Category Archives: Health

Research Shows a Promising New Method to Reduce Graft-Versus-Host-Disease After Bone Marrow Transplantation

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—University of Michigan researchers have discovered a new method to prevent the immune-system attacks that often occur following bone marrow transplants.

Bone marrow transplantation can cure patients with leukemia and other cancers even when the disease is resistant to other treatments. The success of this procedure relies on killing cancer cells by using immune cells from a bone marrow donor while avoiding an immune attack against the patient’s organs, which causes a dangerous complication called graft-versus-host disease. (more…)

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Nicotine May Play Key Role in Promising Alzheimer’s Therapy

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A team of neuroscientists has discovered important new information in the search for an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the debilitating neurological disorder that afflicts more than 5.3 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Hey-Kyoung Lee , associate professor in the University of Maryland Department of Biology, and her research team have shown that they may be able to eliminate debilitating side effects caused by a promising Alzheimer’s drug by stimulating the brain’s nicotine receptors. (more…)

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One Step Closer to a Drug Treatment for Cystic Fibrosis, MU Professor Says

*Study recognized for significance and importance in the world’s most common genetic disease*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A University of Missouri researcher believes his latest work moves scientists closer to a cure for cystic fibrosis, one of the world’s most common fatal genetic diseases. (more…)

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Tuberculosis Protects Itself Against Toxic Agents Sent to Destroy It

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Tuberculosis fights off the toxic agents, acidity and oxidants, that our immune system sends to destroy it, which is why the maddeningly drug-resistant bacterium can survive in harsh conditions in our bodies for essentially as long as its human host lives, new research shows. (more…)

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Greater Priority Should be Given to Stroke Prevention in Developing Countries

Increased global attention and research needs to be given to stroke prevention and the social and economic effects of the condition in developing countries, according to an academic at the University of East Anglia (UEA). (more…)

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UMD and UMass Chemists Design Cloaked, Anti-Cancer Toxin to Kill Tumors from Within

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A research team including University of Maryland chemistry and biochemistry Professor Lyle Isaacs and University of Massachusetts Amherst chemist Vincent Rotello has demonstrated that they can deliver a dormant toxin into a specific site such as a tumor for anti-cancer therapy, then chemically trigger the toxin to de-cloak and attack from within. It holds promise as a complex and sophisticated synthetic, therapeutic drug delivery system for living cells. (more…)

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New Research Gets to the Heart of How Niacin Fights High cholesterol, Points to a New Pathway

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— High blood lipids are a big risk factor for developing heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States. Approximately one of every six adult Americans has high blood cholesterol and about every 25 seconds, an American will have a heart attack, and nearly one every minute will die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (more…)

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