Category Health/Medical

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have discovered a new protein “switch” that could stop the progression of blood-poisoning, or sepsis, and increase the chances of surviving the life-threatening disease.

Sepsis, an inflammatory disease that arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs, causes an estimated 14 million deaths every year. In a study published recently in Immunity, researchers examined the role of a protein called ABCF1 in regulating the progression of sepsis.

“Sepsis triggers an uncontrolled chain-reaction of inflammation in the body, leading to tissue damage, organ failure, and death,” said Hitesh Arora, co-lead author of the study who conducted this research as a PhD student at the Michael Smith...

Transplanting marrow from young lab mice to old mice preserves memory and learning skills. The findings support an emerging model that attributes cognitive decline, in part, to aging of blood cells, which are produced in bone marrow.

“While prior studies have shown that introducing blood from young mice can reverse cognitive decline in old mice, it is not well understood how this happens,” said Helen Goodridge, Ph...

In collaboration with the universities of Miami, Columbia and San Francisco, scient...

Experimental drug candidate slows cancer progression in mouse model. A new study suggests that high-fat diets fuel colorectal cancer growth by upsetting the balance of bile acids in the intestine and triggering a hormonal signal that lets potentially cancerous cells thrive. The findings could explain why colorectal cancer, which can take decades to develop, is being seen in younger people growing up at a time when higher-fat diets are common.

As cancer death rates drop overall, doctors have noted a frightening anomaly: deaths fro...