Category Biology/Biotechnology

Midlife Physical Activity and Cognition Later in Life: A Prospective Twin Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2016; 1 DOI: 10.3233/JAD-160377

Moderately vigorous physical activity – i.e., more strenuous than walking – to be associated with better cognition in a 25-year follow-up study of 3050 twins from the Finnish Twin Cohort. The association was statistically independent of hypertension, smoking, education level, sex, obesity, binge drinking. “This suggests that the beneficial influence of physical activity on the brain and cognition is not solely based on decreasing vascular risk factors,” says Paula Iso-Markku from the University of Helsinki.

The association was studied first in all individuals of the cohort, and then by comparing later cognition in pairs where one twin was more phy...

Dr Katie Meehan from UWA’s School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is leading the project, which is currently recruiting participants with breast cancer.

Researchers at The University of Western Australia are working on a quick, simple and less invasive blood-based test that can detect breast cancer progression or relapse much earlier than current methods such as mammogram, MRI or biopsy. Dr Meehan said through testing before, during and after treatment, the researchers intended to develop a new test that would improve cancer progression, monitoring and health outcomes.
“Women in rural and remote areas would benefit significantly from the new diagnostic blood test to monitor for low levels of residual or recurrent disease,” Dr Meehan said.

“Currently it’s costly, time-consuming and p...

Formation and function of microRNAs

A tiny RNA appears to play a role in producing major depression, the mental disorder that affects as many as 250 million people a year worldwide. Major depression, formally known as major depressive disorder, or MDD, brings increased risk of suicide and is reported to cause the second-most years of disability after low-back pain.

MicroRNA levels are significantly elevated in the brains of experimental rats with induced depression from corticosterone treatment, in the post-death brains of humans diagnosed with MDD and in peripheral blood serum from living patients with MDD, according to a study by led by Prof Yogesh Dwivedi, Ph.D.
This microRNA—miR-124-3p—is thus a potential therapeutic target for novel drug development, and it can serve as a putative bio...

Hair shaft proteomic profile in modern and archaeological samples.

Protein identification technique may be used in forensics, archaeology. Unique protein markers in hair could be used alongside DNA profiling for human identification. DNA profiling is commonly used for identification in forensic science and archaeology because DNA is unique to each individual. However, environmental and chemical processes can degrade DNA, limiting its usefulness over time. In contrast, protein is more stable than DNA but can also have variations that may be unique to the individual. Glendon Parker and his team therefore investigated whether the protein found in human hair could offer another tool for identifying individuals.

The researchers were able to examine bioarcheological hair samples from 6 individua...