news 2013

Researchers believe findings could help the many individuals for whom anti-depressants offer little or no relief Modafinil has actions on a number of neurotransmitter systems. This may explain why adding it to traditional anti-depressants has beneficial effects on the symptoms experienced by depressed patients Professor Barbara Sahakian A new study has concluded that taking the drug modafinil, typically used to treat sleep disorders, in combination with antidepressants reduces the severity of depression more effectively than taking antidepressants alone.

UK researchers have discovered a gene that regulates alcohol consumption and when faulty can cause excessive drinking. They have also identified the mechanism underlying this phenomenon. The study showed that normal mice show no interest in alcohol and drink little or no alcohol when offered a free choice between a bottle of water and a bottle of diluted alcohol.

UK researchers have discovered a gene that regulates alcohol consumption and, when faulty, can cause excessive drinking in mice. The study found that normal mice drink little or no alcohol when offered a free choice between a bottle of water and a bottle of diluted alcohol. However, mice with a mutation in the gene Gabrb1 overwhelmingly preferred drinking alcohol over water, choosing to consume almost 85 per cent of their daily fluid as drinks containing alcohol.

Scientists and clinicians from five leading UK universities will begin a groundbreaking trial next year to test a possible cure for HIV infection. Efforts to cure HIV in the past have been thwarted by the virus's ability to lie dormant inside blood cells without being detected. The new therapy combines standard antiretroviral drugs with two new weapons: a drug that reactivates dormant HIV, and a vaccine that induces the immune system to destroy the infected cells.

A new mechanism that regulates the way blood vessels grow and connect to each other has been discovered by an international team of researchers at Karolinska Institutet, and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. The knowledge might open up new opportunities for future cancer therapy. The study is published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Scientists have discovered how drugs that have been used for 60 years to kill the parasite that causes sleeping sickness actually work. Research has revealed that the drugs used to attack Trypanosoma brucei enter through pores in the parasite's cells known as aquaporins which function as water channels.

Results published today in The Lancet give the most detailed picture yet of the British population's sex lives over the last 10 years, as part of the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) survey. Over 15,000 adults aged 16-74 participated in s between September 2010 and August 2012.

A new study, published in The Lancet as part of the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) survey, systematically assesses the association between individuals' general health and their sex lives, finding that close to one in six (17%) of men and women in Britain say that their health affects their sex life.

Discovery could help identify patients who need to be treated earlier—and those who may not need invasive treatment. Medical researchers at the University of Alberta and their American colleagues have discovered a biomarker that accurately predicts which prostate cancer patients will have their cancer recur or spread.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet show that several months after surgery for esophageal cancer, different symptoms cluster together in different types of patients. In addition, patients with certain symptom clusters have an increased risk of dying from their disease. The findings are published in the scientific journal Cancer.

25 November 2013 When golden staph enters our skin it can identify the key immune cells and 'nuke' our body's immune response. Now we know how, thanks to an international research group led by dermatologists from the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney. Using state-of-the art microscopy techniques, the team identified the key immune cells that orchestrate the body's defenders against invading golden staph, and also how the bacteria can target and destroy these cells, circumventing the body's immune response.

Steroid injections given to pregnant women before premature birth may increase the child's risk of later behavioural difficulties, a study has found. Mothers who are expected to give birth prematurely are often given an infusion of glucocorticoids, which mimic the natural hormone cortisol. This treatment is vital for helping the baby's lungs mature, but the new research suggests it may also increase the risk of mental health problems including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

UCL scientists have shown that there are widespread differences in how genes, the basic building blocks of the human body, are expressed in men and women's brains. Based on post-mortem adult human brain and spinal cord samples from over 100 individuals, scientists at the UCL Institute of Neurology were able to study the expression of every gene in 12 brain regions.

22 Nov 2013 A new gene that causes life-threatening scar formation (fibrosis) has been discovered, opening the way for the development of new drugs to prevent or treat this condition. The study, in a South African-British-French collaboration which led to the discovery of the little-known novel gene called FAM111B, brings hope to millions of families across the world who pass on this debilitating gene to one another.

This work is a major step forward in our understanding of the evolution of flu viruses, and could possibly enable us to predict that evolution Professor Derek Smith Scientists have identified a potential way to improve future flu vaccines after discovering that seasonal flu typically escapes immunity from vaccines with as little as a single amino acid substitution.

A team of researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles, have demonstrated a technique that, by measuring the physical properties of individual cells in body fluids, can diagnose cancer with a high degree of accuracy. The technique, which uses a deformability cytometer to analyze individual cells, could reduce the need for more cumbersome diagnostic procedures and the associated costs, while improving accuracy over current methods.

Women entering their senior years with a healthy weight and waist size have a significantly better chance of reaching age 85 without chronic disease or mobility impairment, according to a nationwide health study that followed more than 36,000 women for up to 19 years. Put another way, a 66-year-old woman with a body mass index (BMI) over 30, combined with a waist circumference of about 34 inches, has increased odds of coronary and cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, certain cancers, hip fractures and arthritis over the subsequent two decades later - if she lives that long.

Finding major new clues to the origins of autism, a Yale-led team of researchers has pinpointed which cell types and regions of the developing human brain are affected by gene mutations linked to autism. They report their findings in the Nov. 21 issue of the journal Cell. Analyzing massive amounts of gene expression data generated by the BrainSpan project, the team identified common neural circuits affected by autism-risk genes and when, where, and in what cell types those genes exert their effects on the developing human brain and lead to autism spectrum disorders.

Mastitis, a highly prevalent dairy cow disease, strikes fear in the hearts of many farmers. The udder infections it entails can ruin cows' health and productivity, wreak economic havoc on farms worldwide and cost the dairy industry billions of dollars per year. Now with nearly $500,000 over three years from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cornell National Institute of Food and Agriculture, faculty at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine will employ a new technology that is revolutionizing bacteriology to examine mastitis in ways it has never been studied before.

Sussex research leads to greater understanding of DNA repair processes A five-year programme of research led by a team of scientists at the University of Sussex has resulted in significant breakthroughs in our understanding of how enzymes that make DNA help to replicate damaged genomes. In three related studies, the researchers looked at whether a particular group of enzymes that make DNA called primases, found in both lower organisms, such as bacteria, as well as in humans, play significant roles in DNA repair processes in cells.