Gamified augmented reality against ADHD The preliminary study found that measures of hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity dropped by 56.4 percent in the patient group with high scores of ADHD, while by 66.3 percent in the group with low symptomatic signs 48 hours after the session with Empowered Brain. In the framework of the clinical trial, children,...
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Culprit in reducing effectiveness of insulin identified
Scientists at Osaka University discovered that Stromal derived factor-1 (SDF-1) secreted from adipocytes reduced the effectiveness of insulin in adipocytes and decreased insulin-induced glucose uptake. IMAGE: 1) FASTING OR OBESITY INDUCES SDF-1 EXPRESSION IN ADIPOCYTES. 2) ITS AUTOCRINE ACTION ACTIVATES ERK SIGNALING. 3) SDF-1-INDUCED ERK SIGNAL CONCOMITANTLY INDUCES SERINE PHOSPHORYLATION OF IRS-1 PROTEIN, AND DEGRADES IRS...
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‘Incompatible’ donor stem cells cure adult sickle cell patients
Doctors at the University of Illinois Hospital have cured seven adult patients of sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder primarily affecting the black community, using stem cells from donors previously thought to be incompatible, thanks to a new transplant treatment protocol. The doctors report on the new technique in the journal Biology of Blood and...
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Bariatric surgery successes lead to type 2 diabetes treatment
Bariatric surgery has long yielded almost immediate health benefits for patients with type 2 diabetes, and new findings on the reasons for remission may be the key to developing drug alternatives to surgery. “One of the things that bariatric surgery does is cause type 2 diabetes remission,” said Bethany Cummings, assistant professor of biomedical sciences...
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Do prostate cancer cells have an Achilles’ heel?
Credit: University of Illinois at Chicago Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago describe new ways to selectively kill prostate cancer cells by exploiting the cells’ revved-up metabolism. They report their findings in the online journal, eLife. In prostate cancer, the loss of a tumor suppressor gene called PTEN is very common. Without a functional copy of...
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Researchers get to grips with a herpesvirus
Human herpesvirus 6 infects most people all over the world. It is usually well controlled by the body, but it can cause diseases in immunocompromised individuals. As reported in PLOS Pathogens, scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München, member in the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), have now identified virus structures that can be attacked by...
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Why cancer cells go to sleep—the mystery of cancer dormancy
Cancer has always been thought of as something that grows rapidly and uncontrollably, but this view may be wrong. New evidence suggests that cancer alternatively uses the “accelerator” and the “brake” in order to survive. If you plot the growth of prostate cancer tumour progression over years, you get a graph that looks something like this: Figure...
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Upgrading the immune system to fight cancer
There have been few cancer treatments with such a promising future as using the patient’s own immune system. Known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T, this treatment uses re-engineered killer T-cells to attack cancer cells, but it also causes potentially deadly side effects. Now, research led by Assistant Professor Wilson Wong (BME) is opening doors...
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Molecule may help tame virulent bacteria and prevent infection
Findings discuss how Staphylococcus can colonize our noses but not cause infection According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in three humans carries Staphylococcus aureus, or “staph,” in our noses, and 2 percent of us carry the dreaded methicillin-resistant (MRSA) strain that thwarts common antibiotics. So how is it that most...
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Researchers assassinate disease-causing bacteria with virus cocktail
Three bacteriophages (pink dots) were tested against a huge collection of Escherichia coli strains representing different serotypes. In combination, the three bacteriophages kill most of the tested strains. New research from the Department of Food Science (FOOD) at the University of Copenhagen suggests that in the not-too-distant future, it might be possible to drink a cocktail of...