http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a chemical that may, over the long term, protect the hearts of Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients - a fatal and most common form of muscular dystrophy in children. http://phys.org/news187895302.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:50:01 EST news187895302 A new method of growing arteries could lead to a "biological bypass"—or a non-invasive way to treat coronary artery disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report with their colleagues in the April issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news187291995.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:33:39 EST news187291995 How do you study-and try to cure in the laboratory-an infection that only humans can get? A team led by Salk Institute researchers does it by generating a mouse with an almost completely human liver. This "humanized" mouse is susceptible to human liver infections and responds to human drug treatments, providing a new way to test novel therapies for debilitating human liver diseases and other diseases with liver involvement such as malaria. http://phys.org/news186083100.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:45:27 EST news186083100 Swiss scientists say they have found a trigger for narcolepsy, the health disorder that sparks sudden daytime bouts of tiredness or sleep, in a move that could open up new avenues for treatment. http://phys.org/news185631907.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:25:24 EST news185631907 Mutation of a gene that helps protect the body from genetic instability leads to cellular and molecular changes in the pregnant uterus that trigger premature birth, according to a study appearing online Feb. 1 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news184268405.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:40:35 EST news184268405 Leukemia cells, like most cancers, are addicted to glucose to generate their energy, but new research shows for the first time that these cells also rely on fatty acid metabolism to grow and to evade cell death. http://phys.org/news183834187.html Medicine & Health Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:03:33 EST news183834187 A growth factor that is a common target of cancer drugs also plays an important role in the heart's response to stress, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report online this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news182453786.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:30:01 EST news182453786 Scientists at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered an important link between inflammation and breast cancer stem cells that suggests a new way to target cells that are resistant to current treatments. http://phys.org/news181851567.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:37:13 EST news181851567 A molecular receptor pivotal to the action of male hormones such as testosterone also plays a crucial role in the body's ability to heal, report scientists in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news181838207.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:37:29 EST news181838207 Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern and Case Western University have determined how the protein Mdm2, which is elevated in late-stage cancers, disables genes that suppress the growth of tumors. The finding may lead to the development of new drugs for late stage breast cancer and other difficult to treat malignancies. http://phys.org/news179416357.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:53:31 EST news179416357 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green monkeys avoid AIDS when infected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV. http://phys.org/news179085831.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:05:48 EST news179085831 Treatment for a number of cancers and other medical conditions is transplantation with bone marrow from a genetically nonidentical individual (a process known as allogeneic bone marrow transplantation [allo-BMT]). http://phys.org/news178915905.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:52:23 EST news178915905 UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that a naturally occurring protein -- transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-ß1) -- which normally suppresses the growth of cancer cells, causes a rebound effect after a prolonged exposure. Cancer cells go into overdrive and become even more aggressive and likely to spread, the researchers report. http://phys.org/news178910190.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:30:01 EST news178910190 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new type of immune cell that can be out of control in certain chronic inflammatory diseases, worsening the symptoms of conditions like psoriasis and asthma, is described for the first time this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news177676663.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:50:01 EST news177676663 Lyme disease is caused by the microbe Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans from feeding ticks. http://phys.org/news177620366.html Biology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:30:01 EST news177620366 The aorta, the body's largest artery, stretches from the chest to below the kidneys, expanding and contracting with the pressure of blood driven directly into it by the heart. Although its walls are extraordinarily strong, like other blood vessels the aorta can sometimes develop bulges, called aneurysms. Like other aneurysms, those in the aorta sometimes give way, and the result is what doctors refer to as an "aortic dissection" — a clinical way of saying that the largest artery in your body has just started leaking, and you may well be on your way to becoming one of the nearly 16,000 Americans killed by the phenomenon annually. http://phys.org/news177619107.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:10:01 EST news177619107 Targeting the normal cells that surround cancer cells within and around a tumor is a strategy that could greatly increase the effectiveness of traditional anti-cancer treatments, say researchers at The Wistar Institute. http://phys.org/news177620266.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:00:03 EST news177620266 An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is taking the first step in developing a treatment for a rare genetic disorder called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), in which the body's skeletal muscles and soft connective tissue turns to bone, immobilizing patients over a lifetime with a second skeleton. http://phys.org/news177258526.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:50:03 EST news177258526 If taking nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen or naproxen is to protect you from developing Alzheimer disease then you will have to start taking them at a very early age according to new research in a mouse model of the disease that is to be published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news177016208.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:10:58 EST news177016208 (PhysOrg.com) -- While studying how the heart is formed, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine serendipitously found a novel cellular source of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common type of abnormal heart beat. http://phys.org/news176408803.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:50:04 EST news176408803 Infection with West Nile virus (WNV) causes no symptoms in most people. However, it can cause fever, meningitis, and/or encephalitis. What determines the outcome of infection with WNV in different people has not been determined. http://phys.org/news174586956.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:10:02 EST news174586956 Iron is a micronutrient essential to the survival of both humans and disease-causing microbes. Changes in iron levels therefore affect the severity of infectious diseases. For example, individuals with mutations in their HFE gene have exceedingly high levels of iron in their liver and are more susceptible to infection with a number of microbes. http://phys.org/news173987421.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:50:01 EST news173987421 Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a childhood cancer thought to originate from skeletal muscle. In patients whose disease has spread (metastasized) from the initial tumor site the chance of long-term survival is poor. Hopes for a therapy for such patients are not high, as little is known about the factors that control tumor progression and metastasis. http://phys.org/news173987382.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:50:02 EST news173987382 After spinal cord injury, certain immune cells collect in the spinal fluid and release high levels of antibodies. What, if anything, those antibodies do there is unknown. http://phys.org/news172779803.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:50:01 EST news172779803 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have identified a mechanism that may keep a well known signaling molecule from eroding bone and inflaming joints, according to an early study published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news172775765.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:30:17 EST news172775765 X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP) is a rare inherited immunodeficiency most commonly caused by deficiency in the protein SAP. http://phys.org/news172171548.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:30:01 EST news172171548 Blame your brain for sabotaging your efforts to get back on track after splurging on an extra scoop of ice cream or that second burger during Friday night's football game. http://phys.org/news172132765.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:40:18 EST news172132765 In 2004, Jeremy Luban and colleagues from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, reported that New World owl monkeys (Aotus genus) make a fusion protein - AoT5Cyp - that potently blocks HIV-1 infection. The human genome encodes the equivalent of the 2 components of AoT5Cyp (i.e., TRIM5 and cyclophilin A), but humans unfortunately do not make the T5Cyp fusion protein. http://phys.org/news171649700.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:50:02 EST news171649700 One way in which men and women differ is in their expression of liver proteins that control a large number of whole-body processes such as energy generation and lipid and steroid hormone production and turnover. Now, Walter Wahli and colleagues, at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, have identified a new mechanism underlying this differential expression of proteins in male and female mice. http://phys.org/news171093839.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:04:22 EST news171093839 Protein S, a well-known anticoagulant protein, keeps the blood flowing in more than one way, discovered researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The protein contributes to the formation and function of healthy blood vessels. http://phys.org/news171050977.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:30:01 EST news171050977