Curing Death by Curing Aging

Genetically engineered mice yield clues to 'knocking out' cancer

Saturday, July 04, 2009 00:00 MST

Researchers from NIST, Oregon Health and Science University and the New York University School of Medicine have demonstrated that deleting two genes in mice responsible for repairing DNA strands damaged by oxidation leads to several types of tumors, providing additional evidence that such stress contributes to the development of cancer. The work may lead to the development of new measurement methods and reference materials for accurate and reproducible assessments of DNA damage and repair.

Researchers uncover approach for possibly eradicating HIV infection

Saturday, July 04, 2009 00:00 MST

Researchers have uncovered a possible method for eradicating HIV infection in the human body. The researchers have also revealed new information which demonstrates how HIV persists in the body -- even in patients receiving drug treatments -- and how the virus continues to replicate itself in individuals undergoing treatment.

Interferon alpha can delay full onset of type I diabetes

Saturday, July 04, 2009 00:00 MST

A low dose of oral interferon alpha shows promise in preserving beta cell function for patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, or juvenile diabetes, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The results of the Phase II trial are published today in Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Daily sex helps to reduce sperm DNA damage and improve fertility

Friday, July 03, 2009 00:00 MST

Daily sex (or ejaculating daily) for seven days improves men's sperm quality by reducing the amount of DNA damage, according to an Australian study presented to the ESHRE conference.

Scientists tackle viral mysteries

Friday, July 03, 2009 00:00 MST

A recent study led by Blossom Damania, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focuses on the intersection of these two scientific puzzles, resulting in new discoveries about how one herpes virus known to cause cancer may reactivate when the infected cell senses another type of virus entering it.

Novel epigenetic markers of melanoma may herald new treatments for patients

Thursday, July 02, 2009 00:00 MST

Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer, diagnosed in more than 50,000 new patients in the United States annually. As incidences continue to rise, the race is on to find the genetic and cellular changes driving melanoma, and to devise new means of detection and treatment. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have found new epigenetic markers that will help develop more effective treatment strategies to fight this disease.

Researchers describe the 90-year evolution of swine flu

Thursday, July 02, 2009 00:00 MST

The current H1N1 swine flu strain has genetic roots in an illness that sickened pigs at the 1918 Cedar Rapids Swine Show in Iowa, report experts at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their paper, published online today and slated for the July 16 print issue, describes H1N1's nearly century-long and often convoluted journey, which may include the accidental resurrection of an extinct strain.

Researchers pinpoint a new enemy for tumor-suppressor p53

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 00:00 MST

Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have identified a protein that marks the tumor suppressor p53 for destruction, providing a potential new avenue for restoring p53 in cancer cells.

Selenium intake may worsen prostate cancer in some, study reports

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 00:00 MST

Higher selenium levels in the blood may worsen prostate cancer in some men who already have the disease. A higher risk of more-aggressive prostate cancer was seen in men with a certain genetic variant. In those subjects, having a high level of selenium in the blood was associated with a two-fold greater risk of poorer outcomes than men with the lowest amounts of selenium.

New tool finds best heart disease and stroke treatments for patients with diabetes

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 00:00 MST

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Mayo Clinic have developed a computer model that medical doctors can use to determine the best time to begin using statin therapy in diabetes patients to help prevent heart disease and stroke.

ICSI or IVF: Babies born from frozen embryos do just as well

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 00:00 MST

Analysis of the longest running ICSI program in the United States has found reassuring evidence that babies born from frozen embryos fertilized via ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) do just as well as those born from frozen embryos fertilized via standard IVF treatment.

Second gene linked to familial testicular cancer

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 00:00 MST

Specific variations or mutations in a particular can gene raise a man's risk of familial, or inherited, testicular germ-cell cancer, the most common form of this disease, according to new research by scientists at the National Institutes of Health. This is only the second gene to be identified that affects the risk of familial testicular cancer, and the first gene in a key biochemical pathway. The study appears in the July 2009 Cancer Research.

Risk of cancer

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists discover novel mechanism that increases the risk of common colorectal cancer

Environmental cues control reproductive timing and longevity, University of Minnesota study shows

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 00:00 MST

When humans and animals delay reproduction because food or other resources are scarce, they may live longer to increase the impact of reproduction, according to a new study by University of Minnesota researchers.

New piece found in colorectal cancer puzzle

Monday, June 29, 2009 00:00 MST

Prostasin, a relatively unknown protease enzyme expressed in most epithelial cells, may play a role in the genesis of colorectal cancer. Researchers writing in the open-access journal BMC Cancer have associated a reduction in the expression of inhibitors of the enzyme with malignant cellular behavior.