memories in both healthy older adults and those with mild cognitive impairment, scientists with UC Irvine's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory have discovered.

University of California Irvine's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Oncogene
Possible new treatment for Ewing sarcoma
Discovery of a new drug with high potential to treat Ewing sarcoma, an often deadly cancer of children and young adults, and the previously unknown mechanism behind it, come hand-in-hand in a new study by researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. The report appears in today's online issue of the journal Oncogene.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
GW professor to examine infections in HIV patients with federal grant
Imtiaz A. Khan, M.D., professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, received a $1.6 million federal grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the effects of microsporidia--opportunistic inter-cellular pathogens--that cause morbidity and mortality in HIV patients.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Grove Professor receives $1.5MM to study breast cancer therapies
For some time, researchers have known about disparities in diagnoses and outcomes among breast cancer patients based on race and age. However, they have been challenged to develop a set of criteria that can be used to reliably target drug delivery mechanisms based on an individual patient's tumor.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This week's forecast: Sunny with a 40 percent chance of flu
Scientists have developed a system to predict the timing and severity of seasonal influenza outbreaks that could one day help health officials and the general public better prepare for them. The system adapts techniques used in modern weather prediction to turn real-time, web-based estimates of influenza infection into local forecasts of seasonal flu.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

PLOS ONE
Scanning innovation can improve personalized medicine
Ge Wang, director of Virginia Tech's Center for Biomedical Imaging, has a history of "firsts" in the imaging world, including the first paper on spiral multi-slice/cone-beam CT in 1991, on bioluminescence tomography in 2004, and on interior tomography in 2007. In a recent paper that appeared in the refereed journal PLOS ONE, Wang speaks about new combinations of medical imaging technologies that hold promise for improved early disease screening, cancer staging, therapeutic assessment, and other aspects of personalized medicine.

NIH//National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Archives of General Psychiatry
USC/CHLA research shows autism risk for developing children exposed to air pollution
Research conducted by University of Southern California and Children's Hospital Los Angeles scientists demonstrates that polluted air -- whether regional pollution or coming from local traffic sources -- is associated with autism.

NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
Neuroimaging study: Negative messages less effective on those who are substance dependent
What types of public messages will most likely deter drug and alcohol abuse? Negatively framed messages may not be an effective way to reach those most in need of persuasion, an Indiana University study suggests. "The findings are somewhat ironic because a whole lot of public service announcements say, 'Drugs are bad for you,' 'Just say no,' or 'This is your brain on drugs' with an image of an egg frying," said researcher Joshua Brown.

National Institutes of Health, Air Force, NARSAD Young Investigator, Sydney R. Baer Jr. Foundation

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Journal of Child Neurology
The hidden disorder: Unique treatment proposed for children's neurological disorder
An Indiana University study in the Journal of Child Neurology proposes an innovative treatment for developmental coordination disorder, a potentially debilitating neurological disorder in which the development of a child's fine or gross motor skills, or both, is impaired. Affecting one in 20 children, predominantly boys, the condition has broad academic, social and emotional impact. It can severely affect reading, spelling and handwriting abilities and lead to problems with self-esteem, obesity and injury.

NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Journal of Clinical Investigation
Bariatric surgical procedures have similar therapeutic benefits in obese adults
In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Samuel Klein at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis compared the effects of 20 percent weight loss induced by either gastric bypass or adjustable gastric banding on metabolic response.

National Institutes of Health, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Atkins Foundation Philanthropic Trust

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Journal of Clinical Investigation
Drugs limiting excess mucus could save lives
Respiratory conditions that restrict breathing such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are common killers worldwide. But no effective treatments exist to address the major cause of death in these conditions � excess mucus production. Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have described the molecular pathway responsible for excess mucus in airway cells and have used that information to design a series of new drugs that inhibit that pathway.

National Institutes of Health, and others

Public Release: 25-Nov-2012

Nature Cell Biology
Temple-Penn researchers identify calcium 'accelerator' to keep cell power supply going
Scientists from Temple University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania have moved another step closer to solving a decades-long mystery of how the flow of calcium into the cell's power source, the mitochondria, is controlled. By shutting down 50 genes, one at a time, they have identified a protein, MCUR1, that is part of an elaborate channel pore system and acts as an accelerator to help regulate calcium coming into the mitochondria.

National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association

Public Release: 25-Nov-2012

Nature Medicine
Patient's own immune cells may blunt viral therapy for brain cancer
Doctors now use cancer-killing viruses to treat some patients with lethal, fast-growing brain tumors. Clinical trials show that these therapeutic viruses are safe but less effective than expected. A new study shows that the patient's own immune system quickly works to eliminate the anticancer virus, and it discovered how this happens.

NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 23-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Researchers link new molecular culprit to breast cancer progression
Johns Hopkins researchers have uncovered a protein "partner" commonly used by breast cancer cells to unlock genes needed for spreading the disease around the body. A report on the discovery, published November 5 on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details how some tumors get the tools they need to metastasize.

NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012

New England Journal of Medicine
Adults with ADHD commit fewer crimes when on medication
Criminal behaviour in people with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) dropped sharply during periods when they were on medication, according to a new extensive registry study conducted at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The study that contained of over 25,000 individuals is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Swedish Research Council, Swedish Prison and Probation Service, National Institutes of Health, and others

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012

Science
Scripps Research Institute scientists describe elusive replication machinery of flu viruses
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have made a major advance in understanding how flu viruses replicate within infected cells. The researchers used cutting-edge molecular biology and electron-microscopy techniques to "see" one of influenza's essential protein complexes in unprecedented detail. The images generated in the study show flu virus proteins in the act of self-replication, highlighting the virus's vulnerabilities that are sure to be of interest to drug developers.

National Institutes of Health, Joint Center for Innovation in Membrane Protein Production for Structure Determination

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012

Science
Team solves birth and migration mysteries of cortex's powerful inhibitors, 'chandelier' cells
A team at CSHL for the 1st time reveals the birth timing and embryonic origin of a critical class of inhibitory brain cells called chandelier cells, tracing the specific paths they take during early development into the cerebral cortex of the mouse brain. The work sheds light on the genetically programed, or "nature" part of the nature/nurture question of human development.

National Institutes of Health, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Brian and Behavior Research Foundation

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012
New public gut bacteria study expected to reach around world
Ever wondered who is living in your gut, and what they're doing? The trillions of microbial partners in and on our bodies outnumber our own cells by as many as 10 to one and do all sorts of important jobs, from helping digest the food we eat this Thanksgiving to building up our immune systems.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

Journal of Clinical Investigation
Pathway identified in human lymphoma points way to new blood cancer treatments
Research, shows for the first time that the "unfolded protein response" is active in patients with human lymphomas and mice genetically bred to develop lymphomas. Importantly, when the UPR is inactivated, lymphoma cells readily undergo cell death.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar, America Cancer Society

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

PLOS Biology
Short DNA strands in the genome may be key to understanding human cognition and diseases
Short snippets of DNA found in human brain tissue provide new insight into human cognitive function and risk for developing certain neurological diseases, according to researchers from the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

Structure
It takes two to tangle: Wistar scientists further unravel telomere biology
Wistar researchers have resolved the structure of that allows a telomere-related protein, Cdc13, to form dimers in yeast. Mutations in this region of Cdc13 put the kibosh on the ability of telomerase and other proteins to maintain telomeres.

Pennsylvania Department of Health, V Foundation, Emerald Foundation, NIH/National Institute of Aging

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

Neuron
Brain waves encode rules for behavior
A new study from researchers at MIT and Boston University sheds light on how neural ensembles form thoughts and support the flexibility to change one's mind.

National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

Nature
Researchers define key events early in the process of cellular aging
For the first time, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have defined key events that take place early in the process of cellular aging. Together the discoveries, made through a series of experiments in yeast, bring unprecedented clarity to the complex cascade of events that comprise the aging process and pave the way to understanding how genetics and environmental factors like diet interact to influence lifespan, aging and age-related diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.

National Institutes of Health, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, University of Washington

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

Molecular Cell
Biomarking time
In a new study, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues elsewhere, describe markers and a model that quantify how aging occurs at the level of genes and molecules, providing not just a more precise way to determine how old someone is, but also perhaps anticipate or treat ailments and diseases that come with the passage of time.

National Institutes of Health, National Basic Research Program of China, NIH/National Eye Institute

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012

Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery
Researchers offer simple, inexpensive way to improve healing after massive bone loss
Research led by a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center identifies a new approach to treating massive bone fractures, a major clinical problem faced by orthopaedic surgeons, including on the battlefield.

AO Foundation, US Department of Defense, NIH/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseas