EurekAlert! - National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Hot flashes? Thank evolution
A study of mortality and fertility patterns among seven species of wild apes and monkeys and their relatives, compared with similar data from hunter-gatherer humans, shows that menopause sets humans apart from other primates.

NIH/National Institute on Aging, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Princeton Center for Health and Wellbeing, Princeton Demography of Aging Center

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Graduate student awarded NIH fellowship to study electronic cigarettes
Rachel Behar, a University of California, Riverside graduate student, has received a National Institutes of Health fellowship of more than $90,000 to study the cytotoxic effects -- effects that are toxic to the body's cells -- of e-cigarette use. The three-year competitive award will cover tuition and living expenses for the remainder of the student's tenure in graduate school.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Nature Photonics
Pushing microscopy beyond standard limits
Engineers at the California Institute of Technology have devised a method to convert a relatively inexpensive conventional microscope into a billion-pixel imaging system that significantly outperforms the best available standard microscope. Such a system could greatly improve the efficiency of digital pathology, in which specialists need to review large numbers of tissue samples. By making it possible to produce robust microscopes at low cost, the approach also has the potential to bring high-performance microscopy capabilities to medical clinics in developing countries.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Retrovirology
Plant-based compound may inhibit HIV
A compound found in soybeans may become an effective HIV treatment without the drug resistance issues faced by current therapies.

New York City to Washington, D.C., AIDS Ride, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Genetics in Medicine
Parents don't fully understand biobank research, study finds
Researchers who collect genetic samples from children for medical research need to explain the process more clearly to parents, according to a new study that suggests many parents don't fully understand the finer details about how these samples will be used and stored. The study was published in June in Genetics in Medicine.

Ohio State University Graduate School's Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Arthritis & Rheumatism
Premature aging of immune cells in joints of kids with chronic arthritis, Pitt team says
The joints of children with the most common form of chronic inflammatory arthritis contain immune cells that resemble those of 90-year-olds, according to a new study led by researchers at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published in the August issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism, suggest that innovative treatment approaches could aim to prevent premature aging of immune cells.

Nancy E. Taylor Foundation for Chronic Diseases; Arthritis Foundation, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Study shows job training results in competitive employment for youth with autism
A study shows intensive job training benefits youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders, one of the most challenging disabilities in the world where only 20 percent find employment. Published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, the study demonstrates that nine months of intensive internship training, in conjunction with an engaged hospital, can lead to high levels of competitive employment in areas such as cardiac care, wellness, ambulatory surgery and pediatric intensive care units.

NIH/National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Brain implant aims to stifle drug highs
Researchers at Case Western Reserve and Illinois State universities are investigating what happens in an animal brain when drugs of abuse provide no high. They are developing and testing a closed-loop system that detects changes in dopamine levels caused by a drug then suppresses reward-related signaling associated with a high. A $390,000 National Institute on Drug Abuse grant funds the work.

NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
National Eye Institute grant aims to protect sight from diabetes
Diabetes alters the dynamic, causing inflammation that produces too much arginase inside the cells lining blood vessels in the retina. The excess arginase starts scarfing up L-arginine, also needed to make nitric oxide, a powerful and short-lived signaling molecule that enables blood vessels to relax. So blood pressure inside the eye -- and throughout the body -- goes up.

NIH/National Eye Institute

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Nature Chemistry
Seemingly competitive co-catalysts cooperate to accelerate chemical reaction
Boston College chemists report in the journal Nature Chemistry that a new and counterintuitive strategy, inspired by computational studies, opened the door to the development of a substantially more efficient chemical reaction from a highly valued catalyst their team has been developing since 2006.

NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
UT Southwestern researchers identify novel mechanism that helps stomach bug cause illness
A seafood contaminant that thrives in brackish water during the summer works like a spy to infiltrate cells and quickly open communication channels to sicken the host, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Burroughs Wellcome Foundation

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

JAMA Internal Medicine
Decision aids reduce men's conflict about PSA screening, but don't change their decisions
Men who decide to be screened for prostate cancer and those who forgo PSA screening stick with their decisions after receiving materials explaining the risks and benefits of the test. The decision aids greatly increased their knowledge about screening and reduced their conflict about what to do, but did not have an impact on their screening decision when measured a year later.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, US Department of Defense

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Current Biology
Keeping your balance
Professor Kathleen Cullen has been able to identify a distinct and surprisingly small cluster of cells deep within the brain that react within milliseconds to readjust our movements when something unexpected happens, whether it is slipping on ice or hitting a rock when skiing. This finding both overturns current theories about how we learn to maintain our balance as we move through the world, and also has significant implications for understanding the neural basis of motion sickness.

Fonds de Recherche du Québec Nature et Technologies, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 28-Jul-2013

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Oregon team charts new understanding of actin filament growth in cells
University of Oregon biochemists have determined how tiny synthetic molecules disrupt an important actin-related molecular machine in cells in one study and, in a second one, the crystal structure of that machine when bound to a natural inhibitor.

National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association

Public Release: 28-Jul-2013

Nature Nanotechnology
Molecular robots can help researchers build more targeted therapeutics
Many drugs such as agents for cancer or autoimmune diseases have nasty side effects because while they kill disease-causing cells, they also affect healthy cells. Now a new study has demonstrated a technique for developing more targeted drugs, by using molecular "robots" to hone in on more specific populations of cells.

National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Lymphoma and Leukemia Foundation

Public Release: 28-Jul-2013

Nature
Water molecules control inactivation and recovery of potassium channels
Just 12 molecules of water cause the long post-activation recovery period required by potassium ion channels before they can function again. Using molecular simulations that modeled a potassium channel and its immediate cellular environment, atom for atom, University of Chicago scientists have revealed this new mechanism in the function of a nearly universal biological structure, with implications ranging from fundamental biology to the design of pharmaceuticals. Their findings were published online July 28 in Nature.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Jul-2013

Journal of Biological Chemistry
Sudden decline in testosterone may cause Parkinson's disease symptoms in men
The results of a new study by neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center show that a sudden decrease of testosterone, the male sex hormone, may cause Parkinson's like symptoms in male mice.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Jul-2013

Nature
Researchers uncover cellular mechanisms for attention in the brain
The ability to pay attention to relevant information while ignoring distractions is a core brain function. Without the ability to focus and filter out "noise," we could not effectively interact with our environment. Despite much study of attention in the brain, the cellular mechanisms responsible for the effects of attention have remained a mystery. Now, researchers from Dartmouth and the University of California Davis has shed new light on this cellular process.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Jul-2013

PLOS ONE
Migraine is associated with variations in structure of brain arteries
The network of arteries supplying blood flow to the brain is more likely to be incomplete in people who suffer migraine, a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reports. Variations in arterial anatomy lead to asymmetries in cerebral blood flow that might contribute to the process triggering migraines.

NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Public Release: 26-Jul-2013

JAMA Neurology
Isolated psychiatric episodes rare, but possible, in common form of autoimmune encephalitis
A small percentage of people diagnosed with a mysterious neurological condition may only experience psychiatric changes -- such as delusional thinking, hallucinations, and aggressive behavior -- according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

National Institutes of Health, Dutch Cancer Society Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, Fundació la Marató TV3

Public Release: 26-Jul-2013

Journal of Medical Virology
Inherited virus can cause cognitive dysfunction and fatigue
Many experts believe that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has several root causes including some viruses. Now, lead researchers at the University of South Florida, along with the help of several collaborating scientists and clinicians, have published an article in the Journal of Medical Virology suggesting that a common virus, Human Herpesvirus 6, may cause some CFS cases.

HHV-6 Foundation, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 25-Jul-2013
MIIR scientist awarded $293,000 NIH grant
Dr. Jingwei Xie, a senior scientist at the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, has been awarded a $293,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead a project to develop a technique that may improve surgical repair of rotator cuff injuries.

NIH/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Public Release: 25-Jul-2013

Social Science & Medicine
Princeton release: Princeton researcher digs into the contested peanut-allergy epidemic
The path of the peanut from a snack staple to the object of bans at schools, day care centers and beyond offers important insights into how and why a rare, life-threatening food allergy can prompt far-reaching societal change, according to a Princeton University researcher.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 25-Jul-2013
IDRI and Zydus sign agreement for development of IDRI's vaccine candidate for visceral leishmaniasis
In a unique partnership, Zydus, India's fourth largest healthcare group and an innovation-led global healthcare provider, and IDRI, a Seattle-based non-profit research and product development organization, announced today they are collaborating on the production and clinical development of IDRI's visceral leishmaniasis vaccine candidate, designed to prevent the deadly parasitic disease.

National Institutes of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Public Release: 25-Jul-2013

Annals of Neurology
Epilepsy in a dish: Stem cell research reveals clues to disease's origins and possible treatment
A new stem cell-based approach to studying epilepsy has yielded a surprising discovery about what causes one form of the disease, and may help in the search for better medicines to treat all kinds of seizure disorders. The findings are based on a technique that could be called "epilepsy in a dish."

National Institutes of Health, Epilepsy Foundation, American Epilepsy Society