Study finds magnesium prevents cerebral palsy

Doctors still can’t definitively say how it helps, but they know that magnesium given to pregnant women before they deliver prematurely cuts down on the chances of their baby developing cerebral palsy.

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Clearing the airways in cystic fibrosis

Research in the FASEB Journal shows that engineered proteins can ‘bypass’ the genetic defect in cystic fibrosis

By manipulating the machinery used by our cells for quality control, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have found a way to restore the function of cystic fibrosis (CF) airway cells. This could significantly reduce the sticky mucus that plugs the lungs of CF patients, which leads to antibiotic-resistant infections and untimely death. The study, appearing in the September 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), is significant because it shows a new way to manipulate the cellular quality controls of all sorts of proteins which play a role in conditions ranging from aging to cancer.

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Drug hope for heart patients

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have been awarded £2.8 million by the Wellcome Trust to develop a new drug that could ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of heart disease patients who are unable to take beta-blockers.

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Cells change identity in promising breakthrough

Talk about an extreme makeover: Scientists have transformed one type of cell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.

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Addiction drug reverses obesity in rats

An epilepsy drug being tested for use in treating addiction can help obese rats shed weight, U.S. government researchers said on Wednesday.

Their findings point not only to an easy treatment for obesity, but show it is similar to drug addiction, they said.

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Why do eyelids sag with age? UCLA study answers mystery

A UCLA study finds that lower baggy eyelids are caused by fat expansion in the eye socket.

Many theories have sought to explain what causes the baggy lower eyelids that come with aging, but UCLA researchers have now found that fat expansion in the eye socket is the primary culprit.

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Anti-Cancer Flower Power

Tel Aviv University researchers are combatting cancer with a jasmine-based drug

Could a substance from the jasmine flower hold the key to an effective new therapy to treat cancer? Prof. Eliezer Flescher of The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University thinks so. He and his colleagues have developed an anti-cancer drug based on a decade of research into the commercial applications of the compound Jasmonate, a synthetic compound derived from the flower itself. Prof. Flescher began to research the compound about a decade ago, and with his recent development of the drug, his studies have now begun to bear meaningful fruit.

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Anti-nogo – new hope for stroke patients?

Loyola researchers hope to reverse stroke damage by jumpstarting growth of nerve fibers
MAYWOOD, Ill. — If a stroke patient doesn’t get treatment within approximately the first three hours of symptoms, there’s not much doctors can do to limit damage to the brain.

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Discovery opens door for drugs to fight bird flu, other influenza epidemics

Researchers at Rutgers University and , University of Texas at Austin have reported a discovery that could help scientists develop drugs to fight the much-feared bird flu and other virulent strains of influenza.

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Gene That Causes Childhood Cancer Neuroblastoma Is Found

Scientists have discovered gene mutations that are the main cause of the inherited version of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. In addition, the researchers found that the same mutations play a significant role in high-risk forms of non-inherited neuroblastoma, the more common form of the disease.

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