A team led by biochemists at the University of California, San Diego has found what could be a long-elusive mechanism through which inflammation can promote cancer. The findings may provide a new approach for developing cancer therapies. [click link for full article]

Scripps Research study reveals new function of protein kinase pathway in tumor suppression. The study, led by Associate Professor Peiqing Sun and Professor Jiahuai Han of The Scripps Research Institute, is being published in the journal Cell.The research focused on signaling pathways that mediate an anti-tumor defense response called senescence, or cellular aging. [click link for full article]

Inhaled anesthetics commonly used in surgery are more likely to cause the aggregation of Alzheimer’s disease-related plaques in the brain than intravenous anesthetics say University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in a journal article published in Biochemistry. [click link for full article]

The study suggests that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - a highly sensitive technique that provides three-dimensional views of tissue at the molecular level - effectively measured macrophages or white blood cells, in the arterial walls of blood vessels. These detailed images allowed researchers not only to see macrophage activity, but also to determine whether the activity was unstable and likely to trigger a heart attack or stroke, explains senior study author Zahi A. [click link for full article]

In an elegant, multiple-gene knockout experiment, a team of Boston scientists has discovered that a trio of molecules, called FoxOs, are fundamentally critical in preventing some cancers, maintaining blood vessel stability, and in keeping blood-forming stem cells healthy. [click link for full article]

Changing the way that critically ill patients suffering from sepsis or multiple organ failure are fed could reduce liver dysfunction. A large study published today in the journal Critical Care recommends that clinicians should strictly control calorie intake, start artificial nutrition within 24 hours and regularly monitor liver function in patients at high risk. [click link for full article]

A tool to detect depression in cancer patients launched by the University of Liverpool will vastly improve patients’ ability to come to terms with their disease.Depression affects 25% of patients with advanced cancer - the stage at which the disease has begun to spread from its original tumour. [click link for full article]

Medical ethics and other experts say tough isolation measures, involuntary if need be, are justified to contain a very deadly, highly-contagious and drug-resistant mutant strain of tuberculosis and to prevent “a potentially explosive international health crisis” brewing most dangerously in South Africa. [click link for full article]

University of California, Riverside Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Jiayu Liao played a pivotal role in the discovery of a small molecule that has been shown to control diabetes in mice and may pave the way to the development of easier treatment for adult-onset diabetes. [click link for full article]

Allergy shots are effective and safe for reducing symptoms of hay fever, according to a new review. The injection series caused no deaths and few serious adverse reactions in 51 controlled studies.Dr. Moises Calderon, of Royal Brompton Hospital in London, and colleagues evaluated the results from randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis due to tree, grass or weed pollens. The studies involved 2,871 participants. [click link for full article]