Top Health News of the Week: 19th – 24th October 2009
A very warm welcome to all our readers. The past week was indeed quite hectic with all the diwali festivities occupying our attention. But the medical field did not rest for Diwali as there were more researches, studies and innovations reported this week. So if you have missed out on any of the news, we will as always provide you with the 5 best news of the week.
Our first news of the week may certainly bring a lot of relief and joy to a wide range of people who have damaged knee joints. Well a research from the UC Davis claims that damaged knee joints might someday be mended with cartilage developed from stem cells in a laboratory. This research was performed by Professor Kyriacos Athanasiou, chair of the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering and his colleagues. Athanasiou and his team have already developed cartilage tissue in the lab, via adult stem cells from bone marrow and skin as well as human embryonic stem cells. Now they are experimenting with a variety of chemical and mechanical stimuli to enhance its properties.
The next news may concern the fairer sex. According to Yale scientists, the correct combination of estrogen and a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) could possibly reduce menopause symptoms and cut breast cancer risk. SERM is known to block the effects of estrogen inside the breast tissue. Scientists were believed to have treated breast and endometrial cell lines with either estrogen or estrogen in addition to one of the SERMs. This they did in order to discover a better method of managing hormone therapy without the breast cancer risk. They further examined at different markers of cell growth, including proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), one of the best-characterized markers of cell growth. The study findings revealed that PCNA seems to have increased when they stimulated cells with estrogen. Whereas, it decreased when they added a SERM thereby indicating that the SERM appears to have blocked cell growth.
This news may not only prove to be a useful insight for people but may also turn out to be extremely helpful for an extensive group of people suffering from depression. A latest research from Georgetown University Medical Center sheds light on how neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine seem to be regulated. Apparently, this finding may assist in modifying therapies for depression. Recent findings claimed that synucleins may be chief players in the management of neurotransmitters, particularly, alpha- and gamma-synucleins. Synucleins are known to be a family of small proteins inside the brain. In addition, researchers were observed to have found high levels of gamma-synuclein inside the brains of both depressed animals and humans.
The fourth top news of the week concerns children. A latest research from the Yale School of Public Health has found that school children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) seem to be significantly more prone in engaging in many types of criminal activity as they grow older. Apparently, these activities range from robbery and theft to drug dealing. Also, ADHD appears to be much higher among close relatives in contrast to the general population, thereby suggesting a genetic origin. Researchers were believed to have examined more than 10,000 adolescents. They found that children suffering from ADHD seem to have double possibilities to commit theft later in life. Also, they were noted to have nearly 50 percent higher prevalence of selling drugs. Researchers were believed to have estimated that crimes where ADHD is a factor cost society approximately $2 billion to $4 billion each year.
The last top news of the week is related to Alzheimer’s. A study claimed that cognitive abilities other than memory, including visuospatial skills required to distinguish relationships between objects, may decline years before a clinical detection of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Around 444 people who did not suffer from dementia between 1979 and 2006 were examined. Upon participating, every subject went through a clinical assessment and a psychometric examination including tests of four cognitive factors i.e. global cognition, verbal memory, visuospatial skill and working memory. Over an average follow-up of 5.9 years, around 134 individuals suffered from dementia and about 310 did not; approximately 44 with dementia died and went through brain autopsies that established a detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Reduction in by and large cognitive abilities apparently followed in the next year, while inflection points for verbal and working memory were supposedly not seen until one year prior to clinical diagnosis. Similar outcomes supposedly happened in only the subgroup of people with Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis established by autopsy.
With this we have come to the end of the weekly. We will once again come next week with loads of news from the medical field. Till then, stay happy and healthy!
