and high-fructose corn syrup has been linked to rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United states and throughout the world.
and has become the diagnostic cornerstone for modern diabetes care. Furthermore the hormone insulin can also be measured easily to assess the acute metabolic effects of glucose ingestion
and evaluate a person's risk for developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But determining the body's metabolic response to fructose has been much more difficult
Accumulating evidence suggests that the fructose component of sugar may have a particularly deleterious effect on health explains co-senior author Mark Herman MD of the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes
and develop fatty liver disease and abnormal blood lipid levels. All of these increase the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Fructose is a pervasive presence throughout our foods: high fructose corn syrup for example can be found in everything from processed cookies and sweets to seemingly healthy foods such as yogurt.
and measured adds co-senior author Eleftheria Maratos-Flier MD HMS Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism at BIDMC.
and animals FGF21 levels are elevated in association with obesity insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Furthermore she adds the findings demonstrated that the FGF21 response was exaggerated in subjects with metabolic disease suggesting that either some aspect of fructose metabolism changes during the development of metabolic syndrome
and those with an exaggerated FGF21 response to fructose are predisposed to developing disease. For the first time this provides an avenue for labs everywhere to easily study fructose metabolism in people adds Herman.
and treat cardiometabolic disease e
#First observation of atomic diffusion inside bulk material Researchers at the Department of energy's Oak ridge National Laboratory have obtained the first direct observations of atomic diffusion inside a bulk material.
Strain 115 was discovered originally on turkeys that appeared to have enhanced immunity to bacterial infections. The motivation behind our current work was a desire to understand the connection between Strain 115
and immunity to disease-causing bacteria says Griffitts. It quickly became clear to the investigators that Strain 115 could produce a potent antibiotic that targets a large number of medically relevant bacteria including those that cause staph infections strep throat and severe gastrointestinal diseases.
We wanted to know the identity of this antibiotic and the means by which Strain 115 protects itself from its own antibiotic's deadly effects says Griffitts.
#Disputed theory on Parkinsons origin strengthened Parkinson's disease is linked strongly to the degeneration of the brain's movement center.
In the last decade the question of where the disease begins has led researchers to a different part of the human anatomy.
In 2003 the German neuropathologist Heiko Braak presented a theory suggesting that the disease begins in the gut and spreads to the brain.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden now present the first direct evidence that the disease can actually migrate from the gut to the brain.
The so-called Braak's hypothesis proposes that the disease process begins in the digestive tract and in the brain's center of smell.
and smell occur very early on in the disease. Researchers at Lund University have mapped previously the spread of Parkinson's in the brain.
The disease progression is believed to be driven by a misfolded protein that clumps together and infects neighboring cells.
The experiment shows how the toxic protein alpha-synuclein is transported from one cell to another before ultimately reaching the brain's movement center giving rise to the characteristic movement disorders in Parkinson's disease.
We have now been able to prove that the disease process actually can travel from the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system in this case from the wall of the gut to the brain.
or stop the disease at an earlier stage says Professor Jia-Yi Li research group leader for Neural Plasticity and Repair at Lund University.
in order to put a stop to the further spread of the disease. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Lund University.
and releases the drugs very quickly once inside the cancer cellgu says. n addition because we used self-assembling DNA techniques it is relatively easy to manufacturesays Wujin Sun lead author of the paper
and think it holds promise for delivering a variety of drugs targeting cancer and other diseases. he paper ocoon-Like Self-Degradable DNA-Nanoclew for Anticancer Drug Deliverywas published online Oct 13 in the Journal
at The Ohio State university Comprehensive Cancer Center--Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
Dr. Julia White of Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center--James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute has helped develop a modified treatment board that allows patients to lie comfortably on their stomachs
while the breast tissue falls away from the chest wall allowing the radiation to target the cancer.
These modifications ease concerns of patients like Kim Doran of New Albany OH who have a family history of heart disease.
Both my parents passed away from heart attacks. So having that history of heart disease my main concern was the radiation affecting my heart said Doran It made
me feel a hundred percent better to know that that's the procedure I needed to have.
#Cushings syndrome: Researchers characterize new tumor syndrome Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have published their findings that mutations in a gene known as ARMC5 promote the growth of benign tumors in the adrenal glands
and on the meninges: ARMC5 appears to belong to the group of so-called tumor suppressor genes.
It is the first time in years that scientists have characterized such a gene. The ARMC5 gene was discovered by independent workgroups studying benign tumors--so-called adrenal adenomas--in connection with Cushing's syndrome.
In this disease the body produces too much of the hormone cortisol. Now for the first time a mutation of ARMC5 has been characterized as the cause behind the growth of meningeal tumors.
The results on this tumor syndrome obtained by the group of Dr. Patrick May and PD.
Dr. Jochen Schneider together with colleagues from Charité Berlin (Dr. Ulf Elbelt) and the Universities of Würzburg (Prof.
Dr. Bruno Allolio) and Cologne (Dr. Michael Kloth) have been published recently in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology Metabolism.
Prolonged elevated levels of cortisol in the body can lead to obesity muscular dystrophy depression and other symptoms.
In search of the causes of Cushing's syndrome scientists recently encountered certain genetic causes of benign tumors of the adrenal cortex.
Growth of these adrenal cortex adenomas is based on a combination of hereditary and spontaneous mutations: It affects people in
However because the tumor cells multiply faster than other body cells and the number of cells in the tumor increases the blood cortisol level rises in the course of the disease says Dr Schneider.
Then the cortisol level in the body rises and ultimately results in the onset of Cushing's syndrome.
When other scientific workgroups discovered that further benign tumors--in this case meningeal tumors--occur more often in ARMC5-Cushing families the group of Patrick May
We demonstrated for the first time in a patient with an adrenal cortex tumor and simultaneously a meningeal tumor that somatic that is nonhereditary ARMC5 mutations are present in both tumors.
This observation suggests that ARMC5 is a true tumor-suppressor gene. It must now be explored Schneider continues to what extent patients with adrenal cortex tumors ought to be screened for simultaneous presence of meningioma and in
which other types of tumor ARMC5 mutations are responsible for tumor growth: Building upon that we can learn
whether the gene and the metabolic pathways it influences offer new approaches for treating the tumor syndrome.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Université du Luxembourg. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged 70 in just two minutes Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have developed a new battery that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only
blood clotting and bacterial infection. A team of Harvard scientists and engineers may have a solution. They developed a new surface coating for medical devices using materials already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA.
Heparin is notorious for causing potentially lethal side-effects like excessive bleeding but is often a necessary evil in medical treatments where clotting is a risk.
#Computerized surveillance system quickly detects disease outbreaks among preschoolers A web-based system that allows preschools
and child care centers to report illnesses to local public health departments could improve the detection of disease outbreaks
Oct 11 at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in San diego. Researchers who designed the biosurveillance system will describe how it can be used to track illness trends
if certain child care centers are reporting the beginning of stomach flu (vomiting and diarrhea), other centers can start taking steps to thoroughly clean to kill any viruses before symptoms occur
In addition, if child care providers see that larger centers in their community are reporting flu-like illness,
they can use the data to emphasize to parents the need to have immunized their children against influenza sooner rather than later,
Previously some public health departments have found that school absenteeism as a marker for illness was delayed imprecise
"However, child care or preschool absences are typically more likely to be associated with illness and most young children continue to need child care for most of the year,
Most public health departments do not electronically track influenza or stomach illnesses in preschools and child care centers settings."
"Most illness reporting methods used by many public health departments are based slow, paper and inefficient, "says Hashikawa.
They entered data on illness type and symptoms in seven categories commonly seen in preschoolers:
fever, influenza-like illness, pink eye, stomach illnesses (gastroenteritis), cold or respiratory symptoms, ear infections and rash.
Researchers sent data electronically to the public health department weekly or more frequently if spikes in illness cases were seen.
Results showed centers reported 188 individual episodes of illness from Dec 10, 2013, through March 28, 2014.
The most common illnesses reported were gastroenteritis (37 percent), fever (31 percent), cold (17 percent) and influenza (3 percent.
Data also revealed an unusually large increase in gastroenteritis cases during a two-day period,
#Sensor invented that uses radio waves to detect subtle changes in pressure Stanford engineers have invented a wireless pressure sensor that has already been used to measure brain pressure in lab mice with brain injuries.
In a more complex application they used this wireless device to monitor the pressure inside the skull of a lab mouse an achievement that could one day lead to better ways to treat human brain injuries.
or dislodged this cumbersome solution carries the risk of infection. Measuring ICP using cables become particularly challenging
most are prescribed for outpatient acute respiratory tract infections. Because antibiotic prescribing is often inappropriate Jeffrey S. Gerber M d. Ph d. of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
When one of these wrong genes is turned on by mistake the result can be rampant cell growth--cancer.
I think epigenetics is a new frontier of cancer research says Brian Strahl Ph d. a professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the UNC School of medicine.
and what we're finding is that many cancers have mutations in the epigenetic machinery.
We're not just finding this in cancer cell lines in the lab but in cancer patients.
The director's cutstrahl who's a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center said major questions surround how histones wrap up the DNA into chromatin--a structure that allows
and in turn contribute to cancers and other diseases. Adding a twist to this idea however is the fact that not every histone is the same.
Some studies indicated that Bre1 had a role as a tumor suppressor Strahl said. Other studies showed that it's a cancer promoter.
So there's been conflicting evidence about all of this. Now we know. If there's too little Bre1 the gene won't turn on.
This could turn off the genes that protect the cell from cancer. If there's too much Strahl said.
This could also trigger cancer development. When you think about it Bre1 could be a really good target for a cancer drug Strahl said.
Blocking STAT3 could help cancer patients in two ways The STAT transcription factors are involved in the development of many forms of cancer.
so drugs targeting STAT3 could be used in cancer therapy. However STAT3 is also important in the development of the immune system.
Not surprisingly then when something goes wrong with their regulation the consequences can be severe and many types of cancer are known to be associated with increased activities of one or more STAT protein.
Considerable efforts are going into developing inhibitors of STAT3 for use in cancer therapy but it is unclear
The intriguingly named Natural Killer (NK) cells represent the first line of defence against viruses and cancer to
Surprisingly the loss of STAT3 in NK cells of the mouse led not to a decrease but to an increase in killing activity against melanoma cells and leukemia cells.
The decrease in metastasis caused by melanoma cells was especially dramatic and confirmed that NK cells lacking STAT3 are extremely efficient killers of tumour cells.
thus help cancer patients in two ways both stopping the cancer cells from dividing and helping the patients'NK cells to fight them more efficiently.
#Scientists create mimic of good cholesterol to fight heart disease, stroke Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have created a synthetic molecule that mimics oodcholesterol
a condition where plaque buildup in the arteries can cause heart attacks and strokes. therosclerosis is the number one killer in the developed world,
and a 50 percent reduction in the size of plaque lesions in their hearts. e were surprised definitely at the results in the oral feeding studies,
The researchers believe that finding new targets in the gastrointestinal tract could lead to new therapies for many more diseases. hat one of the fun things in scienceow we get to follow up on these different avenues,
Because his son had a fever the doctors at the clinic put him on first one
Things moved so fast he was septic before he was symptomatic for appendicitis Kinch said.
They were considering various exotic diseases and I said'Antibiotics.''Antibiotics are crashingin his last position as managing director of the Center for Molecular Discovery at Yale university Kinch had assembled a huge database of information about drug discovery and development in the pharmaceutical industry.
which is now dominated by small companies such as Cubist Pharmaceuticals formed in 1992 specifically to focus on drugs for resistant bacterial infections that could have higher price points.
They include for example an acne medication and a treatment for anthrax developed for use in case of a bioterrorist attack.
One reason pharmaceutical companies are said withdrawing Kinch is that our patent law squeezes them for time.
The Infectious diseases Society of America (ISDA) has launched a 10 x 20 initiative whose goal is to create global antibacterial drug research-and-development enterprise with the power in the short-term to develop 10 new safe and effective antibiotics by 2020.
One of the university's assets is School of medicine research with the human microbiome the trillions of organisms that live in our guts many performing beneficial tasks such as digesting food and fighting off infections.
and development in part because they underpin every part of modern medical practice from surgery to cancer treatment and pretty much everything in between.
#Sepsis sniffer generates faster sepsis care, suggests reduced mortality An automated early warning and response system for sepsis developed by Penn Medicine experts has resulted in a marked increase in sepsis identification
and care transfer to the ICU and an indication of fewer deaths due to sepsis. A study assessing the tool is published online in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection; it can severely impair the body's organs causing them to fail.
There are as many as three million cases of severe sepsis and 750000 resulting deaths in the United states annually.
Early detection and treatment typically with antibiotics and intravenous fluids is critical for survival. The Penn prediction tool dubbed the sepsis sniffer uses laboratory
and vital-sign data (such as body temperature heart rate and blood pressure) in the electronic health record of hospital inpatients to identify those at risk for sepsis.
When certain data thresholds are detected the system automatically sends an electronic communication to physicians nurses and other members of a rapid response team who quickly perform a bedside evaluation
two to threefold increase in orders for tests that could help identify the presence of sepsis 1. 5 to twofold increase in the administration of antibiotics
and intravenous fluids n increase of more than 50 percent in the proportion of patients quickly transferred to the ICU 50 percent increase in documentation of sepsis in the patients'electronic health recordthe study found a lower death rate from sepsis
Previous studies that have examined the impact of sepsis prediction tools at other institutions have taken only place on a limited number of inpatient wards.
By better identifying those with sepsis requiring advanced care the tool can help screen out patients not needing the inevitably limited number of ICU beds.
The ability to mold inorganic nanoparticles out of materials such as gold and silver in precisely designed 3d shapes is a significant breakthrough that has the potential to advance laser technology microscopy solar cells electronics environmental testing disease
These coatings can also help scientists develop highly sensitive multiplex methods of detecting early-stage cancers
and genetic diseases by combining the chemical specificity of the DNA with the signal readout of the metal.
This capability should open up entirely new strategies for fields ranging from computer miniaturization to energy and pathogen detection.
#Lung cancer can stay hidden for over 20 years UK scientists have discovered that lung cancers can lie dormant for over 20 years before suddenly turning into an aggressive form of the disease according to a study published in Science*today (Thursday.
They found that after the first genetic mistakes that cause the cancer it can exist undetected for many years until new additional faults trigger rapid growth of the disease.
This research--jointly funded by Cancer Research UK and the Rosetrees Trust--highlights the need for better ways to detect the disease earlier.
Two-thirds of patients are diagnosed with advanced forms of the disease when treatments are less likely to be successful.
By revealing that lung cancers can lie dormant for many years the researchers hope this study will help improve early detection of the disease.
Study author Professor Charles Swanton at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and the UCL Cancer Institute said:
Survival from lung cancer remains devastatingly low with many new targeted treatments making a limited impact on the disease.
By understanding how it develops we've opened up the disease's evolutionary rule book in the hope that we can start to predict its next steps.
The study also highlighted the role of smoking in the development of lung cancer. Many of the early genetic faults are caused by smoking.
But as the disease evolved these became less important with the majority of faults now caused by a new process generating mutations within the tumour controlled by a protein called APOBEC.
and despite some positive steps being made against the disease it remains one of the biggest challenges in cancer research with fewer than 10 per cent surviving for at least five years after diagnosis. Building on this research will be a key priority for the recently established Cancer
The Centre--where Professor Swanton is joint centre lead--is a key part of Cancer Research UK's renewed focus to beat lung cancer;
Professor Nic Jones Cancer Research UK's chief scientist said: This fascinating research highlights the need to find better ways to detect lung cancer earlier
If we can nip the disease in the bud and treat it before it has started travelling down different evolutionary routes we could make a real difference in helping more people survive the disease.
Building on this work Cancer Research UK is funding a study called TRACERX which is studying 100s of patient's lung cancers as they evolve over time to find out exactly how lung cancers mutate adapt
and become resistant to treatments Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cancer Research UK.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Unusual skin cancer linked to chronic allergy from metal orthopedic implant In rare cases patients with allergies to metals develop persistent skin rashes after metal devices are implanted near the skin.
New research suggests these patients may be increased at risk of an unusual and aggressive form of skin cancer.
The patient turned out to be allergic to nickel in the implant which led surgeons at the other hospital to remove it.
But the rash persisted and a few years later a rare form of skin cancer known as Marjolin's ulcer developed at the surgical site.
The cancer which had become painful and ulcerated was diagnosed and removed by physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
The researchers showed in mouse models that chronic skin inflammation caused by continuous skin contact with allergens contributes to tumor development.
The patient's diagnosis with Marjolin's ulcer an invasive and potentially deadly squamous cell cancer surprised physicians.
and Marjolin's ulcer is extremely rare in people who are young and otherwise healthy.
This type of cancer most often is identified in patients with a previous history of skin cancers
To investigate whether inflammation from the implant contributed to the tumor the researchers studied mouse models of contact allergy.
A contact allergy is a different kind of reaction from allergies to pollen pet dander or food said senior author Wayne M. Yokoyama MD a Howard hughes medical institute investigator at the School of medicine.
A contact allergy usually develops when an allergen touches the skin or is close to it.
Skin rash in response to nickel and poison ivy are two common examples of contact allergies. The researchers showed that contact allergy brings inflammatory cells and molecules to the site of the allergic reaction.
If the contact allergen remains a long time--as was the case with the patient's implant--different inflammatory cells
The new mix of cells and molecules promotes the development of skin tumors. This model supported cancer development so strongly that some mice developed invasive squamous cell skin cancers similar to the patient's tumor said lead author Shadmehr Demehri MD Phd a dermatologist
and postdoctoral fellow. When the researchers examined the cells and molecules involved in chronic contact allergy in mice they identified several that already had been linked to tumor development.
Some of these cells and molecules also were present in biopsy samples from the patient's ankle.
and molecules are most supportive of cancer formation. If you're allergic to something the first thing to do is to avoid it
but the patient couldn't said Yokoyama the Sam and Audrey Loew Levin Professor of Medicine.
It's as if a patient allergic to poison ivy kept putting poison ivy on the skin. To prevent such adverse events the researchers suggested that the potential for allergic reactions to metal implants be assessed in patients who have had the implants
and in patients preparing to receive them. Allergen-free versions of some implants are said available Demehri.
Similar to metal implants some dental restoration materials and tattoo inks contain substances associated with allergic reactions and cancers on the skin or in the mouth.
"for detecting and characterizing even trace amounts of chemicals and biologically important molecules-from explosives, chemical warfare agents and environmental pollutants to disease markers.
"For example, Tian noted, the plasmonic paper can be used to detect target molecules that serve as indicators for diseases such as kidney cancer."
including the disambiguation of electroencephalograph patterns from epileptic seizure patients; detection of anomalous cardiac activity from heart recordings;
#Giant leap for diabetes: From human embryonic stem cells to billions of human insulin producing cells Harvard stem cell researchers announced that they have made a giant leap forward in the quest to find a truly effective treatment for type 1 diabetes,
a condition that affects an estimated three million Americans at a cost of about $15 billion annually:
when his then infant son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, dedicated his career to finding a cure for the disease,
said he hopes to have human transplantation trials using the cells to be underway within a few years."
whose daughter Emma also has type 1 diabetes. A report on the new work has been published by the journal Cell.
and opened the door for drug discovery and transplantation therapy in diabetes, "Fuchs said. And Jose Oberholtzer, M d.,Associate professor of Surgery, Endocrinology and Diabetes,
and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and its Director of the Islet and Pancreas Transplant Program and the Chief of the Division of Transplantation, said work described in today's Cell"will leave a dent in the history of diabetes.
Doug Melton has put in a life-time of hard work in finding a way of generating human islet cells in vitro He made it.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune metabolic condition in which the body kills off all the pancreatic beta cells that produce the insulin needed for glucose regulation in the body.
Cell transplantation as a treatment for diabetes is still essentially experimental, uses cells from cadavers, requires the use of powerful immunosuppressive drugs,
MIT's Anderson said the new work by Melton's lab is"an incredibly important advance for diabetes.
In particular, this advance opens to doors to an essentially limitless supply of tissue for diabetic patients awaiting cell therapy."
This significant accomplishment has the potential to serve as a cell source for islet replacement in people with type 1 diabetes
strategies for all stages of the disease.""Melton expressed gratitude to both the Juvenile diabetes Research Foundation and the Helmsley Trust, saying"their support has been,
"While diabetics can keep their glucose metabolism under general control by injecting insulin multiple times a day,
and that lack of control leads to devastating complications from blindness to loss of limbs.
About 10 percent of the more than 26 million Americans living with type 2 diabetes are also dependent upon insulin injections,
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