Archive for Health

Anti-cancer Flower Power: Researchers Combat Cancer With A Jasmine-based Drug

August 26, 2008 at 8:24 am · Filed under Health ·Tagged ,

iStockphoto/Tatiana Buzuleac)

Jasmine (Iasminum officinale). (Credit: iStockphoto/Tatiana Buzuleac)

Could a substance from the jasmine flower hold the key to an effective new therapy to treat cancer?

Prof. Eliezer Flescher of The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University thinks so. He and his colleagues have developed an anti-cancer drug based on a decade of research into the commercial applications of the compound Jasmonate, a synthetic compound derived from the flower itself. Prof. Flescher began to research the compound about a decade ago, and with his recent development of the drug, his studies have now begun to bear meaningful fruit.

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Malaria Researchers Identify New Mosquito Virus

August 24, 2008 at 8:24 am · Filed under Health ·Tagged , ,

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)

Anopheles gambiae mosquito infected with GFP-expressing AgDNV. (Credit: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Malaria Research Institute have identified a previously unknown virus that is infectious to Anopheles gambiae—the mosquito primarily responsible for transmitting malaria.

According to the researchers, the discovered virus could one day be used to pass on new genetic information to An. gambiae mosquitoes as part of a strategy to control malaria, which kills over one million people worldwide each year.

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Potential New Drug Candidates To Combat ‘Bird Flu’ Identified

August 4, 2008 at 9:46 am · Filed under Health ·Tagged ,

As the specter of a worldwide outbreak of avian or “bird flu” lingers, health officials recognize that new drugs are desperately needed since some strains of the virus already have developed resistance to the current roster of anti-flu remedies.

Now, a team of UC San Diego scientists – with the help of resources at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), also at UC San Diego – have isolated more than two dozen promising and novel compounds from which new “designer drugs” might be developed to combat this disease. In some cases, the compounds appeared to be equal or stronger inhibitors than currently available anti-flu remedies.

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Increased Burden Of Rare Genetic Variations Found In Schizophrenia

August 1, 2008 at 7:17 am · Filed under Health ·Tagged ,

People with schizophrenia bear an “increased burden” of rare deletions and duplications of genetic material, genome-wide, say researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“Although many of us have these changes in our genetic material, they are about 15 percent more frequent in people with schizophrenia,” explained Pamela Sklar, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard University and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. “We also discovered two large areas of chromosomal deletions that confer a great deal of risk for schizophrenia and confirm involvement of a third previously reported area.”

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Searching For Shut Eye: Possible ‘Sleep Gene’ Identified

July 30, 2008 at 11:30 am · Filed under Health ·Tagged ,

While scientists and physicians know what happens if you don’t get six to eight hours of shut-eye a night, investigators have long been puzzled about what controls the actual need for sleep. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine might have an answer, at least in fruit flies. In a recent study of fruit flies, they identified a gene that controls sleep.

“We spend — or should spend — a third of our lives sleeping,” says Amita Sehgal, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). “The idea that so much time is spent in sleep is intriguing. Also, sleep deprivation has serious health consequences and impairs cognitive function.”

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