heath care

Cocaine-addicted individuals say they find the drug much less enjoyable after years of use, but they have great difficulty quitting. A new brain imaging study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reveals why this might be so, as well as why a common psychological therapy may not work in addicted cocaine users. Their study, published September 5 in  Addiction Biology , finds that chronic users have a "global impairment" in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), an area of the brain that is linked to impulse and self-control, and is responsible for the kind of learning that assigns value to objects and behaviors. The Mount Sinai study investigated a specific type of learning called extinction -- the process by which a new, affectively neutral, association replaces an old, affectively arousing association -- to identify the neurobiological mechanism that underlies the persistence of drug seeking in addiction despite negative consequences ...

It has traditionally been thought that in mammals only mothers are able to influence the sex of their offspring. But a new study in wild mice led by Dr Aurelio Malo of Oxford University's Department of Zoology has shown that fathers can, in fact, influence  sex ratios. The paper is published in the journal  Proceedings of the Royal Society B  and involves researchers from the UK, Spain and the USA. Dr Malo said: 'In mammals, theory predicts that offspring sex ratios can only be determined by the mother, as fathers have always been thought to inseminate an equal proportion of X and Y sperm, having a random effect on offspring sex that they could not shift from equality, or 50:50. 'Also, mothers can influence their offspring in a number of ways from copulation to birth, whereas fathers have control over sperm only. This gives mothers more scope to alter the sex ratio of their offspring. The physical costs of gestation are obviously higher for the mother, so it'...

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Sema4, and collaborating institutions published results of an in-depth, multi-omics approach to characterizing the immune component of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These results provide new insights into the biologic networks involved in IBD with potential to identify new targets and eventually novel interventions for the treatment of patients living with IBD. The article appeared online in  Nature Genetics . In the United States, some 3 million adults are diagnosed with IBD, which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and is associated with immune and inflammation mechanisms. Previous genome-wide association studies to detect the genetic source of this condition turned up more than 200 genes, but those explain just a small fraction of IBD cases. For this study, scientists used a wide variety of data -- including DNA variation, gene expression, regulatory elements, and clinical information -- gathered ...

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a new approach to the "reprogramming" of ordinary adult cells into stem cells. In a study published in an Advance Online paper in  Nature Biotechnology , the TSRI scientists screened a library of 100 million antibodies and found several that can help reprogram mature skin-like cells into stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs). Making IPSCs from more mature types of cells normally involves the insertions of four transcription factor genes into the DNA of those cells. The antibodies identified by the scientists can be applied to mature cells -- where they bind to proteins on the cell surface -- as a substitute for three of the standard transcription factor gene-insertions. "This result suggests that ultimately we might be able to make IPSCs without putting anything in the cell nucleus, which potentially means that these stem cells will have fewer mutations and overall better propert...

A Northeastern research team has developed new technology that optimizes DNA sequencing using nanophysics and electric currents. In a paper published in  Nature Nanotechnology , Northeastern Professor of Biological Physics Meni Wanunu, in partnership with Pacific Biosciences, a biotechnology company with a focus on DNA sequencing, developed a method for loading DNA into sequencing wells with orders of magnitude higher efficiencies. "Apart from being a multi-billion dollar a year market, DNA sequencing is one avenue where incremental improvements in research, like discovery of a new gene, for example, can have immediate clinical consequences," said Wanunu. Our human DNA is a genome composed of 23 pairs of chromosomes, which breaks down into six billion pieces that all come together to give each person their unique characteristics and properties. While we have the ability to sequence important parts of the genome, the ability to know the entire sequence has the potential...

Adding 48 minutes of moderate exercise per week is associated with improvements in overall physical functioning and decreases in risks of immobility in older adults who are sedentary, finds a new study led by researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University. In the study, published in  PLOS ONE  on Aug. 18, the researchers evaluated how different doses of exercise for adults age 70-89 would impact the benefits. While the researchers saw improvements in all participants who added some physical activity to their routine, those who got more exercise saw greater changes. The work is part of the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) study. "These are people who want to live healthy , independent lives and are at risk for losing that. Maintaining functional independence for older adults is an important public health issue. In our first LIFE study, we confirmed that regular exercise can help impro...

Future heart surgeries will be better informed, as cardiologists will have access to detailed information regarding the 3D disposition of the human conduction system, which is responsible for generating the heartbeat. This is how Robert Stephenson from Aarhus University/Aarhus University Hospital summarizes the clinical and research implications of the new 3D imaging method that allows 3D reproductions of the human conduction system. The new technique is described in the research article, High resolution 3-Dimensional imaging of the human cardiac conduction system from microanatomy  to mathematical modeling, recently published by Robert Stephenson in the Nature journal-  Scientific Reports , in collaboration with a team of researchers from Liverpool John Moores University, University of Manchester and Newcastle University. Robert Stephenson is positive about the potential implications of this study: "We have generated the first 3D visualisation of the human conduction...

A drug originally developed in the 1960s as an antiviral medication is showing promise as a treatment option for people who suffer from increased feelings of aggression following traumatic brain injury, Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have reported. Aggression and anger are among the most common emotional and behavioral symptoms experienced by traumatic brain injury patients -- often resulting in poorer rehabilitation outcomes and negatively affecting patients' relationships with family and friends and their ability to live at home and maintain steady employment. The team of researchers, led by Flora Hammond, MD, chair of the IU School of Medicine Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Covalt Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, found that in multiple studies of patients with chronic traumatic brain injury and moderate-severe aggression, taking 100 miligrams of the drug Amantadine twice daily appeared to be beneficial in decr...

Early embryonic stage of Nematostella vectensis. Credit score: Sabrina Kaul-Strehlow, Patrick Steinmetz How did the intestine, the pores and skin and musculature evolve? This query issues scientists for greater than a century. Via the investigation of the embryonic growth of sea anemones, a really outdated animal lineage, researchers from the College of Vienna have now come to conclusions which problem the 150 year-old speculation of the homology  (widespread evolutionary origin) of the germ layers that kind all later organs and tissues. In response to a 150 year-old speculation, all tissues and organs in our physique derive from considered one of three germ layers which might be established throughout early embryogenesis . This "germ layer speculation" states that pores and skin and nervous system derive from the outer ectoderm layer, the intestine and a few interior organs, just like the pancreas, derive from the interior endoderm layer, whereas muscular ti...

A crew of scientists led by the College of Southampton has demonstrated a groundbreaking new methodology of gene synthesis -- a significant analysis software with real-world purposes in the whole lot from rising transplantable organs to creating remedies for most cancers. Present strategies for synthesizing genes make intensive use of enzymes (naturally occurring organic catalysts) to attach quick strands of DNA to kind the bigger strands that make up genes. These strategies have been used to assemble very lengthy DNA strands, corresponding to an organism's genome (its total set of genes), however are restricted due to their reliance on enzymes. One of many primary shortcomings is that they don't enable the incorporation into particular websites on the DNA of epigenetic info -- a secondary layer of genetic info that controls the expression (the 'switching on' or 'off') of genes in cells. Epigenetic info performs an vital position in a number of organic pro...