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who took the narcolepsy treatment modafinil and the cognitive disorder drug piracetam in the final year of his politics degree course at Warwick University, UK.

A 2008 online survey carried out by the journal Nature found that one in five readers had taken the anti-hyperactivity drug Ritalin, narcolepsy treatment modafinil,

and narcolepsy#to healthy children from low-income families purely to improve academic performance. Doors of perceptionshift workers

including experiments into the use of beta blockers to reduce stress hormones. Some argue the development of new, more effective cognitive drugs,

cardiovascular problems and psychosis associated with stimulants. We don't really know what the long-term health implications of taking these drugs are for healthy people,

Tests carried out on 18 pilots at Stanford university found those given the Alzheimer's disease drug Aricept for 30 days were better able to retain complex aviation tasks learnt on a simulator than those given placebos.

Regulatory authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency are set up to evaluate the effects of treatments on disease and disorders, not healthy people.

our cultures become more sedentary and rates of obesity and heart disease increase. Cars not only make our cities unhealthy,

and their charging habits hint they are less likely to get so-called"range anxiety#than expected.

Or more specifically, they are keeping their battery topped up before range anxiety sets in.

Every day, according to the company, 55 Filipinos die from water-related diseases. The company claims its prototype fits onto most taps,

With common pathogens such as E coli and the pneumonia bug K. pneumoniae developing resistance to our antibiotics of last resort, leading pharmacologists, clinicians and epidemiologists say we risk being cast back to a time

when even routine surgery put Victorians at risk of fatal infection. It's no mystery

Light-switchable drugs have been explored in other fields such as cancer therapy, but not for antibiotics. Organic chemist Ben Feringa at Groningen and his co-workers used an existing light-switchable unit called azobenzene,

when swallowed, they tend to attack the"friendly#bacteria in the gut as well as pathogens. Drugs equipped with activation switches could be administered orally

All this preparation has made me slightly paranoid and for good reason. I am about to enter the large clean room at Ball aerospace in Boulder,

blood pressure, core body and skin temperature, respiratory rate, blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and emotional stress levels.

once embedded under the skin monitors substances in the blood such as glucose and cholesterol so that chronic diseases like diabetes or the effects of treatments such as chemotherapy can be monitored.

and Monobaby, a device being developed to prevent Sudden infant death syndrome, also known as cot death, using an accelerometer attached to baby clothing.

Even malaria treatment, which costs as little as half a US dollar can cause financial difficulties for someone making just $2-$3 a day.

preventing allergies and assisting the immune system in a number of other ways. The evidence that the balance of different microbes we have inside us is important to our health has been growing rapidly in recent years.

and are more prone to severe sinus infections. Patients who regularly get serious sinus infections often opt for surgery.

However Cohen, who, along with Ben-Shahar, presented some of his findings at April's Association for Chemoreception Sciences meeting in Huntington beach,

in viral marketing and in studies of infectious diseases. Highly influential people typically have a larger than average number of social links,

#The teenage scientist revolutionising cancer detection Pancreatic cancer is a killer and one that is very hard to detect.

16-year-old scientist and researcher Jack Andraka vowed to find a quick and cheap way to test for signs of the disease.

It can also be used to test for lung and ovarian cancer. He tells BBC Future about his quest s

and major depressive disorder (MDD. The team results were reported January 28th in JAMA Psychiatry. Although some scientists have suspected that neuroinflammation can play a causal role in MDD,

It is known that activation of the immune system causes behaviors that are present during major depressive episodes, including low mood, inability to experience pleasure, weight loss,

and even anorexia. Yet until now, neuroinflammation has not actually been observed in a living patient during a major depressive episode.

Spinal meningitis as a baby and extremely poor eating habits my entire life, I feel, have caused my immune system to overact.

#Problems With attention Traced to Specific Brain Circuit People with schizophrenia, for example, often find it difficult to focus their attention on a task or conversation.

The ability to do so lies at the heart of the attention problem in schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

much like attention deficit in people with schizophrenia? was intriguing for several reasons. First, the Erbb4 receptor and the molecule known as neuregulin-1 that normally connects,

or ockswith it, have repeatedly been observed to be irregular in genetic studies of people with schizophrenia.

The team results are additional evidence that these proteins are regulated abnormally in schizophrenia. The experiments also explain what appears to go wrong

#Moffitt researchers discover mechanism leading to drug resistance metastasis in melanoma Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have discovered a mechanism that leads to resistance to targeted therapy in melanoma patients

and improve outcomes for many cancer patients, when compared to the adverse effects of standard chemotherapeutic drugs.

resulting in more aggressive cells that can spread to other sites or cause regrowth of primary tumors.

B-Raf is a protein that is frequently mutated in human cancers leading to increased tumor cell growth, survival and migration.

Drugs that target B-Raf or another protein in the same network called MEK have proved effective in clinical trials.

and a MEK inhibitor being the current standard of care for patients with B-Raf mutant melanoma.

They found that melanoma cells that are resistant to B-Raf inhibitors tend to be more aggressive and invasive,

thereby allowing the tumor to spread to a new organ site. They used a large screening approach

and MEK inhibitors are given to patients intermittently may reduce the aggressiveness of the disease...meaning patients could stay on therapy for more time,

"said Keiran S. Smalley, Ph d.,scientific director of the Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research center of Excellence at Moffitt.

The research also showed that targeting Epha2 reduced the aggressive behavior of the melanoma cells.

This suggests that drugs that target Epha2 may prevent the development of new disease in patients who receive B-Raf and B-Raf/MEK inhibitor therapy y

#Enzymes believed to promote cancer actually suppress tumors Upending decades-old dogma, a team of scientists at the University of California,

San diego School of medicine say enzymes long categorized as promoting cancer are, in fact, tumor suppressors and that current clinical efforts to develop inhibitor-based drugs should

instead focus on restoring the enzymes'activities. The findings are published in the January 29 issue of Cell.

which are cancer-relevant activities, such as cell survival, proliferation, apoptosis, and migration. The discovery that they are receptors for tumor-producing phorbol esters,

plant-derived compounds that bind to and activate PKC, created a dogma that activation of PKCS by phorbol esters promoted carcinogen-induced tumorigenesis."

"For three decades, researchers have sought to find new cancer therapies based on the idea that inhibiting

or halt tumor development,"said Alexandra Newton, Phd, professor of pharmacology and the study's principal investigator,

PKCS do not promote cancer progression; rather, they act to suppress tumor growth. Using live cell imaging, first author Corina Antal, a graduate student in the Biomedical sciences program at UC San diego,

characterized 8 percent of the more than 550 PKC mutations identified in human cancers. This led to the unexpected discovery that the majority of mutations actually reduced

or abolished PKC activity, and none were activating. The mutations impeded signal binding, prevented correct structuring of the enzyme,

tumor growth in a mouse model was reduced, demonstrating that normal PKC activity inhibits cancer. One possible explanation, said the researchers,

is that PKC typically represses signaling from certain oncogenes-genes that can cause normal cells to become cancerous.

When PKC is lost, oncogenic signaling increases, fueling tumor growth.""Inhibiting PKC has so far proved not only an unsuccessful strategy in a number of cancer clinical trials,

but its addition to chemotherapy has resulted in decreased response rates in patients, "said Newton.""Given our results,

"How could this misconception of PKC promoting tumors have arisen? Long-term activation of PKCS by phorbol esters results in their degradation, said first author Antal.

In models of tumor promotion, a sub-threshold dose of a carcinogen is painted on mouse skin,

Thus, their tumor-promoting function may arise because a brake to oncogenic signaling has been removed

while others who suffered the same ordeal do not? A new UCLA discovery may shed light on the answer.

UCLA scientists have linked two gene variants to the debilitating mental disorder, suggesting that heredity influences a person's risk of developing PTSD.

Published in the February 2015 edition of the Journal of Affective disorders, the findings could provide a biological basis for diagnosing

"Many people suffer with posttraumatic stress disorder after surviving a life-threatening ordeal like war, rape or a natural disaster,

We investigated whether PTSD has genetic underpinnings that make some people more vulnerable to the syndrome than others."

and have been suggested as a possible cause of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, epilepsy or intellectual disability (see this review article for further background).

But they also can be completely benign or have just a subtle effect.""Our findings are intriguing

"These same technologies can now be used to study the brains of people who died from unexplained neuropsychiatric diseases to determine

#Genome wide expression changes in vascular tissue identified due to infection/diet Source: Boston University Medical Centeralthough it has been shown that a diet high in fat

These findings which currently appear inbmc Genomics suggest that future therapies for this disease may need to be individualized.

Atherosclerosis is a common human disease associated with heart attack and stroke. Certain bacteria as well as high fat diet are associated with an increased risk for atherosclerosis.

One of these bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis is found in the mouth of humans with periodontal disease; another Chlamydia pneumoniae causes pneumonia.

In this study the researchers used four experimental groups to compare genome-wide expression changes in vascular tissue.

and infection with Porphyromonas gingivalis andchlamydia pneumoniae in the general population and the likelihood of co-morbidity of obesity with chronic or recurring infection with these common pathogens these findings suggest that the development of atherosclerosis in humans is likely more complex

These findings may explain how specific infections or a high-fat diet may cause atherosclerotic plaques to undergo changes which affect their size

#Vanderbilt-led team studies blood test for prostate cancer Vanderbilt University researcher William Mitchell, M d.,Ph d,

. and colleagues in Germany and Canada have demonstrated a method for detecting"cell-free"tumor DNA in the bloodstream.

Mitchell believes the technique will be transformative in providing improved cancer diagnostics that can both predict treatment outcomes and monitor patient responses to therapy.

In a large retrospective study of blood samples, the researchers showed that the method, called a"liquid biopsy,

"could accurately distinguish prostate cancer from normal controls without prior knowledge of the genetic"signature"of the tumors,

I believe the'liquid biopsy'will revolutionize cancer diagnostics, not only before a patient begins therapy

but also following patient responses to therapy,"said Mitchell, the paper's corresponding author and professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.

The study collected serum from more than 200 patients with prostate cancer and more than 200 controls.

The researchers reported that the technique distinguished prostate cancer from normal controls with 84-percent accuracy,

and cancer from benign hyperplasia and prostatitis with an accuracy of 91 percent. Because the method quantifies the inherent chromosomal instability of cancer

and can be followed as a function of time without having to do an invasive tissue biopsy,

including tumor cells, shed DNA into the bloodstream. But only recently has technology, notably"next-generation sequencing,

and quantify cancer-specific DNA from normal controls by the identification and chromosomal location of billions of specific DNA fragments present in blood as cell-free DNA.

The prostate cancer study identified 20"hotspots"of greatest chromosomal instability as additions or deletions in less than 0. 5 percent of the total DNA present in human chromosomes.

"which may be generating previously unrecognized chromosomal control elements in prostate cancer. The other 19"hotspots"were involved rich in genes in replication

and cell control processes that are highly relevant to cancer.""Since cell-free DNA has a relatively short half-life in the circulation,

sequencing of cell-free DNA soon after therapy may be used to detect minimal residual disease in solid tumors,

Mitchell further predicted that liquid biopsies will quantify immediate tumor responses to therapy y

#CWRU researchers discover byproducts from bacteria awaken dormant T-cells and HIV viruses Dental and medical researchers from Case Western Reserve University found another reason to treat periodontal disease as soon as possible.

They discovered that byproducts of bacteria in gum disease, called metabolic small chain fatty acid (SCFA),

can work together to wake up HIV in dormant T-cells and cause the virus to replicate.

Their findings help explain why people with the HIV-infections and periodontal disease have higher levels of the virus in their saliva than HIV patients with healthy gums.

The researchers speculate that byproducts from other bacteria infections in other diseases might change gene expression using similar mechanisms.

For dental patients with HIV their findings further support how important it is to treat bacterial infections in gum disease early.

This interaction by SCFA and T-cells surprised co-investigators Fengchun Ye, assistant professor of biological sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of dental medicine,

In the interaction between gum disease and HIV, five SCFA byproducts from two prevalent oral bacteria--Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn)--are involved in activating resting immune T-cells carrying latent (inactive

and respond to inflammation to ward off an infection in the body.""As long as someone is healthy,

Last year, Ye and Karn discovered that one SCFA--butyric acid--induced a chain of events that reactivate the virus associated with Kaposi's sarcoma, the most common malignancy in HIV patients.

"The impact on waking up T-cells and activating HIV replication was a"double whammy"find that contributes to understanding the little-known microbiome in HIV disease,

That prompted the researchers to investigate the mechanism that drives the replication of the virus in gum disease.

As long as the patient is free of gum disease, the virus sleeps and remains in check, Karn said d

#UCSD Study Shows Why Protein Mutations Lead to Familial Form of Parkinson Disease Researchers at the San diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San diego, have shown for the first time why protein mutations

lead to the familial form of Parkinson disease. The study, available online in prepublication in ACS Chemical Neuroscience and partially funded by the National institutes of health, focuses specifically on alpha-synuclein (asyn), a protein

which represents the major structural component of Lewy bodies protein clumps found in the brains of individuals with Parkinson disease and other neurological disorders.

Parkinson disease is characterized by impairment or deterioration of neurons in an area of the brain known as the substantia nigra In the familial form of the disorder,

which these mutations caused disease. s an unstructured protein, asyn is called sometimes hameleonbecause it has no stable configuration

a research scientist with SDSC as well as the UC San diego Moores Cancer Center and the Department of Neurosciences. evertheless when these changes seem to be random on first glance,

researchers could not say why these mutations caused Parkinson disease, said Tsigelny. he discovery of Zone 2 as the distinguishing feature of the membrane-penetrating configurations of asyn paves the road to possible prevention of such a binding.

Wolf Wrasidlo from the Moores Cancer Center; and Cassia Overk, Tania Gonzalez, Margarita Trejo, Brian Spencer,

highlighting the need for an approved drug that can be taken after radiation exposure to protect against organ injury and death.

& Biology identifies a drug candidate called DBIBB that increases the survival of mice suffering from radiation syndrome,

The findings suggest that DBIBB shows promise for becoming the first drug capable of treating acute radiation syndrome caused by the high levels of radiation released by nuclear explosions."

which can cause cell death and organ injury due to DNA damage. Although some agents tested by the military can provide some protection against radiation sickness when taken prior to radiation exposure,

no approved drug is taken effective when after radiation exposure. In previous studies, Tigyi and his collaborators found that a molecule called lysophosphatidic acid (LPA),

"This technology can potentially also help cancer patients from the side effects of radiation therapy and astronauts from chronic exposure to cosmic rays on their journey to Mars. s

too much expression of the protein that Myc encodes has been linked closely to cancer, making it a well-known but elusive target of drug developers.

They did not develop osteoporosis, they maintained a healthier balance of immune system T cells, had less cardiac fibrosis,

were experienced more active less age-related slowing of their metabolic rate, produced less cholesterol, and exhibited better coordination.

upregulation of a variety of stress defense mechanisms. Their experimental mice seemed to suffer from as much stress and consequences of stress as normal mice.

The different benefits of Myc reduction compared to other laboratory longevity extenders shows that just as there are many ways the body can break down with aging,

if it can reduce osteoporosis in people the way it does in mice. In particular, Sedivy said,

any drug that can target Myc directly is likely to find many applications beyond cancer r

The findings of a new study have advanced significantly researchersknowledge of immunity for these pathogens. Information about the immune responses that occur in animals following haemoplasma infection is relatively unknown largely due to the fact that researchers struggle to study these bacteria as they are unable to grow them in the laboratory.

Antibiotics do not consistently clear infection and without correct treatment the anaemia can be fatal.

Recently haemoplasma associated anaemia has been reported in a human too. The aim of the study was to determine

whether cats who had recovered previously from M. haemofelis infection were protected from re-infection. The researchers found that they were representing a significant advancement in scientistsknowledge of immunity for haemoplasmainfections.

despite extensive investigations but the study results suggest that a vaccine using a weakened form of the bacteria may offer protection against haemoplasma infection.

and it provides important information for a possible future hemoplasma vaccine. ur findings could help prevent the disease in cats

and could also be of particular importance to farm animal species where haemoplasma infections can cause huge financial losses. he study recommends future research should explore

whether the bacterial animal infection could be transmitted to humans and how the immune system targets the pathogen t

#California Unveils Strictest Rules on Pesticide California farmers now must abide by the nation's strictest rules for a widely used pesticide in a change designed to protect farmworkers

Successfully fighting off an infection depends on the interactions between these cells. A new device developed by MIT engineers offers a much more detailed picture of that cellular communication.

the researchers have learned already more about how T cells major players in the immune response become activated during infection.

#Scientists Create Device for Extracting Tumor Cells from Blood An international group led by scientists at UCLA California Nanosystems Institute has developed a new method for effectively extracting

Circulating tumor cells are cancer cells that break away from tumors and travel in the blood, looking for places in the body to start growing new tumors called metastases.

Capturing these rare cells would allow doctors to detect and analyze the cancer so they could tailor treatment for individual patients.

In his laboratory at the UCLA California Nanosystems Institute, Hsian-Rong Tseng a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology, used a device he invented to capture circulating tumor cells from blood samples.

The device, called the Nanovelcro Chip, is a postage-stampized chip with nanowires that are 1,

000 times thinner than a human hair and are coated with antibodies that recognize circulating tumor cells.

the tumor cells stick to the nanowires like Velcro. Capturing the tumor cells was just part of the battle, though.

To analyze them, Tseng team needed to be able to separate the cells from the chip without damaging them.

and release (at 4 degrees Celsius) circulating tumor cells at their optimal purity. Polymer brushes on the Nanovelcro nanowires respond to the temperature changes by altering their physical properties

who is also a member of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. e combined the thermoresponsive system with downstream mutational analysis to successfully monitor the disease evolution of a lung cancer patient.

#Biogen idec Columbia to Conduct Collaborative Genetics Research Biogen idec and Columbia University Medical center have formed a $30 million strategic alliance to conduct genetics discovery research on the underlying causes of disease

The agreement will integrate genomics research conducted at Columbia with Biogen idec understanding of disease mechanisms and pathways,

and there is growing recognition that the elucidation of the genetic causes of disease will have a transformative effect on both patient care

and drug development in many different diseases said David Goldstein, Phd, founding director of Columbia University Institute for Genomic Medicine. his collaboration marries the exceptional drug development expertise of Biogen with cutting-edge genomics expertise at Columbia University Medical center.

or unique disease presentations and to explore the connections among genes, pathways, and disease processes.

The ultimate goal will be to provide multiple qualified targets for new therapeutic approaches, increasing the potential for the development of new treatments. his collaboration with Biogen,

with its focus on the genetic causes of diseases, fits in perfectly with Columbia commitment to precision medicine,

It will allow for rapid population-scale DNA sequencing across a broad range of disease areas, focusing on diseases with significant unmet clinical need such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

he strong clinical and basic science programs in neurodegenerative diseases at Columbia will significantly benefit from the Columbia/Biogen alliance.

We expect that the alliance will dramatically advance our understanding of the genetics of these devastating diseases and ultimately lead to mechanism-based treatments, a key aspect of Columbia precision-medicine initiative. c

#Radiation Hormone Therapy Prolong Survival for Older Men With Prostate Cancer Adding radiation treatment to hormone therapy saves more lives among older men with locally advanced prostate therapy than hormone

The researchers found that hormone therapy plus radiation reduced cancer deaths by nearly 50 percent in men aged 76 to 85 compared to men who only received hormone therapy.

Past studies have shown that 40 percent of men with aggressive prostate cancers are treated with hormone therapy alone exposing a large gap in curative cancer care among baby boomers aging into their 70s.#

#ailure to use effective treatments for older patients with cancer is a health care quality concern in the United states.#

Perelman School of medicine and Abramson Cancer Center.##atients and their physicians should carefully discuss curative treatment options for prostate cancer

and reduce the use of hormone therapy alone. ocally advanced prostate cancer is cancer that has spread outside but near the prostate gland.

Unlike slower growing tumors locally advanced prostate cancer is an aggressive malignancy that is prone to metastasize

and cause cancer deaths. Hormone therapy lowers or blocks the levels of testosterone and other androgens (male hormones) that feed prostate cancer tumors.

Two landmark clinical trials have shown that radiation plus hormone therapy produces a large and significant improvement in survival in younger men relative to hormone therapy alone

but until now there has been no comparable research on treatment for older men with advanced prostate cancer.

Addressing this question for the first time Penn research team compared the combination of radiation plus hormone therapy

versus hormone therapy alone among 31 541 men with prostate cancer ranging in age from 65 years to 85 years.

Among men age 65 to 75 years old radiation plus hormone therapy was associated with a reduction in prostate cancer deaths of 57 percent relative to hormone therapy alone

Similarly among men age 76 to 85 years old radiation plus hormone therapy was associated with a reduction in prostate cancer deaths of 49 percent relative to hormone therapy alone

Importantly the clinical trials have shown that the side effects of radiation plus hormone therapy are very acceptable relative to hormone therapy alone. lder men with aggressive prostate cancers should know that the combination of radiation plus

#Only three percent of cancer patients participate in clinical trials; thus confirming that treatments work in real-world care is a crucial aspect of translating medical evidence to clinical practice.

Bekelman study is an example of patient-centered cancer comparative effectiveness research which provides reliable useful information to help individual patients make informed cancer care decisions

and improve cancer care outcomes. The Penn-led study examined radiation treatment and hormone therapy in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Medicare database.

SEER collects data from population-based cancer registries that cover 26 percent of the U s. population and Medicare

which covers 97 percent of the U s. population 65 years of age or older. Patients received treatments not by random assignment but as part of their normal clinical care.

and to identify which treatments are best for men of different age groups and cancer severity e