Biology Net: Health & Medicine

Biology News Net - Health & Medicine

• Valproic acid shown to halt vision loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa
  

  Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) believe they may have found a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a severe neurodegenerative disease of the retina that ultimately results in blindness. One of the more common retinal degenerative diseases, RP is caused by the death of photoreceptor cells and affects 1 in 4,000 people in the United States. RP typically manifests in young adulthood as night blindness or a loss of peripheral vision and in many cases progresses to legal blindness by age 40.

  
  
  
• Brain training reverses age-related cognitive decline
  

  Specialized brain training targeted at the regions of a rat's brain that process sound reversed many aspects of normal, age-related cognitive decline and improved the health of the brain cells, according to a new study from researchers at University of California, San Francisco.

  
  
  
• Disease genes that followed the Silk Road identified
  

  Scientists have identified key genes responsible for a severe inflammatory disease that has spread along the old silk trading routes from the Far East to the edge of Europe.

  
  
  
• Report suggests nearly 5 percent exposed to dengue virus in Key West
  

  An estimated 5 percent of the Key West, Fla., population – over 1,000 people – showed evidence of recent exposure to dengue virus in 2009, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Florida Department of Health.

  
  
  
• Smoking influences gene function, scientists say
  

  In the largest study of its kind, researchers at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) have found that exposure to cigarette smoke can alter gene expression -- the process by which a gene's information is converted into the structures and functions of a cell. These alterations in response to smoking appear to have a wide-ranging negative influence on the immune system, and a strong involvement in processes related to cancer, cell death and metabolism.

  
  
  
• NIH-supported finding on cocaine addiction: Tiny molecule, big promise
  

  A specific and remarkably small fragment of RNA appears to protect rats against cocaine addiction—and may also protect humans, according to a recent study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health. The study was published today in the journal Nature.

  
  
  
• Genetic ancestry data improve diagnosis in asthma and lung disease
  

  Americans with lung disease may face a far greater level of lung damage than either they or their doctor suspect, depending on their individual genetic heritage, according to a study to be released July 7. The research implications range from diagnosing the severity of asthma, to disability decisions or eligibility for lung transplants, researchers say.

  
  
  
• Fetal X-ray exposure interferes with memory in adulthood
  

  Learning and memory impairments are important contributors to the disability associated with schizophrenia. These functional impairments emerge long before the onset of other symptoms associated with schizophrenia, suggesting that they are a consequence of a disturbance in brain development.

  
  
  
• Combination MMRV vaccine linked with 2-fold risk of seizures
  

  The combination vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) is associated with double the risk of febrile seizures for 1- to 2-year-old children compared with same-day administration of the separate vaccine for MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and the varicella (V) vaccine for chicken pox, according to a Kaiser Permanente Division of Research study appearing online in the journal Pediatrics. A febrile seizure is a brief, fever-related convulsion but it does not lead to epilepsy or seizure disorders, researchers explained.

  
  
  
• Dark chocolate lowers blood pressure
  

  For people with hypertension, eating dark chocolate can significantly reduce blood pressure. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine combined the results of 15 studies into the effects of flavanols, the compounds in chocolate which cause dilation of blood vessels, on blood pressure.