Clinical Research
A gene that is strongly associated with a risk of developing childhood onset asthma was identified by an international team of scientists, whose findings are published today in the journal Nature.
In a genetic study of more than 2,000 children, scientists from the University of Michigan and colleagues from London, France and Germany found genetic markers that dramatically increase a child's risk for asthma. These markers are located on chromosome 17, and children with this marker had higher levels of a new gene called ORMDL3 in their blood, which occurs in higher amounts in children with…
In what they call a “stunning research advance,” investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center have been able to use simple, non-toxic chemical injections to add and remove fat in targeted areas on the bodies of laboratory animals.
They say the discovery could revolutionize human cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery and treatment of diseases associated with human obesity.
Investigators say these findings may also, over the long-term, lead to better control of metabolic syndrome, which is a collection of risk factors that increase a patient’s chances of developing heart disease…
Researchers in the group "Alcoholism and drug addiction" of the University of Granada have shown that a hereditary lack of endorphin is a genetic predisposition to become addicted to alcohol.
Beta-endorphin is a kind of “morphine” released by the brain in response to several situations, such as pain. In this way, beta-endorphins can be considered “endogenous analgesics” to numb or dull pains.
Researchers have focused on the low beta-endorphin levels in chronic alcohol abusers. According to José Rico Irles, lecturer of Medicine of the UGR, and head of the research group, this low beta-…
The prognosis for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease that mainly affects women in their reproductive years, has improved recently, prompting a shift toward improving quality of life.
For men with SLE, concerns have been raised about their future fertility.
However, no studies have been conducted to date on testes function and its relevance to sperm abnormalities in male SLE patients. A new study examined gonad function in male SLE patients and found that they have a high frequency of sperm abnormalities associated with reduced testicular volume. In addition, the study…
The drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women, according to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine. Their findings suggest that, since the effectiveness of the two drugs appears similar, physicians should consider side effects more strongly when choosing which drug to prescribe.
Newborns whose mothers had received magnesium sulfate were also more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care…
For more than 100 years, scientists have known that humans carry a rich ecosystem within their intestines. An astonishing number and variety of microbes, including as many as 400 species of bacteria, help humans digest food, mitigate disease, regulate fat storage, and even promote the formation of blood vessels.
By applying sophisticated genetic analysis to samples of a year’s worth baby poop, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have now developed a detailed picture of how these bacteria come and go in the intestinal tract during a child’s first year of life.
"I don't know what a…
Physicians have recognized scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of the spine, since the time of Hippocrates, but its causes have remained a mystery -- until now. For the first time, researchers have discovered a gene that underlies the condition, which affects about 3 percent of all children.
The new finding lays the groundwork for determining how a defect in the gene -- known as CHD7 -- leads to the C- and S-shaped curves that characterize scoliosis.
"Hopefully, we can now begin to understand the steps by which the gene affects spinal development," says Anne Bowcock, Ph.D., professor of…
In a new, large-scale, prospective study exploring the link between levels of urate in the blood and risk of Parkinson’s disease, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that high levels of urate are strongly associated with a reduced risk of the disease. The findings were published online on June 20, 2007 in The American Journal of Epidemiology and will appear in an upcoming print issue of the journal.
Urate is a normal component of blood, and although high levels can lead to gout, urate might also have beneficial effects because it is a potent antioxidant.…
Rare, previously undetectable drug-resistant forms of HIV have been identified by Yale School of Medicine researcher Michael Kozal, M.D., using an innovative genome sequencing technology that quickly detects rare viral mutations.
Kozal, associate professor of medicine at Yale and senior author of the retrospective study that used samples from an earlier clinical trial, presented the findings today at the 16th International HIV Drug Resistance Workshop in Barbados. “We found that the fraction of HIV patients that harbored resistance mutations is at least twice as high as previously thought,”…
Experts present an analysis of long term data on the success of stem cell transplantation for osteopetrosis patients which suggests second transplants should be considered a key option.
Osteopetrosis is a rare disease and devastating for those it afflicts. Children born with this genetic disorder may suffer blindness as early as a few months after birth. Hearing loss is also associated with osteopetrosis, as is a tendency to suffer bone fractures.
The problem lies in a disorder of osteoclast function, essentially defective control of bone development, so that bones thicken and overgrow. In…