Category Biology/Biotechnology

Taking a particular type of medication to treat enlarged prostate is associated with a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a large observational study led by researchers at the University of Iowa, with colleagues in Denmark and China.

The findings, published Feb. 1 in JAMA Neurology, provide compelling evidence that terazosin, and similar medications, might have the potential to prevent or delay the development of Parkinson’s disease.

The new study used data on almost 300,000 older men from two large, independent patient datasets — the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan database in the Uni...

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators found that inhaling unfragmented hyaluronan improves lung function in patients suffering from severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Hyaluronan, a sugar secreted by living tissue that acts as a scaffold for cells, is also used in cosmetics as a skin moisturizer and as a nasal spray to moisturize lung airways...

A new kind of wearable health device would deliver real-time medical data to those with eye or mouth diseases, according to Huanyu ‘Larry’ Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in the Penn State Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM).

Cheng recently published a paper in Microsystems & Nanoengineering on new micro- and nano-device technology that could revolutionize how certain health conditions are monitored and treated.

“We sought to create a device that collects both small and large substances of biofluid...

Good news: The bacteria living on your toothbrush reflect your mouth – not your toilet. To obtain toothbrushes for the study, Hartmann’s team launched the Toothbrush Microbiome Project, which asked people to mail in their used toothbrushes along with corresponding metadata. Hartmann’s team then extracted DNA from the bristles to examine the microbial communities found there. They compared these communities to those outlined by the Human Microbiome Project, an NIH initiative that identified and catalogued microbial flora from different areas of the human body.

“Many people contributed samples to the Human Microbiome Project, so we have a general idea of what the human microbiome looks like,” Blaustein said...