Smokers are up to four times more likely to go blind in old age, according to research. A study in the British Medical Journal says cigarettes increase the chances of developing age-related macular degeneration. Cigarette packets already carry severe health warnings about the dangers of smoking. The researchers, from the University of Manchester, say the risk of going blind should be added to the list. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of adult blindness in the UK, affecting about 500,000 people. It results in severe and irreversible loss of central vision, especially in people over the age of 60. Ophthalmic surgeon Simon Kelly and his team claim around 54,000 people in the UK have AMD as a direct result of smoking. Of these, they said 17,800 are completely blind. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Vision
Link ID: 5091 - Posted: 03.05.2004

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Another species has been added to the family tree of early human ancestors — and to controversies over how straight or tangled were the branches of that tree. Long before Homo erectus, Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy, more than three million years ago) and several other distant kin, scientists are reporting today, there lived a primitive hominid species in what is now Ethiopia about 5.5 million to 5.8 million years ago. That would make the newly recognizied species one of the earliest known human ancestors, perhaps one of the first to emerge after the chimpanzee and human lineages diverged from a common ancestor some six million to eight million years ago. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5090 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Gerald DeGroot THE knives are out for Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who linked autism to the MMR vaccine. Over the last few weeks, various reports have indicated serious flaws in his research. News has also emerged that he received (but did not disclose) £55,000 from a legal aid project set up to look for links between the vaccine and the disorder. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, admitted that his journal would not have published Wakefield’s paper in February 1998 had it known about his conflict of interest. Stated simply, for the last six years parents have been tortured by a myth. With Wakefield discredited, the government now hopes that a line can be drawn under this sorry episode. But I suspect that we have not seen its end. Wakefield will emerge as a martyred hero, a brave and lonely warrior waging battle against the conspiratorial medical profession. The pain he has inflicted on parents of autistic children will continue. In contrast to Wakefield, I intend to declare an interest at the outset. My son Josh is autistic. Like most children, he was given the MMR vaccine at around 18 months. Shortly afterwards, he began exhibiting the first signs of what we now identify as autistic behaviour. The link between these two events is tempting, but, for reasons of sanity, I have resisted it. ©2004 Scotsman.com

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5089 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study in the March 6, 2004, issue of The Lancet* confirms the benefits of getting stroke patients to the hospital quickly for rapid thrombolytic treatment. The study provides the results of an extensive analysis of more than 2,700 stroke patients in six controlled clinical trials who were randomized for treatment with thrombolytic t-PA or a placebo. While physicians have known since a breakthrough study in 1995 that early treatment with thrombolytics can improve a stroke patient's chance of a full recovery, only an estimated 2 to 5 percent of all eligible acute stroke patients in the U.S. are being treated with thrombolytics. Stroke patients who were treated within 90 minutes of the onset of their symptoms showed the most improvement. The study suggests that t-PA given up to 4 hours after the onset of symptoms may be of benefit, but the authors caution that as time goes on there is a diminishing effect of treatment, and there is estimated to be almost no benefit when treatment is at 6 hours.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 5088 - Posted: 03.05.2004

By improving the detection of vitamin B12 in blood, HOLOTC is helping diagnose deficiencies before they become medical emergencies. Vitamin B12 is essential to human life. The body cannot make its own supplies and without an adequate dietary supply from animal sources or enriched cereals, up to 20 million people can suffer anaemia, risk nerve damage and even death. Unfortunately, vitamin B12 deficiency can go undetected for several years, remaining invisible to doctors while the likelihood of irreversible cell damage increases. Under EUREKA project E! 2263 HOLOTC, Norwegian diagnostics company Axis Shield teamed up with Danish academics to find a way to pick up early warning signs of potentially harmful B12 deficits. The project pioneered a unique B12 detection system, which tracks concentrations of holotc (short for holo-transcobalamin), a biologically active complex of the vitamin plus a carrier protein. Although the holotc complex carries only 20% of the body's vitamin B12, the other 80% is not nearly as significant since it is effectively not available for uptake by the cells. Current diagnostic techniques measure the total amount of B12 in the blood. Because these tests do not discriminate between holotc and the inactive vitamin, they can misleadingly return a healthy result for patients with too little active B12. © EUREKA

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5087 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Lengthy sequences of DNA -- with their component triplet of nucleotides repeated hundreds, even thousands of times -- are known to be abnormal, causing rare but devastating neurological diseases. But how does the DNA get this way? How does it go haywire, multiplying out of control? In the current issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Sergei Mirkin, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, explains the mechanism, providing an important clue to the origin of these diseases. Mirkin and Maria Krasilnikova, a research assistant professor in his lab, studied the sequence of a simple repeat of three nucleotides responsible for Friedreich's ataxia, the most commonly inherited form of ataxias, which causes progressive damage to the nervous system, resulting in symptoms ranging from muscle weakness and speech problems to heart disease.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Huntingtons
Link ID: 5086 - Posted: 03.05.2004

A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has described the cellular mechanism underlying the brain's response to alcohol, which suggests a possible method for treating alcoholism. This work, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, ties together the effect of the brain peptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) with alcohol. Both appear to influence neurotransmission in the amygdala, the so-called pleasure center of the brain, by increasing the transmission of one particular neurotransmitter called gamma amino butyric acid (GABA). "There is a strong relationship between drugs of abuse, stress, and the amygdala," says Neuropharmacology Professor George Siggins, who led the research. The research suggests that compounds that block CRF receptors might be a potential new therapeutic for alcoholics, who struggle to stop drinking.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5085 - Posted: 03.05.2004

Scientists zero in on five chromosome regions ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, working with colleagues in the U-M School of Public Health, have significantly narrowed the range of chromosomal locations where they expect to find genes associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In a paper published in the March issue of American Journal of Human Genetics, Kellogg scientist Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., and his team of researchers have confirmed three previously suggested loci (on chromosomes 1, 5, and 9) for potential AMD genes, and have identified two new loci on chromosomes 2 and 22. AMD is a progressive disease that destroys central vision. There is no known cure for the disease, which affects millions of individuals worldwide. While scientists believe there is a strong genetic component, most believe the cause will be found in the interplay of several genes combined with environmental factors, such as smoking and diet.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 5084 - Posted: 03.05.2004

He dissected 30 bodies, kept about 20,000 pages of notes and seldom finished what he started. But nearly 500 years after his death, Leonardo da Vinci can still draw a crowd - not only as an artist, but as a scientist. Tonight, a sellout crowd of more than 400 will gather at the Walters Art Museum to hear Kennedy Krieger Institute researcher Jonathan Pevsner discuss da Vinci's genius, focusing on the Renaissance master's study of the human brain. Scholars have spent careers deciphering da Vinci's sketches of flying ships, his catapults and the prescient knowledge of his celestial observations. But Pevsner may be uniquely qualified to discuss his particular topic: He spends his days researching childhood brain diseases, and his devotion to his hero - "I love Leonardo," he says - seems borderline fanatic. He owns 600 books about da Vinci and has been known to stare at his paintings for hours. © 2004 by The Baltimore Sun.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5083 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Mario J. Vassallo is a former semipro football player, a former steroid user and now the lead researcher in a Central Michigan University study of the addictive effects of steroids. "From my own personal experience," he said, "and 36 of the 38 guys I interviewed said the same thing: once you take start taking steroids, within the first three days, it's a different life you're leading. You feel invincible, on top of the world. Within two weeks, you feel your workouts change. You used to do an hour and a half and get tired. You can change to two hours a day and feel ready to go back and do the same thing. And the pump you get, you don't want to lose it." The question he was answering was simple. People associated with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or Balco, which is at the center of a federal investigation into the distribution of steroids, say that they dealt only in vitamin and mineral supplements. So if prosecutors are right and what Balco really sold was a new designer steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, is it possible that its customers could not have known what they were taking? Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5082 - Posted: 03.04.2004

Trials of a possible new treatment for the human form of BSE have still to begin more than two years after they were promised. The Department of Health ordered a fast-track trial in 2001 after doctors in the United States found a drug used to treat malaria may also fight vCJD. A report in The Times Higher Education Supplement says a "feud" between two groups of scientists has caused delays. The Medical Research Council says progress is being made. Quinacrine was first given to 21-year-old Rachel Forber from Liverpool, who had vCJD. Before receiving the drug, she was bed-ridden and required constant care. She could not recognise members of her family, stand noise or sunlight or feed or dress herself. (C) BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5081 - Posted: 03.04.2004

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR Ten of the 13 scientists who produced a 1998 study linking a childhood vaccine to several cases of autism retracted their conclusion yesterday. In a statement to be published in the March 6 issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal, the researchers conceded that they did not have enough evidence at the time to tie the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, known as MMR, to the autism cases. The study has been blamed for a sharp drop in the number of British children being vaccinated and for outbreaks of measles. "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient," the researchers said in the retraction. "However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5080 - Posted: 03.04.2004

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. The government has begun a criminal investigation into whether documents were falsified in the lone case of mad cow disease found in the United States, the Agriculture Department's inspector general said yesterday. The official, Phyllis K. Fong, told a House appropriations subcommittee that the investigation focused on whether the Holstein dairy cow was a "downer" — a cow too sick or injured to walk — when it was slaughtered on Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Washington State. The inquiry was "based on allegations that were reported in the media in early February concerning possible alteration of official records," Ms. Fong said. She declined to identify any targets of the investigation. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5079 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers have discovered that some monkeys process the sounds of other monkeys in their brains much like the way people process language. As this ScienCentral News video reports, it's a discovery that may lead to a better understanding of how people acquired the ability to communicate. We've all seen primates when they are monkeying around. But how much actual communicating is going on? "[Monkeys] do communicate vocally," says John Roden, Curator of Animals at the Central Park Zoo. "They definitely have different vocalizations that they'll do, that I would say have a communicative role in their interactions. If they are startled, they might make a loud vocalization that would alert the group that there's potential danger around. They have smaller vocalizations, if they find a food source or something like that, that they might want to share with others. It's not necessarily as complex, obviously, as human vocalization, but it certainly does convey information." © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Animal Communication; Language
Link ID: 5078 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — For the first time, scientists have identified a chemical that turns males off sex. While the chemical, methyl salicylate, is only known to work on a certain species of butterfly, researchers said a similar phenomenon may occur among humans and other animals and insects. Researchers discovered the anti-aphrodisiac while studying the green-veined white butterfly, Pieris napi. Instead of giving a female partner an engagement ring to signify that she is spoken for, male butterflies of this species give their mates a dose of methyl salicylate in their sperm. The smell of the chemical puts other males off. They move to females that are stink-free and available. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5077 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Ten of the original 13 authors of a controversial 1998 medical report which implied a link between autism and the combined MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella, have retracted the paper's interpretations. The retraction will be printed in the 6 March issue of The Lancet, which published the original paper. One author could not be reached and two others, Peter Harvey and lead author Andrew Wakefield, refused to join the retraction. "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient," write the 10 authors in their retraction. "However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5076 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have created a mouse model for migraine headache that may serve as an invaluable tool for future study of these debilitating headaches that are often accompanied by severe neurological symptoms. The research, published in the March 4 issue of Neuron, is a major step towards development of more successful treatments targeted at specific neurobiological events that underlie migraines. Migraine is a common, chronic disorder characterized by recurrent disabling headaches. Approximately one-third of migraine sufferers have headaches preceded by a transient neurological aura of flashing jagged lights and pins and needles. Researchers from Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands and the University of Padova and CNR Institute of Neuroscience in Italy examined a rare subtype of migraine called familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) that is identical to other types of migraine except it is also associated with hemiparesis, weakness on one side of the body. FHM is associated with specific genetic mutations in a gene for a calcium channel protein that is involved in neuronal excitability. The researchers used a sophisticated genetic technique to create mice with a mutation seen in humans with FHM. Compared to normal mice, the migraine mice showed activation of calcium channels by weaker stimuli with consequent enhanced calcium entry into neurons, increased release of excitatory neurotransmitters, and increased susceptibility to cortical spreading depression (CSD), the phenomenon that underlies the migraine aura.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 5075 - Posted: 03.04.2004

Foraging workers push and shove to steer others around bottlenecks. MICHAEL HOPKIN When it comes to traffic congestion, ants prefer the no-nonsense approach - they barge others out of the way, forcing them to take an alternative route. The strategy allows ants to prevent time-consuming blockages on foraging trails, say European researchers. Foraging ants lay down scent cues that allow others to follow the route between the nest and a food source. As more ants follow the trail, the chemical signposts are reinforced and become more attractive. But problems can arise when too many ants try to use the route, says Vincent Fourcassié of the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. His team found that ants are surprisingly good at avoiding congestion, simply by shoving each other off the main highway and on to back streets. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Animal Communication; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5074 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ALBANY, N.Y. -- University at Albany researchers are pioneering more accessible, cost-effective treatment programs for two of the nation's common ailments, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Rather than relying on the common face-to-face, therapist-patient relationships, the unique treatments are self-managed, with the patient undertaking much of the therapy through reading material, structured homework, and diagnostic tools. "It's the wave of the future," says doctoral research supervisor Edward B. Blanchard, director of the UAlbany Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders. "The treatment is very accessible to people who have limited mobility or limited access to areas where therapists tend to locate, such as cities. It's self-managed and self-paced, and less expensive than traditional treatment. And it's done under the trained eye of a clinician, who can help assess progress."

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 5073 - Posted: 03.04.2004

IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer The Agriculture Department said Tuesday its meat recall from the nation's first case of mad cow disease was nearly four times larger than previously disclosed, but dismissed the size as irrelevant. The government said the recall grew to 38,000 pounds from the 10,400 it announced Dec. 23, when the government reported that a slaughtered Holstein cow in Washington state had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease. Officials had originally set the recall at 10,400 pounds after determining that Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., had mingled meat from the infected cow with meat from 19 other head of cattle on Dec. 9. ©2004 Associated Press

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5072 - Posted: 06.24.2010