Category Health/Medical

External stimulus causing excitement such as laughter by a joke augments the amygdala activity. In narcolepsy patient (left) lacking orexin neurons, activities of the amygdala become excessive, causing cataplexy. In healthy person (right), orexin neurons augment the activities of serotonin neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus, which reduce activities of the amygdala due to increased release of serotonin in the amygdala, which in turn inhibits cataplexy. Credit: Kanazawa University

The brain is equipped with sleep mechanism and wakefulness mechanism, which are regulated to be on or off in an adequate manner. It is orexin*1 that is important in regulating this switch...

This image illustrates the soft agar colony formation assay, which is a method used to confirm cellular anchorage-independent growth in vitro. The goal of this protocol is to illustrate a stringent method for the detection of the tumorigenic potential of transformed cells and the tumor suppressive effects of proteins on transformed cells.
Credit: Image courtesy of Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO)

A new study shows that whole tomato extracts from two different Southern Italy cultivars inhibit gastric cancer cell growth and malignant features, paving the way for future studies aimed at implementing lifestyle habits not only for prevention, but potentially as a support to conventional therapies...

This is a surface and cross-section analysis of lyophilized scaffolds (A) and rehydrated scaffolds (B). Credit: UPV/EHU

When one’s own body is no longer capable of regenerating the bone defects it suffers, fitting compatible, biodegradable structures that can be used as temporary scaffolding in the damaged tissues is, as a general rule, very helpful. The NanoBioCel group in the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Pharmacy has led the development of one of these scaffolds, which apart from physical support, also offers the chance to release growth factors, thus imitating the way in which the body does this.

The NanoBioCel group in the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Pharmacy has developed a scaffolds, or matrices, for cases of critical bone defects, like those that can generate themselves in situations such as burns...

The small molecule hinokitiol transports iron across cell membranes where transport proteins are missing. Credit: Julie McMahon and Liz Ahlberg Touchstone, University of Illinois

“If you’re sick because you have too much protein function, in many cases we can do something about it. But if you’re sick because you’re missing a protein that does an essential function, we struggle to do anything other than treat the symptoms. It’s a huge unmet medical need,” said Burke, who also is a medical doctor. Burke’s team found that a small molecule called hinokitiol, derived from a species of cypress tree found in Japan, can transport iron across cell membranes that are missing transport proteins.

In a healthy system, transport proteins move iron across cell membranes to uptake iron from the gut or mak...