Piece From Childhood Virus May Save Soldiers’ Lives

A harmless shard from the shell of a common childhood virus may halt a biological process that kills a significant percentage of battlefield casualties, heart attack victims and oxygen-deprived newborns, according to research presented Sunday, September 6, 2009, at the 12th European meeting on complement in human disease in Budapest, Hungary. Introducing the virus’s shell ...

‘Dung Of The Devil’ Plant Roots Point To New Swine Flu...

Scientists in China have discovered that roots of a plant used a century ago during the great Spanish influenza pandemic contains substances with powerful effects in laboratory experiments in killing the H1N1 swine flu virus that now threatens the world. The plant has a pleasant onion-like taste when cooked, but when raw it has sap so ...

High Fruit And Vegetable Intake Linked To Antioxidant Status And Cognitive...

Researchers at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I of the Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany, investigated the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake, plasma antioxidant micronutrient status and cognitive performance in healthy subjects aged 45 to 102 years. Their results, published in the August issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, indicated higher cognitive performance ...

Roadmap Of Leptin Explains Its Regulation Of Bone And Appetite: New...

When the leptin-serotonin pathway is turned on in mice, the researchers found, appetite increases, the animals eat more, gain weight, and their bone mass increases. When the pathway is turned off, mice eat less, lose weight, and their bones weaken.

Pandemic Flu Can Infect Cells Deep In The Lungs

Pandemic swine flu can infect cells deeper in the lungs than seasonal flu can, according to a new study published today in Nature Biotechnology. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say this may explain why people infected with the pandemic strain of swine-origin H1N1 influenza are more likely to suffer more severe symptoms than those infected ...

Scientists Discover Mechanism To Make Existing Antibiotics More Effective At Lower...

A new study published in the September 11, 2009 issue of Science by researchers at the NYU School of Medicine reveals a conceptually novel mechanism that plays an important role in making human pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis resistant to numerous antibiotics. The study led by Evgeny A. Nudler, PhD, The Julie Wilson Anderson Professor of ...

Aging Muscles: ‘Hard To Build, Easy To Lose’

Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures. New research is showing how this happens — and what to do about it. A ...

Exercise Alone Shown To Improve Insulin Sensitivity In Obese Sedentary Adolescents

A moderate aerobic exercise program, without weight loss, can improve insulin sensitivity in both lean and obese sedentary adolescents, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that permits glucose to enter cells to be used for ...

Roadmap Of Leptin Explains Its Regulation Of Bone And Appetite: New...

New research from Columbia University Medical Center has illuminated a previously unknown leptin-serotonin pathway in the brain that simultaneously promotes appetite and bone mass accrual. The research, which explains how leptin – well-known appetite-suppressing hormone – acts in the brain, is published in the Sept. 4 issue of Cell. When the leptin-serotonin pathway is turned ...

Salvia and Notoginseng Reduce Platelet Aggregation

Interaction of salvianolic acids and notoginsengnosides in inhibition of ADP-induced platelet aggregation. Shanghai Research Center for Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. Salvia miltiorrhiza and Panax notoginseng were both considered to be beneficial to cardiovascular diseases in traditional Chinese medicine and often used in combination. To ...