ScienceDaily Health Headlines -- for Saturday, January 21, 2012

ScienceDaily Health Headlines

for Saturday, January 21, 2012

Welcome to another edition of ScienceDaily's email newsletter. You can change your subscription options or unsubscribe at any time.

'Pulverized' chromosomes linked to cancer? (January 20, 2012) -- Researchers have mapped out a mechanism by which micronuclei could potentially disrupt the chromosomes within them and produce cancer-causing gene mutations. The findings may point to a vulnerability in cancer cells that could be attacked by new therapies. ... > full story

New findings lead to test and therapy for kidney failure caused by E. coli (January 20, 2012) -- Scientists have made new discoveries about the basic workings of endothelial cells that could lead to a diagnostic test for the serious kidney disease known as hemolytic uremic syndrome and a possible treatment. ... > full story

Why bigger is better when it comes to our brain and memory (January 20, 2012) -- The hippocampus is an important brain structure for recollection memory, the type of memory we use for detailed reliving of past events. Now, new research reveals characteristics of the human hippocampus that allow scientists to use anatomical brain scans to form predictions about an individual's recollection ability. ... > full story

Investigators achieve important step toward treating Huntington's disease (January 20, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a technique for using stem cells to deliver therapy that specifically targets the genetic abnormality found in Huntington's disease, a hereditary brain disorder that causes progressive uncontrolled movements, dementia and death. ... > full story

Enzyme function could help with muscular dystrophy therapies (January 20, 2012) -- Researchers have worked out the exact function of an enzyme that is critical for normal muscle structure and is involved in several muscular dystrophies. The findings could be used to develop rapid, large-scale testing of potential muscular dystrophy therapies. ... > full story

How immune cells move against invaders (January 20, 2012) -- Scientists have discovered the unexpected way in which a key cell of the immune system prepares for battle. The finding, they said, offers insight into the processes that take place within these cells and could lead to strategies for treating conditions from spinal cord injury to cancer. ... > full story

Legionnaires' disease outbreak linked to hospital's decorative fountain (January 20, 2012) -- A 2010 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Wisconsin has been linked to a decorative fountain in a hospital lobby, according to a new study. ... > full story

Statin use in postmenopausal women associated with increased diabetes risk (January 20, 2012) -- The use of statins in postmenopausal women is associated with increased diabetes risk, according to a new study. ... > full story

Listen up: Abnormality in auditory processing underlies dyslexia (January 20, 2012) -- Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. Now, new research finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia. ... > full story

Flexible adult stem cells, right there in your eye (January 20, 2012) -- In the future, patients in need of perfectly matched neural stem cells may not need to look any further than their own eyes. Researchers have identified adult stem cells of the central nervous system in a single layer of cells at the back of the eye. ... > full story

Spasticity gene finding provides clues to causes of nerve cell degeneration (January 20, 2012) -- The discovery of a gene that causes a form of hereditary spastic paraplegia may provide scientists with an important insight into what causes axons, the stems of our nerve cells, to degenerate in conditions such as multiple sclerosis. ... > full story

New, noninvasive way to identify lymph node metastasis (January 20, 2012) -- Using two cell surface markers found to be highly expressed in breast cancer lymph node metastases, researchers have developed targeted, fluorescent molecular imaging probes that can non-invasively detect breast cancer lymph node metastases. The new procedure could spare breast cancer patients invasive and unreliable sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies and surgery-associated negative side effects. ... > full story