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| Ingredient Found In Green Tea Significantly Inhibits Breast. Cancer Growth In Female Mice. |
| Green tea is high in the antioxidant EGCG (epigallocatechin-3- gallate) which helps prevent the body’s cells from becoming damaged and prematurely aged. Studies have suggested that the combination of green tea and EGCG may also be beneficial by providing protection against certain types of cancers, including breast cancer. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Mississippi researchers now finds that consuming EGCG significantly inhibits breast tumor growth in female mice. These results bring us one step closer to better understanding the disease and potentially new and naturally occurring therapies. |
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| Hospital Clínic conducts the first kidney extraction through the vagina in Europe |
| This is the first time this intervention has been conducted in Europe, and the second in the world. Thanks to the work of the expert group of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, the extirpation of a kidney ‒affected by a malignant tumour‒ through the vagina has been achieved. This fact sets a milestone in the framework of minimally invasive surgery. The operation, presented this morning in a press conference, uses several cutting edge technology instruments of advanced surgery. |
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| Scripps Florida scientists develop a process to disrupt hepatitis C virion production |
| HCV is a significant human pathogen, infecting more than three percent of the world’s population. The incidence of infection in the United States has been estimated to be as high as 4 million cases. In the March issue of the journal PLoS Pathogens, Timothy Tellinghuisen, an assistant professor in the Department of Infectology at Scripps Florida, and his colleagues describe how they used mutations of the viral NS5A phosphoprotein to disrupt virus particle production at an early stage of assembly. NS5A has long been proposed as a regulator of events in the HCV life cycle, but exactly how it orchestrates these events has been unclear. |
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| RESEARCHERS PROTEST DESTRUCTION OF BACTERIA COLLECTION |
| A group of nearly 250 researchers is requesting an investigation into the destruction of thousands of samples from an infectious disease lab at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The collection — which contained nearly 10,000 specimens — was the product of more than 20 years of work and included many different strains of infectious bacteria, some of them very rare. |
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| EYE TEST PEERS INTO HEAT-RELATED MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SYMPTOMS |
| A bodysuit that heats or cools a patient, combined with painless measurements of eye movements, is providing multiple sclerosis researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center with a new tool to study the mysterious link between body temperature and severity of MS symptoms. |
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| BONN SCIENTISTS DISCOVER NEW HEMOGLOBIN TYPE. INSTRUMENTS FALSELY REPORT ANOXIA IN AFFECTED PEOPLE. |
| Scientists at the University of Bonn have discovered a new rare type of haemo-globin. Haemoglobin transports oxygen in the red blood corpuscles. When bound to oxygen it changes colour. The new haemoglobin type appears optically to be transporting little oxygen. Measurements of the blood oxygen level therefore present a similar picture to patients suffering from an inherited cardiac defect. |
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| INHALED TUBERCULOSIS VACCINE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN TRADITIONAL SHOT |
| A novel aerosol version of the most common tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, administered directly to the lungs as an oral mist, offers significantly better protection against the disease in experimental animals than a comparable dose of the traditional injected vaccine, researchers report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
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| DRUG STOPS TUMOURS REBUILDING LIFELINES |
| Improved radiotherapy for cancer patients could be around the corner. Researchers have identified a key piece in the puzzle of how tumours protect themselves from radiation, revealing how cancers could be made more vulnerable to treatment. |
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| A NEW HYPOTHESIS ABOUT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE |
| A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has proposed a new theory about the cause of Alzheimer's disease, the progressive neurodegenerative disorder that currently afflicts some 4.5 million Americans. |
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| NEW UNDERSTANDING OF WHY BRAIN CELLS DIE AFTER STROKE WILL LEAD TO DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TREATMENTS |
| Scientists at Toronto Western Hospital and the University of Toronto have found a major mechanism that causes brain cells to die from stroke. They discovered that when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and vital nutrients, as happens to parts of the brain affected by a stroke, a special channel on the surface of those brain cells is activated, triggering a lethal chain reaction. The channel, called TRPM7, when activated causes brain cells to produce large quantities of free radicals – toxic molecules that break down the cell's DNA, proteins, and other components. Free radicals also cause TRPM7 to become even more active, causing massive overproduction of free radicals, resulting in death of the brain cell. |
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| NEW DEVICE TO HELP PREMATURE BABIES |
| Australian scientists have invented a simple device that is ready to help thousands of premature babies in third-world countries who suffer from respiratory difficulties - problems that can cause brain damage and blindness. |
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| JUST A TINY PRICK |
| Tiny silicon needles can deliver drugs with less pain in each prick, according to U.S researchers.
Dr Devin McAllister of the Georgia Institute of Technology and his team in Atlanta created a variety of needle shapes using different materials. |
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| BONE MARROW FUSION WITH NERVE CELLS MAY REPAIR DAMAGE, STANFORD RESEARCHERS SAY. |
| Bone marrow cells can fuse with specialized brain cells, possibly bolstering the brain cells or repairing damage, according to research from the Stanford University School of Medicine. This finding helps resolve an ongoing debate: Do adult stem cells transform from bone marrow cells into other cell types, such as brain, muscle or liver cells, or do they fuse with those cells to form a single entity with two nuclei? The research shows that for complex brain cells called Purkinje cells, fusion is the normal pathway. |
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| MALE CONTRACEPTIVE SUCCESS: NOW IT'S OVER TO INDUSTRY |
| A long-acting but reversible male contraceptive has been fully proven to protect against pregnancies, paving the way for its commercial development. |
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| CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS SENSE TASTE DIFFERENTLY |
| The children of alcoholic fathers may perceive salty and sour tastes differently from those with no alcoholic parents, American scientists report. |
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| EYE MOVEMENT STUDIES TO HELP DIAGNOSE MENTAL ILLNESS |
| Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are studying subtle abnormalities in eye movements that may one day be used to diagnose psychiatric disease. |
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| SNORING LINKED TO HEADACHES |
| People who suffer from chronic daily headaches are far more likely to be chronic snorers than people who have only occasional headaches, a new U.S. study has found. |
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| LOW DOSES OF X-RAYS MAY BE DAMAGING TO GENES |
| Even low doses of radiation may cause damage to genes, German researchers have discovered, questioning the safety of routine X-rays and current models of risk assessment. |
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| NEW HINTS INTO DEVELOPMENT OF OSTEOPOROSIS |
| Defects in a protein called alphaV beta3 ntegrin appear to contribute to the development of osteoporosis, and these effects can be reversed by enhancing a protein called macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. |
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| BLOOD TEST FOR LUNG CANCER MAY BE POSSIBLE |
| A blood test that can detect one of the forms of lung cancer before it takes hold may become possible following new Russian research. |
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| VITAMINS C AND E SUPPORT BREATHING FOLLOWING AN OPERATION |
| Patients who have recently undergone an operation experience less breathing problems after being given a cocktail of vitamins C and E. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center following experiments with patients and healthy volunteers. |
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| SUGAR-BASED THERAPIES COULD PREVENT DAMAGE FROM KIDNEY FAILURE |
| Targeting sugars that occur naturally in the body could protect the kidneys or other organs from damage associated with disease or injury, according to a Johns Hopkins study. |
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| BLADDER-SPARING PROCEDURE FOUND EFFECTIVE FOR TREATING INVASIVE BLADDER CANCER |
| For patients with the most serious form of bladder cancer, the standard of care has been to completely remove the bladder and adjacent organs. Now scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have shown that therapeutic strategies aimed at sparing the bladder have long-term cure rates just as good as does bladder removal. The findings, which appear in the July issue of Urology, could offer a better quality of life for many patients. |
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| AUSSIE CORNEA HELPS FIGHT WORLD BLINDNESS |
| An artificial cornea developed in Australia is now ready for production and commercial release throughout the world, according to an announcement this week.
The AlphaCor was developed by researchers at the Lions Eye Institute of Western Australia and Argus Biomedical Pty Ltd. The announcement was made as one of a series of medical achievements for Australian Medical Research Week. |
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| STUDY OF AQUATIC MUSSELS INDICATES THEY MAY YIELD NEW ANTIFOULING MATERIALS, SURGICAL ADHESIVES |
| New insights into how aquatic mussels bind tightly to rocks and other surfaces could lead to surgical applications and improved adhesives, it was reported today at the Great Lakes Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. |
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| PEPTIDE PROMOTES NEW GROWTH IN INJURED SPINAL CORDS |
| Yale researchers have developed a synthetic peptide that promotes new nerve fiber growth in the damaged spinal cords of laboratory rats and allows them to walk better, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature. |
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| BONE - HEAL THYSELF |
| At last! Good news for people who have broken their shin bone – an Australian team is developing a material that will help the bone heal in months without the need for a traction machine. |
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| U OF MINNESOTA STUDY: ADULT BONE MARROW STEM CELLS CAN BECOME LIVER CELLS |
| Researchers at the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute (SCI) have demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of adult bone marrow stem cells to differentiate in vitro as hepatocytes (liver cells) with hepatocyte phenotype and function. The findings will be published in the May 15, 2002 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. |
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| GENETIC LINK TO ENDOMETRIOSIS – UNIQUE ICELANDIC STUDY PROVIDES FURTHER PROOF |
| A woman has more than five times the normal risk of developing endometriosis if her sister has the disease, according to research published today (Thursday 28 February) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction* (full-text article). |
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| QUICK BONE HEALING POSSIBLE |
| Australian researchers have developed a material that paves the way for more successful hip replacements.
Researchers at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Queensland University of Technology report they have developed a material made of natural compounds that stimulates bone to grow and helps it attach to implants. |
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| ADULT BONE MARROW STEM CELLS CAN BECOME BLOOD VESSELS |
| Researchers at the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute (SCI) have demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of adult bone marrow stem cells to expand in vitro as endothelial cells (which line blood- and lymphatic vessels) and then engraft in vivo and contribute to new growth of blood vessels (neoangiogenesis). The findings will be published in the February 1, 2002 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. |
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| IS THIS THE CELL THAT COULD REVOLUTIONISE MEDICINE? |
| IT MIGHT turn out to be the most important cell ever discovered. It's a stem cell found in adults that can turn into every single tissue in the body.
Until now, only stem cells from early embryos were thought to be able to do this. If the finding is confirmed, it will mean cells from your own body could one day be turned into all sorts of perfectly matched replacement tissues and even organs. |
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| ANIMAL STUDY FIND EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS CAN REPAIR HEART MUSCLE |
| Transplantation of embryonic stem cells can help repair injured heart muscle and improve cardiac function following heart attacks and the development of congestive heart failure (CHF), according to the results of an animal study conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. |
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| A MECHANICAL MEDICINAL LEECH? |
| US researchers have developed a mechanical leech which they say can replace the flesh-and-blood variety used to prevent blood from clotting in plastic surgery. |
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| NEW LIVER CANCER TREATMENT; THE CURRENT PICTURE |
| In June, 2000, the Adelaidean reported on promising trials of a new technique to treat patients suffering from cancers of the liver. The researchers have now presented the preliminary results of those trials to the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (South Australia). |
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| GLUE AND COILS HELP PREVENT MALFORMATIONS AND ANEURYSMS |
| A unique treatment at The Ohio State University Medical Center is using surgical glue and coils to correct abnormally connecting blood vessels that are linked to seizures, headaches and sometimes death. |
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| BRESAGEN ANNOUNCES AUSTRALIA'S FIRST CLONED PIG |
| Australian biotechnology company, BresaGen Limited, in association with the Immunology Research Centre, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, has made a major breakthrough in cloning technology. |
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