Category Health/Medical

IsoPSA(TM) Demonstration

IsoPSA assay can help in determining the need for prostate biopsy for patients. A team of researchers have demonstrated that a new blood test known as IsoPSA detects prostate cancer more precisely than current tests in two crucial measures – distinguishing cancer from benign conditions, and identifying patients with high-risk disease.

By identifying molecular changes in the prostate specific antigen (PSA) protein, the findings, published online last month by European Urology, suggest that once validated, use of IsoPSA may substantially reduce the need for biopsy, and may thus lower the likelihood of overdetection and overtreatment of nonlethal prostate cancer. The research team, led by Cleveland Clinic’s Eric Klein, M.D...

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...