Stress may cause Skin issues
Anyone who's had a pimple from right before an important event may wonder if stress caused the break out. “It’s difficult to determine whether stress can actually worsen skin’s appearance. However, it's been known for a long time that the nervous system, which processes our stress, has an impact on conditions such as psoriasis,” said dermatologist Richard D Granstein, of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. He further added research linking the nervous system and the skin has long been understood. “If you interrupt the nerves' path to an area of a patient's skin affected by psoriasis, the psoriasis improves,” said Dr Granstein.
Malaria Drug may cure asthma
Asthmatic patients may soon have a more effective way to control the condition, thanks to a new pharmacological discovery by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Team, led by associate professor Fred Wong at NUS Yong loo lin School of Medicine, with Dr Eugene Ho Wanxing, a recent PhD graduate from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS, discovered that artesunate, a common herbal-based anti-malarial drug can be used to control asthma, with better treatment outcomes than other available drugs. Moving forward, the team led by associate professor Wong will explore the therapeutic and pharmacological effects of artesunate for asthma, as well as for other medical conditions.
New strategy to cure food allergy
New research in nature genetics identifies a novel genetic and molecular pathway in esophagus that causes eosinophillic esophagitis (EoE), opening up potential new strategies to treat food allergy. The condition is usually triggered by allergic hypersensitivity to certain foods and an over-accumulation of white blood cells in the esophagus (eosinophils). “We have used cutting edge genomic analysis of patient DNA as well as gene and protein analysis to explain why people develop EoE. It gives a new way to develop therapeutic strategies. Our results have broad implications for understanding eosinophilic disorders and allergies in general,” says Marc E Rothenberg, a senior investigator on the study.
Here’s a reason why cancer spreads
Cancer cells that break away from tumours to go looking for a new home may prefer to settle into a soft bed, according to new findings from researchers at the University of Illinois. Some particularly enterprising cancer cells can cause a cancer to spread to other organs, called metastasis, or evade treatment. “What causes relapse is not clear,” said study leader Ning Wang. “Why are there a few cells left that can come back strongerIJ We thought cancer cells may have some properties in common with stem cells. Normally, if you take a liver cell and put it in your lung, it will die. But an undifferentiated cell will live. The key issue in this paper is outlining the mechanisms that control how a tumour-repopulating cell (TRC) proliferates,” Wang said.
Know that sound
The gurgles made by a hungry belly are familiar to us all, but they are not just the side effect of an empty stomach. Brain cells not normally associated with communication send out a signal when they detect blood glucose levels are running low, and this triggers stomach contractions. Richard Rogers of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at louisiana State University and colleagues used a drug called fluorocitrate to knock out the function of certain astrocytes and neurons in the brains of rats, blocking the sensation of hunger. When astrocyte function was restored, the grumbles returned, showing these cells respond to low glucose levels.