Antibody fights AIDS-like disease in monkeys

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 weeks 6 days (www.nature.com)

An antibody treatment has rejuvenated the immune systems of macaques infected with a virus called SIV, allowing the monkeys to fend off the symptoms of an AIDS-like disease for months. SIV is studied as a model for HIV infection in humans, and the therapy could be tested in clinical trials of HIV-infected patients as soon as next year, pending approval by regulators.

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Key to Curing Obesity May Lie in Worms That Destroy Their Own Fat

piggy submitted, created time 4 weeks 2 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

A previously unknown mutation discovered in a common roundworm holds the promise of new treatments for obesity in humans, McGill University researchers say. Their study was published Dec. 3 in the journal Nature.

In lean times, a normal Caenorhabditis elegans worm goes into a form of suspended animation called "dauer" that slows its metabolism and allows it to survive for extended periods without food.

"When they go into dauer, these worms radically alter their metabolism," said Dr

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Clothing With a Brain: Smart Fabrics Monitor Health

piggy submitted, created time 4 weeks 1 day (www.sciencedaily.com)

Researchers in United States and China are reporting progress toward a simple, low-cost method to make "smart fabrics," electronic textiles capable of detecting diseases, monitoring heart rates, and other vital signs. A report on these straight-out-of-science-fiction-fibers, made of carbon nanotubes, is scheduled for the December 10 issue of ACS' Nano Letters.

In the new study, Nicholas A. Kotov, Chuanlai Xu, and colleagues point out that electronic textiles, or E-textiles, already are a reality. However, the current materials are too bulky, rigid, and complex for practical use

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Brain may be the background to body mass index

piggy submitted, created time 3 weeks 4 days (www.eurekalert.org)

A genetic study of more than 90,000 people has identified six new genetic variants that are associated with increased Body Mass Index (BMI), the most commonly used measure of obesity. Five of the genes are known to be active in the brain, suggesting that many genetic variants implicated in obesity might affect behavior rather than the chemical processes of energy or fat metabolism.

Obesity is an increasing problem that results in individual risk to health as well as increasing burdens on health care systems

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New Anti-cancer Components of Extra-virgin Olive Oil Revealed

piggy submitted, created time 3 weeks 19 hours (www.sciencedaily.com)

Good quality extra-virgin olive oil contains health-relevant chemicals, called "phytochemicals, that can trigger cancer cell death. New research sheds more light on the suspected association between olive oil-rich Mediterranean diets and reductions in breast cancer risk.

Javier Menendez from the Catalan Institute of Oncology and Antonio Segura-Carretero from the University of Granada in Spain led a team of researchers who set out to investigate which parts of olive oil were most active against cancer

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Pollutants in the womb can trigger cancers in adult mice

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 weeks 1 day (www.sciencenews.org)

Mouse moms exposed late in pregnancy to heavy doses of a carcinogen gave birth to pups that inevitably developed lymphomas and lung cancers, a new study shows. The malignancies generally didn’t show up until the offspring reached the human equivalent of adulthood. The good news: Breast milk from carcinogen-treated moms posed little added risk.

This demonstration “that very short early-life exposures can have major consequences is very important,” observes toxicologist Linda S. Birnbaum of the Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

In 2006, David E

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One person's wreck is another person's low-tech solution

Darkfrog submitted, created time 3 weeks 2 days (www.nytimes.com)

Many of us have become disillusioned with traditional recycling, but I've got to love this one.

This is a neonatal incubator made out of car parts. The headlights become a heater. The fans control climate. Even the alarm is reused. In the United States, this would be a curiosity, but in the developing world, it could help health care workers avoid thousands of preventable infant deaths. Each incubator can be built for under $1000 (standard incubators cost forty times that).

But there isn't actually a serious incubator shortage in the developing world

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DSM-IV gets reexamined. Expect a DSM-V in a few years.

Darkfrog submitted, created time 2 weeks 6 days (www.nytimes.com)

Psychologists are revising the DSM-IV. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has been altered a few times since its first edition came out in 1952 (hence the "IV") to reflect better information and changing ideas about what makes a healthy mind. For example, earlier versions of the DSM listed homosexuality as a disease. The DSM-IV does not

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Common Treatment for Chronic Prostatitis Fails to Reduce Symptoms

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 weeks 6 days (www.engelpub.com)

drug commonly prescribed for men with chronic prostatitis, a painful disorder of the prostate and surrounding pelvic area, failed to significantly reduce symptoms in recently diagnosed men who had not been previously treated with this drug, according to a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study is to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Multiple Doses of Steroids Don't Help Preemies

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 weeks 6 days (health.yahoo.com)

Pregnant women at risk of preterm delivery who are given multiple doses of steroids to help their fetus tend to give birth to low birth-weight babies with smaller head circumference, a new study found.

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Food and Drug Administration does a double-take on bisphenol A

Antibiotics before infections save lives

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 days 6 hours (www.reuters.com)

Giving antibiotics to patients in intensive care units as a precaution saves lives, according to a major Dutch study published Wednesday.

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Weight loss surgery improves sexual function in men

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 days 6 hours (news.yahoo.com)

Sexual dysfunction that commonly occurs in morbidly obese men improves after weight loss surgery, according to a new study.

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Beer marinade cuts steak cancer risk

sea-maid submitted, created time 6 days 3 minutes (www.newscientist.com)

IF YOU are frying a steak and mindful of your health, then marinate it in either beer or red wine. So say food scientists who measured amounts of a family of carcinogens found in fried steaks after steeping them in booze.

Cooking food increases levels of cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HAs). Fried and grilled meat are particularly high in these compounds, because fiery temperatures convert the sugars and amino acids in muscle tissue into HAs

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Safer fetal test for genetic diseases on horizon

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 days 23 hours (www.newscientist.com)

Using just a drop of the mother's blood, scientists can now tell if the fetus has a disorder like cystic fibrosis – it could soon spell the end for invasive techniques

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